Rory McAllister may be locking horns with his former club Peterhead on Saturday but the Cove Rangers striker only has eyes for the league table.
Cove ended a run of five games without a win with a 1-0 win over Forfar Athletic last weekend, ahead of a north-east derby at the Balmoral Stadium on Saturday.
For McAllister, it presents the chance to face off against a side he plundered more than 200 goals for during a near-nine-year stay at Balmoor.
While he still has affection for the club he left almost a year ago, the sole focus is on getting Cove back up League One after a difficult run of results.
Defeats against Falkirk, Dumbarton, Montrose and Clyde had seen them skid down to sixth, after starting the season with four straight wins. However, the narrow win over the league’s bottom side last Saturday should help them turn a corner.
“If you’ve watched all the games, I wouldn’t say we deserved to lose all of them,” said McAllister. “We should have won a couple of those games, but didn’t take our chances.
“If you look at it now, if we get on a wee run again we can push up towards the top of the league again.
“I’ve still got a couple of friends at Peterhead, people I’ve got a lot of time for. But it’s business as usual.
“If you string results together, you’ll soon move up the league, because it’s so congested. Montrose have done it as well. Consistency is the thing in this league.
McAllister is eager for a run in the side, after a stop-start season which has seen him battling for a place in the starting line-up.
He feels when paired with captain and leading scorer Mitch Megginson, Cove prove a more dangerous attacking threat.
“I feel good in training and when the game started last weekend I felt really sharp. It’s been stop-start – I’ve not had a real run of games to be honest. I’ve been in for a couple and then out again.
“I think I’ve contributed and played well most of the games I’ve played. Hopefully I can keep it going, get a few more goals and help the team stay up towards the top end of the league.
“It can get a bit frustrating – you get a bit of head loss when you’re not playing. If I keep playing like I did on Saturday I should be playing, so it’s down to me.
“When we play well, me and Mitch create teams a lot of problems in this league. When we play together we do well. It’s tough because there’s a lot of good players and there’s always someone that has to miss out at some point.
“We’re totally different kinds of strikers. Mitch does well round about me, gets shots away when I can hold the ball up. He can make runs off me.
“I played a few games by myself (up front) when I was injured and I felt a bit isolated at times. When Mitch is there you can link up and cause a bit of damage to the opposition.
“In my opinion, I think the team plays better when the two of us are up front.”