Elgin City defender Darryl McHardy insists this is the year the Moray club must grab their chance of finally winning promotion to League One.
The Black and Whites have never made the step up, but have had some close calls via the play-offs.
The long-serving player, who debuted for City in 2011, is determined to help Gavin Price’s team achieve their dream and they are well-placed to push for promotion this term.
Going into Saturday’s home date with Annan Athletic, Elgin are third in the League Two table, three points richer than closest rivals, East Fife, who won 2-1 at Borough Briggs last week.
Fifth-placed Annan are five points behind, so will be coming north in a bid to win and get involved in the play-off battle.
Dumbarton are the front-runners, followed by Stirling Albion, with those sides holding 12 and eight-point advantages, respectively, over Elgin.
It is now 23 years since Elgin joined the Scottish League set-up, moving up from the Highland League and they have had recent near misses in their bid to go up.
In 2015/16, they finished runners-up in League Two, but Clyde beat them 5-1 on aggregate in the League One play-off semi-finals.
Two years ago, it was Edinburgh City who caused the heartbreak when they defeated Elgin 3-2 on aggregate with a last-gasp winner, again at the semi-final stage.
Squad good enough to win promotion
McHardy, 27, who has 27 appearances to his name this season, says going up remains their ultimate target come May.
He said: “We need to find some form and make a real push for the play-offs.
“Our main aim this year is to get promoted and there’s no excuse for it not to happen.
“We’ve said it for so many years, that we need to get promoted and this is our big objective.
“We have got the players and the squad in place, so we believe we’re good enough.”
City determined to improve at home
Addressing poor home form has been spoken about by Elgin manager Gavin Price.
Last week’s 2-1 loss against East Fife was the visitor’s second win in Moray this season and follows recent Borough Brigg defeats against the top two, Dumbarton and Stirling, while Forfar Athletic have also left Moray with full points.
McHardy, who has switched from centre-back to left-back this season, insists the management and players are intent on rectifying their home struggles.
He said: “We have been speaking about it as a squad and we really need to sort out our home form. Our consistency has been awful this season.
“Sometimes we’re playing unbelievably well, sometimes we’re playing poorly.
“We need to get the fans right behind us.
“Away from home this year, we’ve been doing well. I’ve played some seasons when we’ve been near enough unbeatable at home, but not as good away – but it’s been totally different this time.
“As yet, we haven’t found a way to solve it. We set up in a different shape away from home, while we’re set up more attacking in Elgin to try and impress the fans, but it’s just not working.
“We need to find a way and stick with it.”
Hat-trick of wins over Annan is aim
Saturday’s visitors Annan were 4-0 winners at Galabank in the League Cup at the start of the season.
However, Elgin have since beaten them 5-1 and 3-1 in League Two, and they’re chasing a similar outcome to keep the chasers at bay.
MacHardy said: “Annan gave us a bit of doing in the cup down there, but we’ve managed to get a couple of league wins against them since then.
“Hopefully we can make it three in a row, which would help us to cement third place and try and kick on from there, to try and get into second place.”
