Graham Tatters dare not dream about plotting for League One football until Elgin City can finally get past bogey side Edinburgh City in the play-off semi-finals.
The Black and Whites chairman would love to be sitting down with manager Gavin Price this month to prepare for possible strengthening of the ranks should they win promotion in the coming weeks.
That kicks off today with the first leg against an Edinburgh side they’ve yet to take a point from this term, before the tie concludes on Tuesday night at Ainslie Park.
Tatters would love to see his club take the step up a level after coming so close before, but he insists the focus is on trying to get the better of their strong opponents from the capital.
He explained: “It would be brilliant to make it into League One. Everyone plays this sport to reach the best level they can.
“I don’t know whether we’d have to strengthen. We would have to sit down with Gavin and plan for it.
“We’ll worry about that if we get there, because right now it’s all about taking on Edinburgh. That would be a brilliant discussion to have if we progress.
“The first target was to make the play-offs and we’ve got there. It’s now down to how well we can play over these next games.
“Edinburgh are a good strong side and Stranraer are also a good team, who we have had some excellent results against.
“There are times when we’ve turned it around in games. We could have been a few goals down against Brechin earlier this year, but we came back to win. Everybody has been fighting for their lives for the last five or six games.”
Comfort in familiarity
Looking specifically at Edinburgh, who beat them for a third time this season just last weekend, Tatters hopes the homework against their well-known rivals will pay off with a victory.
He said: “Edinburgh are really well organised and we know it’s going to be tough. Gavin will have us all sorted out. We have played each other so many times.
“We just need to find a way to beat them. Queen’s Park had the sign over us too, but we managed to beat them on Tuesday, so hopefully this time it can go our way.”
The Elgin chief is proud to see the club get this opportunity and feels that beating champions Queen’s Park 3-2 this week capped a brilliant run-in to the regular season.
He admitted: “I thought we’d maybe lost the opportunities after the defeats to Cowdenbeath, Stenhousemuir and Albion Rovers.
“It was a big ask to try and get three or four wins from the last four matches, but we started off like a house on fire with wins against Stranraer and Stirling.
“We had a blip last Saturday against Edinburgh, but Tuesday’s win was the icing on the cake.
“It was fantastic and our biggest regret is that there are no one here to watch it, which was a real shame.”
