Peterhead’s poor run continued when they lost their opening League One clash with a 2-0 home defeat against Airdrieonians.
The Diamonds took the lead when Callum Smith slotted beyond Jack Newman after 33 minutes before Craig Watson headed home the second six minutes before the break.
Peterhead started brighter in the second half and Conor O’Keefe forced a good save from Murray Johnson in the Airdrie goal.
Ola Adeyemo should have done better as Peterhead pushed to get back into the game while Jordon Brown’s effort finished wide of the post.
Airdrie had chances as player-manager Rhys McCabe and Lewis Jamieson both saw efforts saved by Newman.
Blue Toon boss Jim McInally was frustrated at his side’s first half showing.
He said: “The second half performance was far better, what I would say is we were competitive after the break.
“I think we probably started the game OK for 10 or 15 minutes, we got in a couple of good situations especially down the left-hand side and we could have done better.
“But 2-0 was kind to us at half time really, they had hit the bar, they got their goals and they were getting it far too easy.
“We got in about them at the interval, we changed the shape a wee bit as their centre backs were basically dictating the game in the first half and we were allowing it to happen.
“We told them to be competitive, put their foot in, be brave and, to be fair, in the second half they did a bit better and if we had taken one of our chances, who knows what could have happened in the game.
“We ended up with two or three good counter attacks where we probably should have done better and made the goalkeeper work.
“By the same token, the game is dead and buries a wee bit by the break so we need to dust ourselves down and move on.”
Your #BlueToon starting line up for our first @cinchuk League 1 game of the season against @AirdrieoniansFC!
✅ Jim makes 4 changes from last week's defeat to Stirling Albion as Dow and Dixon come back in with debuts for Gillies and a Trialist pic.twitter.com/m6uDwLTDVi
— Peterhead FC (@pfcofficial) July 30, 2022
McInally remains determined to add to his squad, especially to support new signing Ola Adeyemo in attack.
He said: “Ola’s not played as much football as he has this season for the past years and he’s toiling a wee bit.
“He needs help up there and that’s what we’re desperately trying to bring in.
“In an ideal world, we could have had Ryan Dow up there, rather than using him as a defensive midfield player, which we’re having to do at the minute.
“We’re losing the impact of him but the one good thing about Ola is he’s getting fitter and when he does those channel runs, that’s what he’s all about.
“I think he’s too desperate to score and he’s making wrong decisions but the pleasing thing is, he’s getting fitter and he’ll be a handful when we’re where we want to be.”
Next up for Peterhead is a trip to Clyde, who won 4-1 at Queen of the South to top the table on goal difference.
McInally added: “We just take every game as it comes.
“Clyde had a fantastic result against a full-time team so they’ll be cock-a-hoop and hopefully we can go there in a better place in terms of players available.”