Strathspey Thistle manager Brian Grant has challenged on-loan forward James Fraser to stake a strong claim for more regular action with parent club Buckie Thistle.
Fraser joined the Grantown side on loan from the Jags this month and marked his debut with a double in Saturday’s 4-3 home defeat by Brora Rangers.
The 26-year-old will remain at Strathspey until the end of January and Grant has backed the attacker to catch Buckie manager Graeme Stewart’s eye during his time at Seafield Park.
Fraser is set to play again when the Jags host Fraserburgh tonight and Grant said: “The way James plays, he’s a handful and a very busy little player. He’s always chasing things down but he’s also good on the ball.
“He’s a tremendous catch for us just now. The gauntlet has been thrown down to him to prove he should be in the Buckie side.
“If Graeme Stewart sees him banging in the goals it will put pressure on him to give him a chance, although Graeme has a fantastic squad at Buckie.”
Fraserburgh ended a run of six game without a victory with a 3-2 win against Fort William on Saturday and assistant manager James Duthie aims to build on it.
Duthie said: “We’ve probably played better than we did on Saturday and not won games recently but we were glad to get it out of the way.
“It would be good if we could get a bit of momentum. From being in a decent position five or six games ago, when we were reasonably close to the top four, that’s slipped away from us now.
“We’ve always found it tough at Strathspey.”
The Broch are without Dean Cowie (knee), Ryan Christie (back) and Gary Harris (ankle).