The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
No injury excuses – just opportunities
Captain Scott Brown says injuries will provide other members of Peterhead’s squad with a great opportunity when they face Cove Rangers today.
The two north-east sides in League One meet for the first time this season this afternoon at Balmoor.
The Buchan side are without Simon Ferry, Ben Armour (both hamstrings), Josh Mulligan (ankle), Gary MacKenzie ( concussion) and Gar y Fraser ( selfisolation) for this derby.
But Isaac Layne may be available following a knee knock and skipper Brown says injuries will not be used as an excuse by the Buchan outfit.
The 25-year-old midfielder said: “I think the two clubs are pretty well-matched, although we have got a few injuries right now.
“It was strange last week against Airdrie l osing Simon, Gary (MacKenzie) and Isaac within about 30 minutes, but for the players who haven’t been starting it’ s a good opportunity to stake their claim and show they should be starting.
“We’re not going to use injuries as an excuse.
“It’s something we need to put behind us and it is something every team has to deal with, so hopefully we can pick up the points.
“Even with the injuries we still feel the team we’ve got is good enough to beat anyone in the league.
“Against Airdrie we lost our way a little bit with Simon, Gary and Isaac all having to go off.
“It was a tough week playing three games and two against full-time teams, but even in the second half we competed well with Airdrie.
“For the players who maybe didn’t start the first couple of games they’ve still been working hard and doing well and this is a chance for them to step up.”
After last weekend’s 2- 0 defeat to Airdrie, the Blue Toon are looking to pick up their first points of the season in League One.
Brown added: “There’s always that bit of pressure on until you get the first win in the league.
“Last season we didn’t get it until the fourth game and we’d like to improve on that.
“Every team wants to get off the mark as soon as possible so it would be nice to get three points this week.
“When you’re playing in a derby game it would be nice to do it in that as well.
“I would imagine Cove will be challenging in and around the play-offs this season.
“That’s where we see ourselves being as well, so if we could take points off a team that we could be close to then that’s good as well.”
Five former Peterhead players – Rory McAllister, J or don Brown, Ryan Strachan, Scott Ross and Leighton McIntosh – will return to Balmoor with Cove.
Brown says it will be up to Peterhead to match their intensity.
The former St Johnstone player said: “This will be Rory’s first time back (after leaving in January) and it would have been nice if the fans could have given him a send-off.
“Unfortunately they weren’t able to do that, but I think it’s been said many times how well Rory did for the club and it was just time for him to move on.
“It will be good to see some other familiar faces as well like Jordon Brown and I played with Ryan Strachan, Scott Ross and Leighton McIntosh for a spell as well and all of them did well for the club.
“I’m sure they’ll be right up for it, but we’ll be the same and it should make for a good game.”