The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Maguire closes door on Toon’s shaky form
Stephen on hand to end barren run for Peterhead
Peterhead forward Stephen Maguire opened his goalscoring account and closed the door on the Blue Toon's shaky form to send the Buchan men joint top of the Third Division.
Jim McInally's team edged out Berwick in a scrappy contest atBalmoortoendarun of three consecutive defeats, which included last week's surprise ScottishCupexit to Deveronvale.
SubstituteMaguire decided an uninspiring game, which was heading for a goalless draw, by slotting home in the closing stages to net his first senior goal in two years
Maguire said: “I'm absolutely delighted. The goal has been a long time coming. I thought it was not going to happen for me after the last few games so it feels great to get off the mark.
“We had to put last week's defeat at the back of our minds and focus on getting
“I thought it was not going to happen for me after the last few games so it feels great to get off the mark”
three points against Berwick. It was not easy, withconfidencelowamongstthe boys. It was a scrappy win but we will take it.
“The league is close at the moment and we are glad to be up there, considering we have just lost a few games on the bounce.
“To still be joint top of the table shows we are not a bad side so there is a lot to be happy about.
“Most people were thinking Rangers would run away with the league but after the first few games and the way they have struggled away from home, it has given all the other teams a big lift.
“We need to kick onnow. There were reasons for the Elgin defeat after getting three players sent off and conceding two penalties, while we had a whole defence missing for the loss at Annan.”
Peterhead started slowly against Berwick and could have fallen behind on a couple of occasions in a disjointed first half performance.
Paul Jarvie made two vital saves, parrying Chris Townsley's 14th minute header and then keeping out Stuart Noble's effort on the half hour mark after a Scott Ross mistake.
Other than a tame Rory McAllister effort moments before half time, the Blue Toon failed to test Youssef Bejoui, but the visiting goalkeeper was busier after the interval and pulled off an impressive save in the 64th minute.
An error from full back Devon Jacobs was pounced on by McAllister, whose 14 yard curling effort was goalbound until Bejoui tipped the ball over the crossbar for a corner.
The longer the game went on, Peterhead looked the likeliest to make the breakthrough and after