Jim McInally hailed his Peterhead squad after Russell McLean’s second half header claimed a victory in a five-goal clash at Dumbarton which was played in bizarre conditions.
The Blue Toon were behind twice, Josh Mulligan cancelling out Andy Geggan’s opener for the home side before but Conner Duthie put the Blue Toon behind again.
McLean equalised from the rebound after his spot-kick was saved, and then won it midway through the second half with a glancing effort from a corner.
The game was played in thick fog from start to finish, resulting in fans in the stand being unable to see the action at times.
However, McInally was glad to see things through and witness his team move into the top half after Falkirk’s game at East Fife was abandoned. It was also Peterhead’s fifth game on the bounce without defeat.
He said: “I’m delighted with the result. In the first half we were really good, bearing in mind we went behind twice which was a bit harsh on us.
“But that can happen. We don’t have a great deal of height besides Russell and the centre halves but we kept playing and I was quite disappointed we didn’t go in ahead.
“They changed things a bit at half-time and pressed us and we felt for about 10 minutes we didn’t have the same control of the game.
“But we overcame it and fought fire with fire, and scored a good goal from the corner.”
The game got off to a largely forgettable start before Geggan headed Dumbarton in front on 16 minutes from Joe McKee’s corner.
But the Blue Toon were behind for only nine minutes as Mulligan finished off a neat move by rolling home a narrow-angled finish.
Within three minutes Sons led again as Sam Muir’s low ball across goal looked set to go unclaimed until Duthie bundled it home.
However, Peterhead had another response, starting when home keeper Sam Ramsbottom clipped McLean as he challenged him for a pass-back.
The Dumbarton keeper saved McLean’s penalty, but the striker snapped-up the rebound to level things up again.
McLean went close with a header in the second half as the fog, if anything, thickened. But on 66 minutes, he made no mistake, converting from a corner from the right.
66’ GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL FOR PETERHEAD!!! RUSSELL MCLEAN SCORES AGAIN!!!
(2-3) #BlueToon 🔵⚪️💙 pic.twitter.com/MnDKc10eYJ
— Peterhead FC (@pfcofficial) December 18, 2021
Neither side found it terribly easy to create chances in the conditions, but Peterhead comfortably saw off the threat of the home side to defeat them for the second time this season.
Indeed, the biggest threat to their victory chances was the thick fog which saw some of Saturday’s matches abandoned and McInally added: “I don’t think the concern was as the game went on; I think it was from the start. But we’re just delighted.
“It was a big win for us as the last two games have ended in draws and our away record hasn’t been great.
“It’s a bit of a dogfight down there in the league and every point is a prisoner, so we’re just pleased to win. We’ve got a tough game at Montrose on Wednesday but thisy gives us a bit of confidence. It’s been a good second quarter of the season.”
