George Grierson was determined to take the positives after suffering Scottish Junior Cup shootout agony on his Irvine Meadow dugout debut.
Meadow took Friday night’s second round tie at Petershill to penalties after Callum Graham’s 73rd minute strike cancelled out Craig Leitch’s first half opener for the hosts.
But it was Peasy goalkeeper Steven McNeil who emerged the hero under the glare of the floodlights, saving spot kicks from Ronan Kearney and Kyle Faulds in a 4-1 shootout victory to ensure Meadow’s wait for a fourth Junior Cup success will now surpass 50 years.
Grierson, who stepped into the hotseat early last week, reckons the clash came just too early for him and his new charges.
But he insists he saw enough to give him great encouragement going forward.
He said: “When it comes down to penalties I’m not going to criticise anyone for missing because they were brave enough to step up in the first place.
“Looking back on the game though, up until Petershill scored I thought we were the better team.
“We had a wee wobble after going behind but the first 25 minutes is what I’m looking for from us going forward.
“I can’t fault the players for what they’ve given me since we came in. We’re asking them to adapt to our way of doing things and it will take a wee bit of time. But there are good players here and I think they’ll manage that quite quickly.
“Maybe the cup game came too quick for us in that respect but we won’t use that as an excuse. We just need to get on with it.”
David Ramsay struck the outside of the post then forced McNeil into the first save of the match as Meadow looked to get off to a fast start.
The visitors certainly looked the more threatening of the two teams but they fell behind against the run of play in 29 minutes when Leitch scrambled home Eddie Ferns’ free-kick.
The confidence visibly drained from the Meadow players and they were lucky not to fall further behind soon after when Petershill defender Terry Hewitt crashed a header off the crossbar.
Meadow looked particularly vulnerable at set-pieces but they almost scored with one of their own just before half-time when Bryan Wharton had an effort cleared off the line.
David Ramsay went close with a 30 yard free-kick early in the second half before Peasy almost capitalised on a mistake by Neil Slooves at the other end.
Both sides huffed and puffed without creating too many clear cut chances but Meadow got the equaliser they desperately wanted when Graham latched on to Connor Boyd’s pass and drilled low past McNeil.
Graham netted again in the shootout but he was the only one in blue to do so as Peasy clinched their place in the third round.
Meadow will look to bounce back when they return to league duty this Saturday at home to Largs.
Don't miss the latest Ayrshire headlines – sign up to our free daily newsletter here
