There will be no substitute for hard work for Peterhead and Brett Long as they seek to remedy their stuttering run of form.
The Blue Toon have lost four on the spin and find themselves at the foot of League One, after the weekend’s 3-0 defeat at East Fife.
The performance may have been better than the previous weeks but the result ultimately was not, leaving Jim McInally’s side chasing a second win of the campaign.
📝East Fife ran out 3-0 winners in todays cinch League 1 clash at the Loyalty Hub Bayview Stadium.
Read our match report below ⬇️https://t.co/rCOXUGvLyk
— Peterhead FC (@pfcofficial) August 28, 2021
Peterhead started the campaign in promising fashion, beating Alloa Athletic 2-0 at Balmoor. However, they have subsequently lost to Falkirk, Montrose, Airdrieonians and now East Fife, dropping to foot of the division in the process.
McInally refused to be critical of his side in the aftermath of Saturday’s defeat, insisting the performance had been better than some of the previous ones.
They will face East Fife again this Saturday, this time welcoming them to the north-east in the SPFL Trust Trophy.
But for Long, a summer addition from New Bayview, the answer starts and stops with hard work.
He said: “You have to keep digging in. These are the hard times when things aren’t going your way – sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
“We’re a really tight team and we’ll stick together. We’ll get through it.
“In the first half we’d moved the ball quickly and got into good areas. It’s just unfortunate we couldn’t score.
“We’re not going to point the finger at anyone. It’s a team game – we win together and lose together. You just have to take it on the chin and get on with it.”
Long was one of seven new additions at Peterhead this summer, with McInally reducing the age of his squad significantly with a number of youthful additions.
However, there are no further signings planned at Balmoor, with clubs in the lower-leagues still having an extra month to strengthen their squads with loan signings.
Their neighbours Cove Rangers are still in the market for a forward player. They sent a depleted squad down to Clyde at the weekend and were beaten 2-1.
Cove let Daniel Higgins join East Fife and Broque Watson move to Stranraer last month.