Peterhead and Elgin City’s promotion challenges have been given a boost by St Johnstone after Saints manager Tommy Wright agreed to extend the loans of three of his players.
Conor McLaren and Mark Hurst are on loan with League 2 leaders Elgin while Ally Gilchrist is with Peterhead as they bid to make the end of season play-offs.
Peterhead manager Jim McInally feared he would lose the services of Gilchrist but Saints manager Wright said: “Conor McLaren and Mark Hurst have extended at Elgin, Ally Gilchrist has extended at Peterhead.
“I think they have all done well. But the loan system is something we think can really benefit them. They have gained a lot of experience.”
Meanwhile, Murray Davidson has recovered fully from his injury at Motherwell.
The St Johnstone midfielder crashed into a Fir Park dugout last Wednesday and, after trying to play on, was substituted a short time afterwards. But tests on the knee over the subsequent days have shown that there was no lasting damage.
“Murray would have made Sunday’s game,” Wright reported. “He’s not got a problem. The initial impact was a worry and he was concerned about it, but his knee settled down quickly afterwards.
“He’ll have a full week training along with the rest of them as we build up to what is a very important game this weekend.”
Wright is confident that his squad will cope with a busy spell of weekend and midweek fixtures. He said: “We are going to have a wee backlog of fixtures, there’s three needing rescheduled now because of the League Cup semi-final as well.
“So we’re going to have to sit down and look at dates, which is difficult because of the possibility of cup replays at this time of year as well.
“But it’s something we just have to get on with, I’m not concerned about it.
“I have always said that you build a squad for a reason and this is why, so everyone will be needed in the months ahead.
“Having a squad is very important, the lads have worked very hard and didn’t get extra time off even though we had two matches postponed.”