Jim McInally sympathises with his Peterhead players as they try to find a way out of their current plight.
Peterhead have won just once this season and sit bottom of League One. They have been beset by injuries and poor form and defeats have drained the confidence levels at Balmoor.
McInally has not been able to pick a settled side and the absence of forward options mean the team have not been as much of a goal threat as he would like.
“I’ve got total sympathy for the players,” he said. “It’s so frustrating as the manager, the same for Davie (Nicholls, assistant) and Stuart Hogg.
“Every time we think we’ve turned a wee corner, we get another jolt. We have to keep going, there’s nothing else we can do.
“Once we are where we want to be, we can then judge ourselves a bit better. Once we’ve got our strongest squad in place we can take it from there.
“I have always liked to make sure we look like scoring but playing with one limits your chances of scoring goals. When we get the squad back I would to think playing with two or three up top.
“To be honest, I never hear anything but support for the players (at Balmoor). Nobody likes watching their team lose four goals and I think a lot of people understand the changes that have happened.
“I don’t want to make excuses and I won’t start now. We need to get where we want to be with the squad and we are getting there.”
They face another full-time team this weekend, as they make one of their longest trips of the season to Dumfries to face Queen of the South.
Queens sit seventh in the table, 11 points behind leaders Edinburgh City, after their relegation from the Championship.
“All the full-time teams can’t be successful,” said McInally. “They were good against us up at Peterhead; they scored just before half-time and were too strong for us in the second half.
“It’s a nice stadium for the boys to play in and as Peterhead manager, I’ve never been there.
“We need to be competitive and if they (Queens) do feel any pressure, we need to try cash in on it.”
Andy McCarthy and Paul Dixon will be out, joining Russell McLean, Andy McCarthy, Hamish Ritchie and Ola Adeyemo on the sidelines.
Jack Brown, David Wilson and Danny Strachan have all been nursing knocks but could feature, while Dundee loan pair Jack Wilkie and Ewan Murray will be back in the squad.
