Peterhead midfielder Jordon Brown isn’t writing his side off ahead of their Premier Sports Cup clash against Aberdeen at Balmoor.
The Blue Toon host the Dons on Sunday in both clubs’ first competitive game of the 2022-23 season, while both are also in the midst of summer rebuilds.
Peterhead are in desperate need of bolstering their squad, after 13 players departed the club at the end of last season – however, they’ve only signed seven players so far.
The Dons also have six new faces in their ranks, as Jim Goodwin looks to improve on last season’s disappointment of finishing 10th in the Premiership.
Despite having a depleted squad, Brown says League One Peterhead can still give a good account of themselves against a new-look Aberdeen side, who will be expected to win.
He said: “There’s no way Aberdeen should even be in the cup at this stage.
“They’ve had a bad season last year and they’re in a similar position to ourselves with a complete player rebuild.
“They have had a big turnover in players and we’ve lost big players as well.
“We need to stick together and use the experienced ones in our group to go and get the younger ones through, and hopefully it’ll be a start that we can build on.
“There will be no pressure on us, but we’ll put pressure on ourselves. We want to give a good showing and don’t want to turnover for them.”
Despite the Blue Toon’s player conundrum – with boss Jim McInally describing their current squad numbers as “embarrassing” – Brown is still hopeful of their chances against the Dons.
While the midfielder admits they’re lacking numbers, he says Peterhead will go into the game confident they can put in a good performance.
Brown, a product of Aberdeen’s youth academy, added: “I think it’s evident we’re short on bodies, but we have got enough quality there and have a good core squad.
“We’re going to be playing against a full-time team – and we’ve done that plenty of times in the past. There’s four or five of them in our league this year so we’re not too unfamiliar with that.
“We know the quality that Aberdeen will have, but within ourselves, we need to be confident with the group that we’ve got.”
An occasion in front of a packed Balmoor
The televised league cup clash is the first competitive game between the two sides since 1923, and is expected to attract a sell-out crowd at Balmoor.
All seated tickets have already sold out, as well as the away section for Aberdeen fans.
Brown added: “There will be a big crowd here. I’ve played in the games up here before – albeit not competitively – but we always love to play Aberdeen.
“It’ll be a fixture that’s great for ourselves to go and see where we are and what Aberdeen can bring.
TICKET UPDATE: Under 500 standing tickets left ⬇️https://t.co/J6zOH4P6YN pic.twitter.com/kapfZtEShi
— Peterhead FC (@pfcofficial) June 30, 2022
“It’s great for the club to draw that and we have to put on a good showing – that’s first and foremost.
“Because it’s on TV you want to put on a good show and we did that last year against Dundee (Scottish Cup fifth round loss at Balmoor) – albeit not the result – but we need to be right at it, we know that.
“They’re going to come back from a pre-season camp fit as anything and we’re doing the most we can do at the moment.
“We need to push ourselves – we know what’s coming up.”
