Peterhead co-manager Ryan Strachan was left disappointed following his side’s 2-1 home defeat to Spartans in the Viaplay Cup.
Blair Henderson gave Spartans the lead in the ninth minute, before Kieran Shanks pulled the Blue Toon level five minutes into the second half.
However, the Edinburgh side were 2-1 up by the 55th minute as Cammy Russell restored their advantage, which secured Spartans the three points in Group B.
The defeat leaves Peterhead bottom of their group with one point from three games, meaning they cannot progress to the knock-out stages even with a win over Falkirk in their final match on Saturday.
Co-manager Strachan, who watched the match from the stands due to being suspended, was disappointed with the narrow defeat.
He said: “We’re disappointed we’ve lost the match. We wanted to win to give the group something to go and play for down at Falkirk on Saturday.
“It’s disappointing, but when you strip it down we’ve made a lot of changes. We had enforced changes through injuries and suspensions. Some boys who haven’t had many sessions have come in for the game.
“The guys need minutes, so even though we’ve lost the match, we can take positives away from it.”
The positives, Strachan says, were spells of the match where a much-changed Blue Toon side dominated.
He added: “A positive was getting minutes, and I thought for large parts of the game we were untroubled.
“They hit us on the break twice which was disappointing and if we had been a bit smarter than that second goal might not happen.
“For 60 or 70 minutes I thought we pretty much had control of the game, and for a heavily rotated team who haven’t played many minutes, it shows what we’re working on in training and trying to implement is working.
“The disappointment is that we didn’t create enough chances.”
Plenty of changes at Balmoor
The Blue Toon made seven changes from Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Dundee United, as Bless Oluyemi, Jordan Armstrong, Caleb Goldie, Hamish Ritchie, David Wilson, Aaron Reid, and Conor O’Keefe came into the starting XI.
Stuart McKenzie, Robert Ward, Jack Brown, Scott Ross and Conner Duthie dropped to the bench, while player/co-boss Strachan and Andy McCarthy were suspended.
It was 1-0 to Spartans inside the opening 10 minutes when Bradley Whyte took the ball to the byline and squared it across goal for a sliding Henderson to turn home from a couple yards out at the back post.
Peterhead saw a Jordon Brown effort saved by goalkeeper Blair Carswell, before Kieran Shanks hit an effort well wide of the post.
Just before the end of the first half, Spartans almost doubled their advantage when Cammy Russell unleashed a powerful drive inside the box, which beat Oluyemi, but it remained 1-0 thanks to a last-ditch block from Wilson.
In the second half, Peterhead started well and reaped their reward when Shanks equalised with a low drive inside the box, which is his first goal for the club since signing permanently in the summer.
But the game wasn’t level for long as Russell restored Spartans’ lead with a close-range finish after a lack of concentration in the Blue Toon defence.
Other than Spartans’ goal, it was an uneventful second half with the visitors not looking likely to add to their advantage, while the Blue Toon created little to give themselves a chance of equalising again.