Peterhead co-manager Ryan Strachan was relieved to progress to the third round of the SPFL Trust Trophy after beating Aberdeen B 5-3 at North Lodge Park.
The young Dons took the lead through Alfie Stewart in the 18th minute, before Scott Ross levelled the score five minutes into the second half.
An Alfie Bavidge penalty restored Aberdeen’s lead after 56 minutes, but things were level again in the 62nd minute when Peterhead’s Andy McCarthy slotted home from close range to make it 2-2.
It was goals galore in Pitmedden as Findlay Marshall netted the Dons’ third in the 72nd minute, before a quickfire brace from Blue Toon co-boss Jordon Brown in the 82nd and 83rd minute gave his side the lead for the first time in the cup clash.
Former Dons youngster Kieran Shanks wrapped up the scoring in the 86th minute as he headed home Peterhead’s fifth.
And after the entertaining clash, player/co-manager Strachan was glad his side found a way to see out their main objective of progressing to the third round.
Strachan said: “We’re through and that was the main task we set to the players.
“They’ve seen the task through which was good, but they did give me a heart attack on the sidelines to get to this position.
“The three goals we lose are relatively poor for the standards we’ve set. We’ve told them that in there, but we don’t need to tell them – there are leaders in the group who have said it in the dressing room.
“We’re looking at the positives and we’ve scored some incredible goals. They were well-taken goals and some of the passing before was outstanding.
“Ultimately we’ve scored five goals and that isn’t something a Peterhead side has done in a long time.”
Meanwhile, Aberdeen B manager Scott Anderson believes his side were on the receiving end of a harsh lesson after squandering their lead.
He said: “It’s a tough one to take. We got ourselves in good position in the game on a few different occasions, but we weren’t strong enough to see it out.
“We didn’t deal with balls coming into the box and stopping the crosses, but credit to Peterhead because they used their physicality well.
“We’ve explained to the boys after the game that you need to do all sides of the game well. You need to be able to handle the dirty things you need to, and we didn’t do that well enough unfortunately.”
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