Defender Ryan Strachan believes the best has yet to come from Peterhead as they adapt to playing in League 1.
The League 2 champions have made a solid start to the campaign by winning three and drawing two of their opening eight matches.
The Blue Toon are two points off the play-offs, with a game in hand on their rivals, and Strachan believes his side is showing signs of getting to grips with the demands on League 1.
He said: “Our performance in the 2-0 win against Ayr in our last game was our best of the season and shows we are getting to grips with this division now.
“The players all work their socks off here, but we’ve known we are capable of playing better and hopefully we can show that in the coming weeks.
“It has been a decent start against a lot of new teams as we feel we haven’t played anywhere near the standard we are capable of. If we can produce consistently I’m sure it can be a good season for us.”
Strachan believes League 1 is proving every bit as competitive as League 2 was for the Balmoor outfit, who host Airdrie today.
Peterhead had to cope with the favourites’ tag last season and, while the focus is not on the club in this campaign, the defender can see similarities between the divisions.
The big difference, however, has been suspensions and injuries, which have hit hard at Balmoor.
Several players are missing for today’s game and Strachan said: “It’s really competitive and there’s only a few points between the promotion play-offs and the relegation play-offs.
“I don’t see any teams pulling away at the top or being cut adrift at the bottom and there are four or five teams of the same level as us. Those who can produce that little bit of extra quality are the teams who will do well.
“Everyone expects Dunfermline to run away with it, but we were not impressed by them when they played us and the fact we had three players sent off in the game was the major factor in us losing there.
“We’re just trying to keep ourselves in the hunt but it’s not easy when so many players are unavailable. We’ve got a lot missing but we managed more than 11 at training on Wednesday and morale in the squad is good.”