Friendships will become rivalries for 90 minutes on Saturday when Cove Rangers take on Peterhead at the Balmoral Stadium.
Players from both sides know each other away from the game and have represented the two clubs.
Scott Ross, Ryan Strachan, Rory McAllister and Leighton McIntosh have played for Cove and Peterhead and will be in the home dressing room come the weekend.
On the other side are brothers Jason and Jordon Brown, who have both played for Cove in different spells.
For Ross, who moved to Cove from the Blue Toon in 2017, it is easy to put the pleasantries to one side.
“There’s a few boys at Cove who have played for Peterhead and Jordon has gone the other way,” he said. “There’s a lot of friendships there and a lot of people who know people at the other club.
“It’s easy to put it to one side. In the run-up to the game you’re friends but as soon as the whistle goes, you’ve got a job to do and you do it to the best of your ability. After the game, you speak to them again.”
Peterhead boss Jim McInally, who Ross played under for six years at Balmoor, recently celebrated 10 years in charge of the League One club and is by far the longest-serving manager in Scottish football.
“It’s a good thing to have for Jim – he’s a top manager,” added Ross. “He’s done really well for the club and it just shows what they think of him.
“For players and managers to do 10 years at a club is remarkable, given how cut-throat football can be.”
That kind of longevity is something Ross, 30, aspires towards, with the aim of seeing out his career at Cove.
“I will enjoy football as long as I can,” he said. “It’s something I hope to achieve and only I can control that. If I keep performing well, I don’t see why I can’t keep playing here until I retire.”
Just two points separates the top four in League One, after Cove’s draw at Montrose last weekend.
The division has garnered a reputation for being the most competitive in Scotland, given such little ground exists between the majority of teams in the division.
“I think this is what it’s going to be like right the way through,” added Ross. “The league is extremely strong and you can see that from results. Anyone can beat anyone.
“It’s an exciting league. We need to pick up points away from home, as well as at home. To get a point at Montrose is a good result.
“We could maybe be a few points better off, there’s just a couple of things that haven’t gone our way. But to be a point off top at this stage of the season is not bad.”