Peterhead boss McInally hails strikers after victory over Cowdenbeath

Peterhead boss Jim McInally hailed his strikers for stepping up and scoring the goals to see off Cowdenbeath.

The Blue Toon won 3-1 at Central Park last night to make it five wins in a row and keep themselves clear at the top of League Two.

After falling behind to David Cox’s strike for the Blue Brazil, Shane Sutherland equalised and Rory McAllister bagged a brace to seal the points.

The Buchan side are five points clear of Edinburgh City at the summit – after the capital side beat Berwick Rangers 1-0 – with Clyde seven points off the top with a game in hand.

McInally was pleased to see his strikers get the goals against Cowden and the Balmoor gaffer said: “As a team, we played really well, but the attackers were a handful. Ryan Dow’s movement was really good, particularly in the first half.

“Rory McAllister and Shane Sutherland were a real handful for the defence, with Shane linking the play really well.

“That’s where the frustration has been in the last few weeks, knowing that we’ve got the ability to do that but not quite getting the goals we deserve.

“It’s another game under Shane’s belt so it’s more fitness for him. Rory thrives on scoring goals so it has to do his confidence the world of good.

“At times it’s seemed like he’s been chasing a bit of confidence so it will do him the world of good.

“We weren’t really holding on in the closing stages but the third goal made it a lot more secure.

“I was very pleased with the first-half performance, I thought we were really good.

“We went behind but we showed a lot of character to come back and we played some really good football. We expected the Central Park pitch to be quite tough to play on but in fairness it played OK.

“It was nice and slick which helped us and we can’t complain about it. We moved the ball about well so I was really pleased.”

With nine league games remaining the Blue Toon have amassed 63 points for the first three-quarters of the season.

McInally added: “I think everyone is looking for us to stumble and make a mistake because we are leading. We can’t worry about anyone else because we know that we are in the driving seat.

“We just need to keep taking it one game at a time. We have got a fantastic points tally and still have a quarter of the season to go.

“We just need to keep adding to it as best as we can – but I’m pleased because we’re well ahead of where we were this time last year.

“We have averaged 21 points a quarter for the first three-quarters of the season. As a manager, I can’t really ask for a lot more than that and since we lost to Annan in January we have won five on the bounce, which is a great reply.”

COX opened the scoring on 17 minutes, but six minutes later SUTHERLAND bundled in McAllister’s cross from the right for 1-1.

In the 35th minute the visitors led when Jamie Stevenson’s through ball picked out MCALLISTER on the left side of the area and the captain’s finish was clinical.

With nine minutes left, MCALLISTER got his second to seal the points.