The wait for a first clean sheet of the season goes on for Peterhead goalkeeper Graeme Smith.
The former St Johnstone player helped his club mount a terrific run in the second half of last season by marshalling the best defence in the old Third Division.
Smith was in goal as the Blue Toon recorded an impressive tally of nine clean sheets in their last 12 games of the campaign. But life has been anything but plain sailing for Smith in revamped League 2 as his side have conceded a goal in all six of their league matches so far.
Smith knows his team has work to do but knows the strain is beginning to show at the club.
He said: “We know we have goals in the team but we are having to score two or three every week to win matches. That can’t go on.
“We put together a great run last season with clean sheets and we know the standard we are capable of defensively.
“Personally, I would take losing four goals a game as long as we score five, but that’s not going to happen.”
The Blue Toon let an early lead slip as they lost 2-1 at Montrose last week and Smith knows there has to be an improvement at Albion Rovers today.
He said: “Our aim is to win the league title and we don’t care how we do it although obviously I would prefer not to be conceding goals.
“The annoying thing is that our opponents haven’t been made to work hard enough for their goals.
“Most have come from our sloppy mistakes and we need to sort that out. It’s the same defence as last season apart from Ross Smith, who left in the summer, but everyone who did so well last season is here.
“We finished last season having conceded less than Rangers, who won the division, so that tells you how well we did.
“We were still getting results without playing well until last week and we know we need to tighten up as a team so that on the days when we’re not firing on all cylinders, we are still picking up points.”