Jim McInally insists there’s no excuse for his Peterhead side not being able to compete with Partick Thistle tomorrow.
The Blue Toon travel to Firhill to face the full-time Jags, who are second in League One and one of the favourites for promotion.
Although Peterhead will be underdogs when they visit Maryhill, manager McInally expects his charges to put up a good showing.
Having beaten Dundee United in the League Cup, run St Johnstone close in the same competition and caused Falkirk problems a fortnight ago in the league, McInally says the Buchan outfit have shown they can compete with full-time sides.
The SPFL’s longest-serving manager said: “There’s no excuse for not being able to compete in these sorts of games.
“It’s just about going out and being brave and if we do that I’m confident we’ll put up a good show.
“It’s a bit of a free hit because in all my time at Peterhead we’ve never played them at Firhill,1 so it’s nice to go somewhere different.
“It’s a great pitch at Firhill and nobody will give us a chance and we’ve already done well in and enjoyed games against full-time opposition this season.
“We’ve got to go with the belief that if we stand up and be counted and are brave in the game then we’ve got a chance of doing something.”
Peterhead returned to winning ways last weekend when they beat East Fife 2-1.
It was a particularly pleasing result for McInally after having to play the final 25 minutes with 10 men following Gary Fraser’s red card.
The character shown by his charges in such a situation was a major positive for McInally and he hopes his side retains that spirt.
He added: “What we did last Saturday was show a lot of character and spirit and that’s something you need in every game.
“If we carry that with us and are able to combine it with good performances then I always think we’ll run teams close.
“That was the most pleasing thing about winning a game like last Saturday’s is you see the spirit of everyone and then the elation at the end is great because they’ve had to do it the hard way.
“That’s the most pleasing thing about it and it’s good to see it.
“This season is all about trying to get through it as best we can, everybody is struggling to a certain extent with players missing games through injury, suspension or Covid isolation.
“So you need spirit among the group to help you through.”
Fraser is available tomorrow after his red card last weekend was downgraded to yellow on appeal.
Fellow midfielder Simon Ferry is also back after a hamstring problem, striker Ben Armour has trained following his hamstring issue, but midfielder Andrew McCarthy is a doubt with a knee problem.
