Peterhead manager Jim McInally admits his hand is forced this weekend with nine players potentially missing for the visit of Queen’s Park.
Ryan Conroy (groin), Niah Payne (ankle) and Andy McDonald (calf) all pulled out of training during the week, while Hamish Ritchie (knee) and Simon Ferry (hamstring) were already sidelined.
Jordon Brown and Alan Cook are back training, but well-short of match-fitness, long-term absentee Gary Fraser is awaiting a knee operation and Andy McCarthy is suspended.
Peterhead will need to shuffle the pack with what remaining players they have, which could mean starts for young loanees Danny Strachan and Lyall Cameron, who have been on the bench in recent weeks.
McInally said: “I know what I’d like to do on Saturday and how I’d like to play. Danny and Lyall will get the chance to get the jersey and keep it.
“It’s an opportunity for them. We’ll still probably have five boys on the pitch who are full-time.
“I’m hoping they’re not all out (for Saturday). I’m hoping with Niah that, because he didn’t have strapping on, it felt a bit weaker and with Andy, I’m hoping if it’s just a kick it settles down and he can get on with it.
“We’ve been a young team anyway, but we’ll be like Peterhead boys’ club this week. But there’ll be plenty of energy and legs in the team.”
McInally admits it is a difficult balancing act between fielding his strongest team and managing players with persistent niggles.
Conroy‘s groin problem has bothered him for several weeks, as has Ferry’s hamstring. Ritchie had already been withdrawn from consideration to let a knee issue settle.
“Conroy is a bit like Hamish to a certain extent – you can’t keep flogging a dead horse, it’s not fair to him,” added McInally. “He didn’t want to play as long as he did last week
“Simon is going to take a back step from the coaching to get himself back to full fitness again. On a Tuesday night he’ll go with Hoggy (fitness coach Stuart Hogg) – it’s something we did a couple of years ago and he had a really good run of games.
“We need him back to his best because he’s such a big player for us. He’ll be two or three weeks probably.
“There’s a bigger picture we need to look at, as far as trying to manage the squad a wee bit. If you keep sticking players in… Hamish could play at a push, but at the end of the day, we’ll lose him for longer-term at some point.”
The visitors of the Spiders to Balmoor brings another promotion contender across the Blue Toon’s path. They have faced Falkirk, Montrose, Airdrieonians and Cove Rangers – the rest of the top half of League One – in their last four games.
“If I go back to the last time we played them, our first-half performance was as bad as the 90 minutes last week,” added McInally. “But we had spells in that game, after we changed, where we caused them problems.
“We can hurt them, as long as we tighten up at the back. Simon Murray and (Bob) McHugh are a handful up front, but we’ll deal with it.”
