Peterhead co-manager Jordon Brown believes the Blue Toon still have an outside chance of reaching the Premier Sports Cup knock-out stages after their comeback victory over League Two rivals Elgin City.
Skipper Jason Brown scored twice in the closing stages as the Balmoor men rallied from 2-1 down to claim a valuable 4-2 win in Group C.
Following on from last week’s sobering 5-0 defeat to Queen’s Park, it was an impressive response from the Blue Toon, who are back in the mix to progress in the competition after Hibs were humbled by Kelty Hearts.
Peterhead visit Kelty on Tuesday in their penultimate group game and although the upcoming league campaign is the main focus, Brown is targeting a win to keep their last 16 hopes alive.
Brown said: “We want to be competitive at the top of our league but we also want to be competitive in all these games which we are currently taking part in.
“I think the group is now wide open with Kelty beating Hibs and we look forward to going down there on Tuesday night.
“The last time we went there myself and Ryan were in interim charge and we actually did really well that day.
“We are familiar with the place and obviously there has been some amount of change since then but we will look to be competitive while also freshening up the squad because it is a big ask the same players to go again so early in the season.”
Elgin earned a bonus point penalty shoot-out win over Kelty in midweek but they struggled at Balmoor with Peterhead much the better team in the first half.
However the hosts only had Ben Armour’s 22nd minute goal to show for their superiority, the forward bundling the ball into the net from Max Barry’s cross to claim his first goal in his second spell with the club.
Following a half time dressing down, Elgin improved after the interval and they found themselves all square in the 57th minute when Jack Murray rose highest from a corner to bullet a header past Stuart McKenzie. The Black and Whites went in front in the 67th minute after Caleb Goldie handled in the box and Dayshonne Golding netted the resulting penalty.
Peterhead, however, showed great resilience and were back on level terms four minutes later when Goldie steered home to score his first senior goal.
From there, the home team seized the initiative and from Barry’s corner, Jason Brown headed past Tom McHale to put the Blue Toon back in front in the 79th minute. With time running out, the Peterhead captain then scored from eight yards to seal a deserved home victory.
Elgin City assistant manager Stefan Laird is confident the Black and Whites will cut out the silly mistakes in time for the start of the new League Two season.
Laird said: “There have been too many individual errors for our liking in pre-season.
“We were very solid at the back last year and we need to get back to that but I am sure it will be a different kettle of fish when the league starts up soon.”
Laird continued: “It is difficult in this cup.
“You want to be as competitive as you can but at the same time it is the middle of pre-season and you have got to give everyone minutes.
“It is quite a false environment but obviously the real stuff starts soon and we will need to be ready to try and improve upon the good form we showed between Christmas and May last season.”