Peterhead captain David McCracken believes keeping a calm head is key to his club prevailing in the League 2 title race.
The Blue Toon regained top spot in the division last weekend following a 1-0 win against Annan but with his side having five games remaining while rivals Montrose have six, there is no margin for error for Jim McInally’s side.
Central defender McCracken has been over the course before and he is using all his experience to ensure his younger team-mates go the distance.
He said: “I’ve been involved in promotion races with a few clubs in my career and the most important thing is to focus on ourselves and our performances.
“We cannot allow ourselves to become wrapped up in what is happening in other games and it can affect the performances of some players.
“Taking our eye off the ball in any game now could be fatal for our hopes of winning the league which is why we’re taking it one game at a time.
“We’ve only got five games to play and there’s plenty points to be won and lost so we’ll see what happens.
“Montrose have the key game in hand but they know they’ve still got to go and make it count themselves. We can’t control that but we can make their need to win as important as possible by ensuring we win our games.”
The Blue Toon host a Clyde team who beat Montrose 3-0 last weekend to send them back to the top of the division and McCracken knows Danny Lennon’s side will be in confident mood for their trip to Balmoor today.
He said: “Clyde are the team in form in the league at the moment and they’ve pulled off some fantastic results in recent weeks.
“They’ve shown how important building some momentum can be especially at this stage of the season and we’re under no illusions as to how tough a game this will be.
“We’ve got to take care of their threats and that’s not easy as they are a difficult opponent. They play to the final whistle and they’ve got good pace up front.”