Captain Kevin Fraser believes finishing second in the Highland League would represent a good season for Buckie Thistle.
The Jags are currently fourth in the table but along with Inverurie Locos, Rothes and Fraserburgh are in with a shout of finishing best of the rest behind runaway leaders Brora Rangers.
Tomorrow Buckie face the third-placed Speysiders and can move above them with a win at Mackessack Park.
With nine games left Thistle have already amassed a point more than they did last season and Fraser is hoping for a strong end to the campaign so they can secure a place in the top three.
The midfielder said: “The aim for us is to try to finish second in the league.
“I don’t know how the table is looking but I know ourselves and a few other teams have quite a few games to catch up on. We’ll need to win those games if we are to finish where we want to and it won’t be easy.
“If we could finish in the top three I think it would be a good season for us because last season we were eighth in the table.
“Obviously we want to be a side that goes and wins leagues but top three wouldn’t be a bad finish.”
Buckie drew 0-0 with second-placed Inverurie on Saturday at Victoria Park.
It was a game in which the Jags had the better opportunities but couldn’t make the breakthrough.
Although disappointed to pass up some decent chances, Fraser believes Buckie should take encouragement from the performance ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Rothes.
The skipper added: “We haven’t played Rothes this season yet but they have been doing well this season so it will be interesting to see what they’re like.
“There’s not much between us in the table but we’re confident after a good performance against the team that’s second in the league.
“I felt as though we could have nicked it against Inverurie because we probably had better chances than they did.
“The positive was keeping a clean sheet, but it is frustrating when you have chances and don’t win. But we played well and we didn’t get beat so it wasn’t the worst day.
“We can take some encouragement from that game because I felt we played a lot of good football – especially second half.”
