Peterhead can still claw back the deficit to the teams above them, says assistant manager Davie Nicholls.
Coming to the end of October, Peterhead find themselves 10 points adrift of eighth place and guaranteed safety in League One.
One win all season has left them on just five points from 12 games and the need to get points on the board is apparent.
But Nicholls is not panicking yet and sees enough positives within the squad to start eating into the gap which separates them from the pack.
“You put it to one side,” said Nicholls. “I’m not naïve enough to think we can’t catch the teams above us – the team third-bottom are sitting on 15 points and you’re three wins away from catching them.
“Everybody, at some point, will go on a run.
“We’re having to suffer now because we’ve had a few injuries and suspensions. I’m not going to greet about the high turnover (of players) because these things happen.”
For a number of years Peterhead were able to really on experienced pros like Simon Ferry, Scott Brown, Derek Lyle and Ryan Conroy, who were willing to travel regularly from the central belt.
They all departed this summer among the slew of player exits and the Blue Toon’s recruitment struggles have been well-documented.
“The market is very difficult just now because teams all over the country, be it the Highland League, Lowland League, West of Scotland League, are paying funny money,” said Nicholls.
“It’s hard to compete even with some of these teams, who can offer deals to guys on their doorstep and they’d not be having to travel to Peterhead every week.
“There’s teams out there giving guys jobs – how can you compete with that? At times we’ve been very spoilt, because we had a nucleus of players who loved the football club and were giving up their weekends to travel up and down.”
Peterhead are starting to see the benefits of being able to train together twice a week, too, according to Nicholls.
They did it before the Dunfermline game and got a draw out of it, with manager Jim McInally sourcing a regular spot in Dundee for them to train.
“We’re now training twice a week in Dundee to do our prep for Saturday a bit better,” added Nicholls. “We’ve only got them for an hour-and-a-half on Tuesday and on a Thursday, (before) guys were doing individual training.
“But Jim has managed to get a place to train, through a contact of his. It gives us a chance to work on the shape of team, which is probably the second time since I’ve been at the club that’s happened, when we used to train in Aberdeen.
“It’s impossible at times to get a pitch somewhere. They’re booked season upon season and teams that have perhaps been there 10 or 15 years. They’re not going to give that up.
“We didn’t want the boys travelling up to Aberdeen twice a week then back up to Peterhead on a Saturday, as that’s not conducive to getting the boys as fit as they can.
“Dundee is far enough for both the boys up the road and in the central belt.”
Peterhead hope to have both Andy McCarthy (ankle) and Andy McDonald (shin) back involved for today’s game, with Ryan Strachan (calf) also potentially available.
