New East Fife boss Barry Smith heaped praise on his players after they secured him a maiden win.
Smith took over at Bayview on Monday, replacing Gary Naysmith who has departed for Queen of the South.
And his side showed their guile in attack and meanness in defence to wrap up a 2-0 victory.
Both goals came in the second half with Jason Kerr breaking the deadlock just a couple of minutes after the restart.
Kevin O’Hara netted the second barely 10 minutes later.
Smith hailed his side after their win.
He said: “When you’re working with a group of players who worked as hard as they did this week and gave every bit of attention, it makes a massive difference.
“They were tuning in and ready for the game. That’s credit to the players because they bought in to what we’ve been saying and worked on what we asked them. We got a result from it.”
The first half failed to really spark into life with both clubs only really having one shot of note.
For Peterhead Fiacre Kelleher was unlucky to see an early header come crashing back off the crossbar. East Fife’s Jonathan Page was also unlucky with a header, seeing his flash over the bar.
The second half was a different story.
Smith sent his team out with a real impetus and it didn’t take them long to stretch ahead.
Scott Mercer’s free-kick on the edge of the area found Jonathan Page who helped it on into the six yard box.
There Jason Kerr was waiting and he lashed his effort beyond Fraser Hobday.
Jim McInally would have been expecting a strong response from his side, but instead it was East Fife who remained on the front foot.
They doubled their lead when a swift move up the park saw Tony Wallace break into the box.
He slipped the ball left to O’Hara and the youngster composed himself before beating Hobday.
With a two-goal advantage, East Fife were content to let Peterhead come on to them.
For every bit as ruthless as they were in attack, they were solid in defence with Jonathan Page and the excellent Chris Kane keeping Rory McAllister quiet.
Scott Brown had a late shot at the East Fife goal but his drive sailed over Ryan Goodfellow’s goal.
Blue Toon boss Jim McInally slammed his side’s performance.
He said: “When we went two goals down we decided to have efforts at goal and some crosses and shots.
“It was all too little too late.
“We had a few chances near the end but that wasn’t when it mattered.
“For the first half hour we controlled the game but didn’t look like scoring.
“It’s just not good enough.”