The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Surface tensions fail to mar win for McInally
Peterhead manager Jim McInally felt his players deserved a medal just for performing on a rockhard Borough Briggs surface on Saturday.
With a fortuitous victory keeping alive League 2 medal chances ahead of the final day fixtures, McInally was relieved his team held out for a slender win.
It was a fraught day for the Blue Toon with Elgin going agonisingly close to scoring on a clutch of occasions.
McInally said: “If you want to walk on that pitch, you’ll see how good a result it was for us because that’s by far the worst pitch I’ve witnessed in a couple of years. It was bone dry. They said they tried to get the fire brigade in through the week to water it but I don’t think they came. It probably looks okay from the stand because it’s been cut, but the bounce of the ball was terrible.
“That’s why we went as big and strong as we could towards the end. We got all the big guys on the field and it was pleasing just to win.
“I reminded the players that Elgin have the best home record in the league so it wasn’t going to be easy. We just had to grind it out.”
McInally was fully aware of just how close Montrose were to clinching the title during the 90 minutes.
He added: “I’ll tell you why I’m so proud of the lads.
At half-time, they were so deflated between the way our game was going and knowing that Montrose were winning 2-0.
“They were so low and I just said to them try to make them wait another week – and we’ve done that.
“When Montrose see the highlights with Declan Byrne hitting the post for Elgin they’ll know how close they came to being champions.
“Will they get it easy against Elgin next week? I don’t think so. I saw Elgin against Montrose earlier in the season and they will cause them problems.”