Peterhead earned their place in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup after an incident packed 90 minutes in north Edinburgh as they overcame a gritty Civil Service Strollers side.
The hosts were forced to play for an hour with only ten men after after Joao Balde’s first half red card.
The Blue Toon recovered from a rare penalty miss by captain Scott Brown on the stroke of half time before scoring three times without reply in a one-sided second half.
Manager Jim McInally had said prior to the game that he expected an intense encounter and, as Brown confirmed afterwards, that’s certainly what they got.
Brown said: “They came out flying but we knew that was going to happen.
“It was a case of weathering the storm for the first 15 minutes and we got better as the game went on.
“Obviously the red card helped us but some of the stuff we played in the second half was really good.
“I didn’t help the boys out when I had a shocker of a penalty miss just before the interval but I apologised to the boys in the dressing room and I scored a goal in the second half so hopefully that made up for it.”
The Lowland League side’s hopes of causing an upset were dashed on the half hour when Balde received a red card for a reckless challenge on Lewis Duffy but they were thrown a lifeline just before the break when referee Chris Graham pointed to the spot after keeper MacAllan Whyte upended Russell McLean.
Brown, normally so deadly from 12 yards, saw his weakly struck effort saved by Whyte but a second penalty award in the 55th minute after the Strollers keeper had upended McLean, was converted by the Peterhead striker McLean and Brown atoned for his miss by firing home to make it 2-0 shortly afterwards.
HIGHLIGHTS | @csstrollers 0-3 @pfcofficial #ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/DUdlwDg5pz
— Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) November 28, 2021
The visitors were in complete control for the remainder of the game and finished off in style when substitute Lyall Cameron made it 3-0 at the death with a close range effort.
Brown revealed afterwards that it had been his decision to hand over penalty duties to McLean during a chat at the interval.
Brown added: “When you miss one, you don’t to miss another and at half time Russell told me he wanted to take the next penalty and I was perfectly happy with that.
“We really had to dig in and to come here and to win 3-0 was all we could ask for.
“We’re into the next round of the cup and hopefully we can get a good draw to give us a chance to progress in the competition.
“My penalty miss aside, it was a good day at the office.”
Blue Toon boss Jim McInally was also delighted with the outcome.
He said: “I was worried beforehand as I knew we were up against a good, well-organised side but it was a very professional performance.”