Manager Jim McInally and goalkeeper Joshua Rae have revealed some frank words at half-time very nearly inspired Peterhead to an unlikely draw at Falkirk Stadium on Saturday.
The out-of-sorts visitors trailed the League One leaders by two goals at the break, with Blair Alston and Connor Sammon on target for the Bairns. And they could easily have been further behind had it not been for an outstanding display from Rae.
Those clear-the-air talks during the interval clearly had an effect in the second period as Peterhead pulled a goal back through substitute Lyall Cameron – barely three minutes after replacing Andrew McCarthy – and then gambled everything in search of an equaliser in the closing 13 minutes.
Cameron saw an effort blocked and Jason Brown blazed over in stoppage time, but Falkirk clung on to go four points clear at the top.
Peterhead dropped from seventh to eighth and now sit a single point off bottom spot, yet their mood on Saturday evening was upbeat as they reflected on their near-miss fightback against the Bairns.
“Nobody comes here and attacks Falkirk as much as we did,” said Peterhead gaffer McInally.
“They are a good side and don’t forget they train on this pitch every day. We didn’t show anything here in two visits last season, but at least we put on a good show today.
“I had to lambast the players at half-time because we were nowhere near the standards we’ve set this season.
“I thought we played really well in the second half, but you can’t win games of football on just 45 minutes.
“We still have key players missing and that’s been tough for us.
“I didn’t want to give Gary MacKenzie the full 90 minutes because he’s just come back. If we can get two or three more players back, then that will definitely help.”
Goalkeeper Rae added: “We went in at half-time and we knew it wasn’t good enough. We didn’t feel we’d been outplayed by Falkirk – it was just two bad mistakes that cost us the goals.
“It was a better performance in the second half, but we’re disappointed we didn’t manage to take anything from the game.
“We haven’t played badly in any match apart from maybe last week, so there are plenty of positives, but we really need to start picking up points to move up that table.
“I thought I did OK, but it’s my job to keep the ball out of the net. I couldn’t have done anything to stop either of their goals.”