Peterhead midfielder Jordon Brown is up against familiar opposition tomorrow afternoon, in facing former club Cove Rangers.
Brown is close friends with many of the players at Cove and played there himself, helping the club to the promotion to the SPFL in 2019 before returning to Peterhead last season.
Both clubs have lost their opening two Premier Sports Cup games, on the back of disrupted pre-seasons due to Covid. They are playing catch-up with their preparation.
As well as aiding their fitness levels ahead of the start of the League One season on July 31, it gives Brown and Peterhead a chance to lay down a marker for the new season.
“I look forward to it, I always do,” said Brown. “Knowing a few of the boys there, it seems as though they’ve hit the ground running.
“We’re looking to that game and of course we want to win, put a marker down for the season and where we want to be. Cove are favourites at the bookies and are going to fancy themselves for the league but we’ve got to get our standards up and be more of a threat.
“Last year there was no hiding about it – we didn’t score enough goals. We probably need to be scoring double the amount of goals if we want to be affecting the top half of the league.
“We want to be a high-pressing, hard-working team. We know as a team we need to get there before the start of the season.
“The last thing you want to be doing is going into a season thinking when are you going to win. Historically Peterhead have had a good record in the League Cup and no-one likes seeing themselves at the bottom of any league with zero points.
“The league is the main priority but we don’t want to disgrace ourselves in this group.”
Brown has come back into the action quickly after a spell out himself. He caught Covid-19 and spent 10 days in isolation, something he clearly felt the effects of.
He added: “It was a nightmare to be fair. I was isolating for the 10 days and felt tired and lethargic more than anything.
“If you were to go 10 days without doing anything and you were feeling normal, that would knock your fitness quite a bit. But to be doing nothing for 10 days and have an illness as well, it really does knock you.
Early second half goals hit Blue Toon hard https://t.co/XQ0O0Q41ex
— Peterhead FC (@pfcofficial) July 14, 2021
“We got out of isolation before the Locos game, so it’s been about five games in 10 days. But it’s what we need and the team needs, to hit the ground running when the league comes round.”
A 2-0 defeat at Inverness on Tuesday night came on the back of a loss to Hearts at the weekend, testing a behind-schedule Peterhead against two full-time opponents.
Brown said: “It’s been tough but a good workout. We’ve had a disrupted pre-season like most clubs have, especially at part-time level.
“Me personally and the team have had Covid issues as well, so it’s been difficult. But going into these two games I don’t think we’ve disgraced ourselves. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we’ll see the benefit of that.”