Peterhead co-manager Jordon Brown is vowing the Blue Toon will bounce back stronger after a sobering defeat to Spartans ended his team’s promotion aspirations.
Trailing 2-1 from the first leg in Edinburgh, hopes were high the Balmoor men could overturn the deficit and book their place in the League One play-off final.
However, it turned out to be a nightmare afternoon for Peterhead as Spartans coasted to an emphatic 5-1 victory and a 7-2 aggregate win.
It was a tough way to round off a first full season in charge for Brown and fellow joint boss Ryan Strachan but the Blue Toon co-boss tried to stay positive.
Brown said: “We stood in front of the players 12 months ago after being relegated and said never have that feeling here again.
“Now we have got to bottle as much as we can from this disappointment to not have that feeling next season.
“We hope 90% of our dressing room will be here beyond the summer and we will add to it and try to kick on.”
Brown continued: “We will lose a couple of the loan boys and everyone hopes Hamish Ritchie will sign a new contract so that he can be a key player for us again.
“We are still working on that in the background and don’t forget the turnover of players we had last year.
“We had 14 new players and they have all been different class while Conner Duthie has missed the whole season.
“Mentality and attitude-wise, we have been different class all season so we need to build on that.
“There is no point taking all the credit all year and then letting a negative like this affect us going forward.”
Blair Henderson’s hat-trick helped Spartans claim a resounding 5-1 win at Balmoor.
Restoring Rory McAllister to the starting line-up and playing with two forwards and two wingers was a sign of intent from the home team as they looked to claw back Tuesday’s narrow loss.
But in front of an expectant crowd, they made the worst possible start as Cammy Russell pounced on a defensive mix-up to strike inside three minutes.
Henderson, whose late spot-kick had given Spartans the upper hand from the first match, then sent a header past Stuart McKenzie as Peterhead’s hopes began to fade fast.
The visitors were ruthless and they took full advantage of a swift counter attack in the 62nd minute, Bradley Whyte scoring their third.
Danny Strachan’s fine effort three minutes later was Peterhead’s sole highlight but when Jason Brown was sent off for blocking a goalbound shot with his arm and conceding a penalty, Henderson duly dispatched the spot-kick to inflict more misery.
There was still time for the prolific Henderson to go home with the match ball as he claimed his treble with 12 minutes remaining to underline his status as the top goalscorer in League Two.
While Peterhead will go away and lick their wounds before regrouping for next season, Spartans will now face Dumbarton in the play-off final for the right to play in Scotland’s third tier.
Jordon Brown added: “We had the disappointment in the last minute on Tuesday but we recovered well and were ready.
“We trust this group and speaking to them there, I could not be more proud of them
“There are numerous leaders in our dressing room, there are young boys who have come in and squad players who have done their bit as well
“Everyone has made a contribution but ultimately football can come down to fine margins and we have fallen short.
“We never really gave ourselves a chance in the match.
“We wanted to get the crowd on board but we take responsibility ourselves because we went 4-4-2 as we felt we had to go for it slightly.
“But we conceded a goal after just a few minutes which left us with an uphill battle.”