Peterhead assistant manager Davie Nicholls believes League One is proving to be a more competitive league this season but remains confident the Blue Toon can hold their own.
The Balmoor side sit second bottom following a run of five defeats in six games ahead of the visit of in-form Dumbarton.
Nicholls said: “It is a really tough game as Dumbarton are flying just now.
“Stevie Farrell has gone in there and he has brought in some new players who seem to have knitted together very quickly.
“On our day we feel we are more than a match for anyone.
“I think this is a more competitive league.
“We may see a stage when the full-time teams pull away from the rest of the pack but the games are all very tight.
“The last few games we have lost have all been by one goal and we have conceded five penalties in five games.
“We just need to continue to work hard and stick by one another and we will turn the corner.
“Cutting out the errors is the most important thing as the individual mistakes are killing us at the moment.
“That all comes down to concentration and a bit of confidence as well.
“We are all pulling in the same direction so hopefully the form begins to turn.”
Back to basics
Nicholls is looking for a much-improved display against the Sons after describing last weekend’s first-half showing against Queen’s Park as “embarrassing” and among the worst displays he had seen from Peterhead in almost 10 years at the club.
The Spiders won the match 3-2 and Nicholls wants to see his players ready from the first whistle against Dumbarton.
He said: “We set out our game plan but the boys got too caught up in the game.
“We were really disappointed with the performance and how frail we looked at times.
“We made changes at half time and we looked very dangerous at the start of the second half, especially through Josh Mulligan down the right side.
“He caused them no end of problems.
“That goals we lost were really poor but that is gone now.
“We got them in on Tuesday night and we have decided to go back to basics.”
The Blue Toon could hand a debut to winger Ryan Duncan who has joined on loan from Aberdeen until January.
The 17-year-old has been earning glowing reviews for his displays for Barry Robson’s young Dons and Nicholls is hopeful Duncan can make his mark at Balmoor.
He added: “Ryan looked really good in training.
“He looks a really exciting young talent.
“Hopefully this will be a valuable experience for him and he will go back to Aberdeen a better player.”
