Peterhead manager Jim McInally hopes the club can keep loanee Ryan Duncan after he scored his first senior goal against East Fife.
The Aberdeen teenager sees his loan move expire in January and the two clubs are believed to be in discussions about whether to extend his stay.
Duncan originally joined Peterhead at the end of September but was struck down by a groin problem which delayed his club debut.
He came off the bench on Saturday to head in the equaliser against East Fife, rescuing a vital point for the Blue Toon.
“I’m so pleased for him to get his first senior goal,” said McInally. “It’s brilliant for him. It’s another young player hopefully we can help along.
“You can see he’s a big boy, strong, and he’s got a lovely touch. He nearly scored with a corner and that didn’t surprise us, as we’ve had him in a bounce game and he’s particularly good at set-pieces.
“He’s got a lovely left foot and hopefully we can help him on his way. We just need to wait and see if we can keep him a wee bit longer than January.
“I was a wee bit reluctant to put him on last week as I didn’t want to rock the boat with anybody, in case he’s not going to be here long-term.
“But hopefully Aberdeen will let us keep him. I think it’ll be good for him.”
It was a scrappy game in poor conditions at Balmoor, with neither side creating too many clear-cut chances.
But the importance for McInally came in not losing the game. Clyde’s win over Alloa took them above Peterhead into seventh, but the gap to the bottom is still six points.
“It was massive not to lose it,” he added. “This league – there’s Clyde beating Alloa and not losing keeps that gap to East Fife.
“I think we’ve lost two games in 10 and although we’re maybe not winning enough, we’ve got out of the habit of losing.
“The good thing for me is the players are disappointed. They felt as though they could have done better.
“When you lose two of your midfield – two of your more defensive midfielders – and end up with a lot of forward players on the park, there can be a good side but also a negative side.”
McInally was forced into shuffling his pack twice in the first half, with Simon Ferry and Andy McCarthy both going off injured.
They hit the inside of the post with the lively Grant Savoury but found themselves behind shortly after half-time.
A ball over the top of the Peterhead defence got Connell the wrong side of David Wilson and he held off his attentions to clip the ball past Brett Long.
Thank you to everyone who braved the conditions today to come to Balmoor for the game against @EastFifeFC
That was our final home game of 2021, so we'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and we'll see you all back at Balmoor in the new year!#BlueToon
— Peterhead FC (@pfcofficial) December 11, 2021
The hosts rallied, with Savoury lashing a couple of chances over the bar and Russell McLean sending another shot into the side netting.
Duncan came close to scoring direct from a corner, which goalkeeper Jude Smith clawed away, before he peeled off into space to head Niah Payne’s cross in.
“It was a strange game,” added McInally. “We had to make early substitutions and the weather wasn’t behaving itself. We lost a terrible goal and were left to chase a game.
“We could have played better – we didn’t get the ball out wide enough. But it’s hard in conditions like that and when you’re one down like that, there’s days when we would have lost that game.
“We kept at it without playing particularly well. Our goalie has not had a save to make all game and their goalie probably should have had more saves to make.”
