Sam Morrison reckons Buckie Thistle can’t afford many more slip-ups if they want to challenge for the Breedon Highland League title.
The Jags face Wick Academy at Victoria Park sitting 12 points behind leaders Fraserburgh having played a game less.
Defeats to Rothes, Brora Rangers and Brechin City spoiled Buckie’s good early season form.
But they have won their last four league fixtures and defender Morrison is focused on keeping that going.
The 23-year-old said: “The way the table is at the moment we can’t really afford to slip up if we want to be up there.
“We’ve played all the top six sides already and hopefully we can put together a winning run over the next few weeks.
“There’s never easy games in the Highland League and there’s always twists and turns.
“We just need to about our business in the correct manner and see where it takes us.
“We started the season well and the fixtures were maybe kind to us because we had games we felt were winnable early on.
“But we’ve dropped points at Rothes, Brora and Brechin. They’re all teams around us that we wanted to be taking points from.
“It was also a sore one drawing with Fraserburgh when they equalised late on.
“We back ourselves against anyone in the league.
“We know what we’re capable of and we haven’t quite got the results we feel we’re capable of.
“The manager has said it’s the best squad he’s ever had at Buckie with a lot of good young players mixed with good experienced players.
“The points we’ve dropped have been frustrating, but there’s still a long way to go.”
Scorries looking for change in fortunes
Wick Academy are sitting 15th in the Highland League table having won only once this season.
The Scorries have drawn seven times in 13 league outings and midfielder Gordon MacNab believes they have performed better than results would suggest,
The 27-year-old believes it’s only a matter of time before things improve for Caithness outfit.
MacNab added: “It’s been frustrating so far this season, but we’ll keep pulling together as a team because one day it will click for us.
“Hopefully it happens in this game or sooner rather than later.
“It’s hard to explain why we haven’t had better results because we’ve been playing really good football at times.
“Although in some games we’ve played well for a half and not so good in the other half, but the majority of the time we’ve played well and it’s been a few errors that have cost us.
“Hopefully we can fix them sooner rather than later.
“I think we’ve played better than results suggest and we should have more points on the board.
“But things haven’t gone our way and we haven’t had the luck, but we need to keep working to change that.
“We’ve got a good squad and a good manager and we’ve let the manager down with the results we’ve got.
“We’re capable of beating any team in the Highland League on our day.”
Team news from around the Highland League
Elsewhere Nairn County and Clachnacuddin meet in a local derby at Station Park.
The home side are without Scott Davidson, Liam Shewan, Cohen Ramsay, Callum Maclean, Fraser Dingwall, Calum Howarth and John Treasurer, but Kenny McKenzie is set to return.
For the Lilywhite Ross Logan is the only absentee.
Brechin City have a full squad available for Strathspey Thistle’s visit to Glebe Park. The Grantown Jags are missing Chris Innes with Ashley Ballam a doubt due to concussion.
Connor Grant, Scott Henry, Luke Emmett, Tom Andrews, Przemyslaw Nawrocki, James Brownie, Liam Duncan, Rhys Thomas, Craig Reid and Jordan Robertson are absent for Keith’s Kynoch Park clash with Formartine United.
Meanwhile, the Pitmedden outfit will be without Andrew Greig, who is getting married.