Elgin City forward Calum Ferguson is ready to stake his claim to lead the line for the Black and Whites.
Ferguson has not played since the 1-0 Scottish Cup loss at Dumbarton on November 18, having spent several weeks on the sidelines with an ankle injury.
After returning to fitness and featuring as an unused substitute in Elgin’s last three games, former Caley Thistle attacker Ferguson is eager for his opportunity to compete with Declan Byrne and Chris McLeish for a striking place, with Shane Sutherland still short of returning from a long-term knee injury.
Elgin host Annan Athletic in League 2 today, and Ferguson said: “I seem to have had a string of bad luck which has been quite frustrating.
“At Inverness I picked up a back injury which kept me out for about a year, just as I was starting to play some first team games.
“Last year at Albion Rovers I was doing really well, scoring a couple of goals before I fell really ill with a virus. I lost a lot of weight and just couldn’t get out of bed, so that took me a while to recover from.
“This year it was an ankle injury in a game. I tried to keep playing through it, but the physio took the decision to come off and rest up properly.
“It’s frustrating because when I took that decision to step back we went on a bad run of games and Gavin changed the team, which he hadn’t done in a while.
“A few boys got opportunities so I felt that if I was fit I would have got my chance, but that’s football.
“We have not been banging in the goals, we have maybe not had that natural goalscorer as such but I would like to think that’s something I could offer.”
With Gavin Price’s men three points adrift of the promotion play-off places ahead of today’s game Ferguson, who turns 23 on Monday, Ferguson is eager to return to League 1 with the Moray outfit, who he joined from Albion Rovers in the summer.
He added: “When I played in League 1 last season I saw some of the setups there, along with other clubs such as Alloa Athletic and Cowdenbeath who have played in the Championship.
“Elgin is a big place. We have good facilities and a lot of good people working at the club. It’s a mystery to me how the club hasn’t gone up before, in nearly 20 years in the league.
“For north football it would be great to have another club kicking on, if we could get into League 1 through the play-offs.
“We already have Caley Thistle in the Championship and Ross County in the Premiership, while Cove Rangers may have a good chance of getting into League 2.
“It’s good to see for this part of the world and there’s no reason why we can’t go on a run that takes us into the play-offs.”
