Peterhead captain Jason Brown was delighted to see his side bounce back with a victory against The Spartans.
The sense of pride was particularly evident in the demeanour of Blue Toon skipper Brown as he reflected on the performance of his team who had battled back from the disappointment of Tuesday night’s defeat to promotion rivals Stenhousemuir to take three points from their Ainslie Park clash.
Peterhead may have been knocked off their perch at the top of League Two on goal difference in the light of Stenny’s 3-0 victory over Stranraer but even that didn’t darken the aura of positivity emanating from Brown’s post-match assessment.
He said: “I’m absolutely delighted as it hass been a tough week for us but the reaction we showed from the first minute today was a massive positive.
“We’re still frustrated at the Stenhousemuir defeat but we’ve taken six points from our last three games so we can’t be too disappointed with that.
“We had a blip in midweek and we had to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible so its a huge thing for us to regain the winning momentum.
“I thought we we were well in control of the game and I didn’t feel were in danger at any time.
“We came down here knowing that we needed a big response – not just to win the three points – and the managers stressed to us before the game the importance putting on a better performance than we have been producing of late.”
Peterhead almost fell behind early on when goalkeeper Stuart McKenzie was called into action as he produced an excellent save from Spartans’ Cammy Russell.
Scott Ross then rattled the Spartans crossbar with a blistering 20-yard free kick and the visitors’ domination at that stage was rewarded when they took the lead just before the half hour when Ross rose above the home defence to meet Conor O’Keefe’s corner and send a powerful header past Spartans keeper Blair Carswell.
Joe McKee then saw his lobbed effort cleared off the goal line by Michael Allen and O’Keefe saw his volleyed effort slip narrowly wide as Peterhead sought the cushion of a two goal interval lead.
But Spartans repelled their efforts and came back into the game after the restart, equalising through Russell whose curling 30-yard free kick appeared to deceive McKenzie.
As the final whistle approached, a draw looked to be the likely outcome but Peterhead snatched all three points with just five minutes remaining when substitute Hamish Ritchie ran on to Aaron Reid’s pass before slotting the ball home to secure an important victory.
Midfielder O’Keefe said: “The boys were brilliant from start to finish.
“Our work rate was tremendous and we got what we deserved from the game.
“We created a lot of chances, especially in the first half and the only frustrating thing is that we didn’t put more of them away.
“It’s great to get the winning momentum back – this is a big result for us,”
