Peterhead boss Jim McInally wants his side to seal League One survival off their own bat – and not rely on favours from others.
The Blue Toon are four points clear of ninth-placed Dumbarton with three games remaining. If Peterhead beat Queen’s Park at Balmoor today then Dumbarton have to win keep their chances of climbing out of the play-off spot alive.
The Spiders head north with little to play for themselves. They cannot be caught in the fourth and final promotion play-off spot and would need a significant collapse from Montrose in the last three games to take third.
But McInally, who is coming to the end of his 11th season in charge of Peterhead, does not want to be looking to others to help them secure their spot in the division.
Dumbarton are on the road this weekend at Airdrieonians, who need three points themselves to take the title race to the penultimate weekend.
“I think we need four points to be safe,” said McInally. “The way the last three games have went, we need to look to win the last three games. There’s no reason why we can’t.
“I know Queen’s Park will come away from that pitch and enjoy coming to a half-decent pitch, so that’s always something that’s in my mind.
“We need to make sure Queen’s Park know they’re in a game. You’ve got to do it yourselves, you can’t rely on other teams doing you a favour.
“It’s not out of the question that Dumbarton beat Airdrie, Cove win the league and then go into playing Dumbarton next week in party mode.
“We need to do it ourselves and we’re good enough to. We’ll give Queen’s Park a game.”
McInally will have selection dilemmas for this afternoon’s fixture. Simon Ferry and Andy McDonald should be fit, however there are doubts over Russell McLean, Derek Lyle, Gary Fraser and Niah Payne, with Hamish Ritchie out.
“We’ve got plenty of bodies,” said McInally. “Last weekend Andy McCarthy and Grant Savoury weren’t their normal selves and I was able to replace them in the second half with Jack Brown and Gary Fraser.
“We’ve got bodies to come in, so that doesn’t bother me. We’ll get on with it.”
