Jim McInally wants Peterhead to make Balmoor a fortress this season as they aim for consecutive home wins.
The Blue Toon face Forfar Athletic tomorrow as they try to build on last weekend’s 1-0 victory over Dumbarton.
During the curtailed 2019-20 campaign, the Buchan outfit picked up only five wins from 14 home fixtures in League One.
McInally is determined to improve their record this term and believes being solid at Balmoor will be key to having a good season.
The Blue Toon manager said: “The home form was something that frustrated me last season and unless you’re an exceptional team your home form is usually the basis of having a good season.
“This is an exceptional set of circumstances this season and I think if you look across Europe the results of away teams have been better than home teams and that’s maybe partly to do with lack of crowds.
“But, for a team like ourselves, we need to have decent home form and we need to do well against the teams around us to make sure we get through the season OK.
“Last season our home form wasn’t good enough and that’s why you end up struggling so we need to improve on that.
“When I look back on the best seasons we’ve had, they’ve been built on good home form, it can make a big difference.
“But there are some good things there at the minute, we’ve been competitive in every game – including against two Premiership teams (Dundee United and St Johnstone) – so we need to keep doing that.
“And the more options we have that should help make us better as well.”
When it comes to developing a strong home record, winning back to back fixtures Balmoor would help with that aim.
Victory tomorrow against Forfar – who are propping up League One – would also propel Peterhead seven points clear of the foot of the table.
McInally added: “It would be nice to win a couple of games on the bounce at Balmoor and boost confidence and put us in the mix to look up rather than down.
“People will speak about Forfar being bottom, but I would never underestimate anyone and I’ve got a lot of respect for Forfar as a club and they have a good management team, so we’re treating them the same as anyone else.”
Simon Ferry has been ruled out of tomorrow’s game after coming off early last weekend with a hamstring problem, while Isaac Layne is also set to be on the sidelines because of a knee problem.
However, Gary MacKenzie is back in the Blue Toon squad, having returned to training this week, and Jason Brown is free of suspension.
