North-east Welfare side Peterhead United are set to take on all-comers with a cancer-bashing seven games in seven days challenge.
The club, who are part of the North East Scotland Football Association, are going to push their pre-season preparations to the limit ahead of their Newline Building Supplies League 2 campaign starting in April.
They will play a friendly every day between Monday February 28 and Sunday March 6 – against the likes of League One Peterhead, Highland League leaders Fraserburgh and crack women’s outfit Buchan Ladies.
The idea for the test of endurance came about after an anonymous local businessman sponsored the Heed’s new away kits, but, instead of a company name, he asked for a cancer charity’s logo to be used on the strips.
As part of the agreement, the Welfare outfit have decided to go big to raise funds for the body whose logo they ended up using – Aberdeen-based CLAN Cancer Support.
Graeme Arthur from Peterhead United said: “The Monday game is against Maud Juniors and we picked them because my son plays for them.
“Then it’s Buchanhaven Hearts, the local Peterhead Junior team on the Tuesday.
“Wednesday night is against Buchan Ladies. I actually run the ladies’ team as well, they wanted to be involved, so that wasn’t a problem.
“Thursday is Fraserburgh.
“Friday and Saturday will be the teams in our league, and then Sunday will be Peterhead.
“We might have 10 in the defence in that one!”
Getting sides of all levels involved to take his team was straightforward, Graeme says, with the football community quick to back Peterhead United’s charity effort.
He added: “With Fraserburgh FC, I spoke to their manager Mark Cowie and he was keen to get a game. That will be mix between their first-team players and some of the under-18s at the Faithlie grass pitch.
“The only one we were waiting to get confirmed was Peterhead FC.
“They’ve got (League One rivals) Cove (Rangers) on the Saturday away, but I spoke to Jim McInally, who I know pretty well, and he was pretty keen to do it as well.
“It’s looking like we’ll use Buchanhaven Hearts’ pitch for that one.”
Graeme is confident he has enough squad depth at his disposal and his recreational players will be fit enough, come the end of the month, to last the pace with powerhouses like Peterhead and Fraserburgh.
He said: “I’ve said to the boys we won’t be going out full pelt.
“We’ll be using it as pre-season friendlies for ourselves as well and, with the amount of guys we’ve got, we should manage to work it so boys who play on the Monday are rested on the Tuesday.
“We should be able to cover it so everyone gets a game throughout the whole week.
“It will be difficult, but fingers-crossed we’ll get through it and raise a lot of money as well.
“We’re training twice a week just now, and by the time it comes around we’ll have had two months of it.
“The guys are keeping themselves fit – and hopefully we can get some wins from it as well!”
Peterhead United are looking for businesses who are interested in sponsoring their seven games in seven days effort to raise cash for cancer support.
Donations can also be made via peterheadunited@outlook.com on Paypal, where the club are keeping a running total of funds raised.
