THREE AND NOT PLEASY
Blue Toon boss wants more from his side
Peterhead boss Jim McInally felt his team could have scored more despite a convincing win over former Highland League rivals Elgin.
Rory McAllister netted twice in the first half before Allan Smith added a third to keep up a winning start to League Two.
McInally, who had substitute Nicky Riley sent off, said: “It was fine but we can do better. We need to be a bit more ruthless because when we went three up we played a lot of nice football and kept possession.
“But I wanted us to push on and finish the game although it was pleasing to keep a clean sheet especially when Nicky went
off. His red card was the only negative really.
“We did okay but we can still play better and I think we will improve because these players are still gelling as a team and they are still finding out about each other.”
Peterhead defeated the Borough Briggs team just a fortnight ago in the Betfred Cup and always looked like winning their latest battle.
The home side broke the deadlock after just 23 minutes when McAllister pounced on a bad mistake by Stephen Bronsky and steered past keeper Marc Waters from a tight angle.
Peterhead continued to ask questions of Elgin and Jack Leith saw a goalbound effort in the 41st minute blocked by Cameron Eadie.
Their dominance eventually paid off however when McAllister won and scored a penalty on the stroke of the half-time.
The spot-kick appeared soft as McAllister fell to the ground when backing into Bronsky but ref Craig Charleston spotted a tug and McAllister coolly sent the keeper the wrong way.
In the second half Waters did well to keep out a Willie Gibson free-kick but was left red faced in 58 minutes when he tried to clear and Smith nipped in from behind to charge down the ball and smash into an empty net.
The Blue Toon’s afternoon was only soured somewhat when Riley was shown a straight red in the 77th minute for an ugly challenge on Thomas Reilly.
Chris Dodd should have scored a consolation for Elgin but dragged his shot wide from the right side of the penalty area.
Elgin manager Jim Weir said: “I said when we faced Peterhead in the Cup recently they were the strongest and biggest side I had seen in this league for a while.”
“They have good players who are very creative so this was always going to be a hurdle for us.
“But it was the manner of the goals that we lost which was disappointing.”