Rory McAllister is optimistic about what Cove Rangers can achieve during their first season in League One.
The Aberdeen side will be stepping up to Scottish football’s third tier for the first time when the new campaign begins on October 17.
Within Cove’s squad are a number of players – including McAllister – who have previously played at League One level.
Full-time outfits Falkirk and Partick Thistle start as title favourites, but below them McAllister reckons the other sides in the division will all fancy their chances of grabbing a promotion play-off spot.
The 33-year-old striker said: “I think we’ll do OK. We’ve got a lot of quality in the squad and players who have played at this level before.
“If you look at the league we played in last season this is a step up in quality in terms of what we’ll face week-in, week-out. I don’t see any reason why we can’t be pushing up the league.
“Falkirk and Partick Thistle are the full-time sides and you’d probably expect them as being the top two.
“But then after that everyone else will be probably be aiming to get in one of the two play-off spots below that I think.”
McAllister joined Cove from Peterhead in January, but was only able to make eight appearances for the Balmoral Stadium outfit prior to football being shutdown in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The former Inverness Caley Thistle netted three goals in that period and felt he was hitting form prior to lockdown.
McAllister added: “I think I was doing all right before lockdown. I scored three goals and had a few assists and scored quite an important goal against Edinburgh City (in a 2-1 win over their closest challengers for the League Two title).
“I think I did OK, maybe the team wasn’t playing quite as well as it had been earlier in the season and some games were a bit more of a struggle.
“But then before lockdown they won 7-1 down at Stirling Albion, but I think I was doing OK and starting to get partnerships going with the likes of Mitch Megginson and Jamie Masson so I was happy with that.”
With strikers Mitch Megginson and Leighton McIntosh also in the Cove squad and Jordon Brown and Broque Watson also capable of playing up front McAllister faces competition to be a regular starter.
He said: “There’s competition in the squad and there’s nothing wrong with healthy competition because it pushes you on as a player.
“I’m confident that if I’m playing well then I’ll play so I need to focus on playing well.”