For Scott Hooper it’s substance not style that is required to get Peterhead out of relegation trouble.
Forfar visit Balmoor this afternoon in a six-pointer at the bottom end of League One.
The Blue Toon sit seventh in the table, but the Loons who are in the relegation play-off spot, ninth, are just three points further back.
Hooper is well aware of the importance of today’s encounter, having struggled defensively last week as they shipped four in defeat to Montrose Hooper wants the Buchan outfit to produce a grittier display.
The centre-back, 25, said: “It’s a must-win for us because if we lose we’re level on points and then you find yourselves looking down at Stranraer.
“You don’t want to be doing that and getting dragged into those relegation places.
“We’ve got ourselves in a relegation fight and we need to fight to get out of it.
“We need to start putting points on the board and producing performances to get points otherwise it could be a long second half of the season.
“We have got quality in the squad, but it’s been individual errors and stupid mistakes that have cost us goals and points.
“I’m as responsible as anyone for that because I’ve made stupid mistakes this season.
“As a team we do need to be better and we need to grind out wins.
“A fortnight ago against Dumbarton (1-0 win) it wasn’t a great performance but we ground it out, Clyde at home (2-0 win on December 28) was the same, but we ground it out.
“I would rather grind it out and gets points on the board than get beat.”
Seven days ago Peterhead were 2-0 down at Links Park after quarter of an hour and had conceded a third before the 30-minute mark.
The loss of early goals has been an Achilles heel for the Blue Toon this term and Hooper is desperate to avoid a similar start today.
The former Annan Athletic player added: “What we need to do is stop conceding silly goals in the first 10 to 15 minutes.
“Straightaway that puts you on the back foot and you can’t control the game because you’re chasing it from an early stage.
“As a team we need to start games better because last week was nowhere near good enough.
“It’s happened in other games this season where we’ve shipped early goals, we’ve worked hard to try to come back into games in the second half, but too often we’ve given ourselves too much to do.”
Influential midfielder Simon Ferry is back from suspension and is set to return to Jim McInally’s team today.
Hooper believes the former Dundee player’s return can help Peterhead produce a more accomplished display after last weekend’s ragged performance.
He said: “Hopefully we can show a proper Peterhead performance – last week was a wake-up call.
“But we’ve had enough of them this season that we should be reacting and playing well but it hasn’t happened at times.
“Simon Ferry is an important player for us and he’s back in and as a defender he provides some of the reassurance in front of the back four.”
Peterhead will be without full-back Jamie Stevenson and striker Ben Armour due to hamstring problems.
