The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Blue Toon head home with hard-fought point
Peterhead forward Rory McAllister dismissed any suggestion the Blue Toon’s failure to take full points from their clash with Bonnyrigg Rose at a rain-lashed New Dundas Park could be construed as a bump in the road on their promotion campaign.
The Blue Toon now trail title rivals Stenhousemuir by five points at the top of the League Two table.
“There’s a long way to go,” said McAllister at the end of a gruelling battle on the heavy Bonnyrigg pitch, which had survived two inspections before finally being declared playable by referee Alex Shepherd.
“We’re only halfway through the season, we’ve just got to knuckle down and keep winning games.
“Coming away from here with a point isn’t the end of the world, especially when you take the conditions into account.
“It’s very hard to play football on a surface like that and if we were to have played them on a decent pitch then I’m sure we’d have won the game.
“It is Scotland after all and we’re playing on a grass pitch, which has been affected by several days of rain. You’ve just got to get on with it and we now move on to next week.”
Both sides took time to adapt to the conditions early on, but it was Peterhead who created the first chance when McAllister made space on the left-hand side of the penalty area before whipping in a curling shot which slipped narrowly wide of Paddy Martin’s lefthand post.
Bonnyrigg, however, took the lead midway through the first half when their towering centre-back Kerr Young rose above the Peterhead defence to head the ball home from a Lee Currie corner.
The visitors squandered a great chance to level shortly afterwards when referee Shepherd awarded a penalty following Angus Mailer’s handball. Kieran Shanks saw his spot-kick saved superbly by Martin.
The Blue Toon equalised on the hour when Joe McKee curled a 20-yard free-kick high into the net and, although McAllister and Hamish Ritchie had chances to snatch victory late in the game, the Midlothian side held on for a draw.
Peterhead co-manager Jordon Brown appeared happy to be heading home with a hard-fought point.
He said: “If we don’t win the game then it’s important to make sure we don’t lose it.
“I think it was one of those games today where it was a real battle and conditions were brutal for everyone. A point each is probably about right.
“It was a brilliant strike from Joe McKee to bring us back into the game when we were a goal down.
“He’s more than capable of that as we have seen before.
“We’ll take the point and move on.”