Kieran Shanks believes Peterhead weren’t far away from giving Dundee United a scare in the SPFL Trust Trophy.
United were leading the League Two leaders 1-0 when Shanks went agonisingly close with a shot from outside the penalty area following a well-worked move.
Almost immediately, the Blue Toon’s hopes vanished as Tony Watt curled into the top corner leaving Shanks to ponder what might have been.
Shanks said: “I did think it was in.
“I was half away celebrating but then when I saw it went wide I had my head in my hands.
“The build-up play to that was really good and it is something we need to do more often because we seem to cut teams open when we play like that.
“It is ‘ifs, buts and maybes’ but it is a case of needing to take your chances if you want to win games.”
Learning from club legend
Despite not managing to cause a cup upset, Shanks believes the experience of facing the Tannadice club will stand the Blue Toon in good stead going forward.
The former Inverurie Locos and Arbroath youngster put in another impressive shift and admitted the know-how and knowledge of strike partner Rory McAllister is helping his own development.
Shanks added: “Playing against experienced pros in that United side who have played hundreds of games is a learning curve for everyone and we need to take the positives from it.
“I have never really played with a strike partner so far in my career but playing alongside Rory can only benefit me because I am always learning little bits from him.
“He is a striker coach with Peterhead as well so he takes finishing drills and tells you about rolling defenders and what you need to do.
“We are doing different types of finishing with different scenarios and it is going really well so far.
“We are on a good run of form in the league so we need to get back to that next week and who knows where we will end up?”
