Cove Rangers boss Paul Hartley believes his side will relish a tough test from neighbours Peterhead in today’s Premier Sports Cup tie.
The two teams meet at Balmoor this afternoon searching for a first win in the competition, while renewing a local rivalry.
Cove won the two league meetings between the clubs last season, while the Blue Toon triumphed in the League Cup in 2019.
Hartley said: “It’s always a good game between us. There’s always a good crowd and a good battle between to the two teams.
“They’ve made a lot of changes; they’ve got a lot of young players and good energy in their team. We want a tough game. I expect a good hard-fought game.
“They’ve been tight games. We both respect each other and I think the players look forward to it.”
Hartley will rotate his squad again for the game, following the 3-0 defeat to Hearts on Tuesday night.
He said: “It’s the same for us and a lot of other teams. We’ll get as many minutes as we can and get us up to speed. We’ve got another 14 days before the first league game.
“I’ve not had a pre-season like this, with no games. I’m normally big on having about eight games and that’s just not happened, for one reason and another.
“Every club is going to be disrupted this season. There’s not been a lot of pre-season games – look at Aberdeen not being able to play Reading. We’re not the only ones.”
Hartley is hoping to get a behind-closed-doors friendly arranged for next weekend, to compensate for their lack of pre-season friendlies.
Jamie Masson remains on the sidelines, however, Harry Milne has played the first two games in the competition after a long-term ankle problem and Cove will continue to monitor his comeback.
Hartley added: “We probably gave him more minutes than we should have, but that was just down to lack of numbers. We need to see where he is over the next couple of games to see where’s at.
“Jamie is still a bit away. He’s about three or four weeks away from getting up to fitness. He’s still got a bit of work to be done.”
Ryan Strachan will miss out tomorrow and Tuesday’s game against Inverness with a calf problem.
🎟️ We have been given an allocation of 𝟮𝟴 tickets for Saturday's match at Balmoor Stadium.
These tickets will only be available to Season Ticket holders & Club 1922 members.
Details here 👉 https://t.co/9W33ppCDKK pic.twitter.com/Z7zcn2t86Z
— Cove Rangers FC (@CoveRangersFC) July 14, 2021
Hartley is also optimistic Cove can bring in a new goalkeeping coach in the coming days. They have been without one since Alan Combe joined Dundee at the start of the month.
He added: “We’re hoping to get somebody in, in the next couple of days. We’ve spoken to a couple of people and we’re hopeful to get someone in to help us out.
“It’s an important position for us. It’s not easy to come by. I like to look at experienced goalkeepers, but a lot of them are in jobs. We’ll continue to search and see where we are.”