Peterhead midfielder Willie Gibson insists maintaining self-belief will be key to the Blue Toon winning the League 1 title this season.
Jim McInally’s side remain in second place behind leaders Edinburgh City following Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Ainslie Park but as they prepare to face Cowdenbeath at Balmoor today, Gibson believes trusting in the approach which has taken them to within two points of the top of League 2 can pay-off with promotion this season.
The Blue Toon missed out on promotion by one point to Montrose last season and Gibson is preparing for a similarly fraught and tense title contest with Edinburgh in 2019.
He said: “Edinburgh do what good teams do, they battle away. We saw it with Montrose last year and Edinburgh show that same resilience.
“We were disappointed not to win but it wasn’t a defeat either and we’re on a good run at the minute with one defeat in our last 10 league games.
“All we can do is keep the pressure on Edinburgh by winning on Saturday. It’s looking like we’re in for a repeat of last season when everyone said Montrose would fall away but it didn’t happen.
“They were superb and saw it through to the end, and Edinburgh are like them in that they play to their strengths.
“They hit diagonal balls to the big man Blair Henderson and they have pace around him, and it works for them.
“We just need to worry about Cowdenbeath now. We’ve had one defeat in the last 10 games and it’s a decent run so there is no disappointment about where we’re at as a club at this stage of the season.
“We haven’t lost any ground, we just have to maintain what we’re doing and believe it will take us where we want to be which is in League 1 next season.”
Peterhead departed the capital on Tuesday with a feeling of frustration at not taking all three points with former Blue Toon player Allan Smith beating Gibson, who played at left-back, before setting up Henderson for the equaliser in what was the home side’s only shot on target in the second half.
Gibson said: “For most of the game we were on top. Edinburgh played a lot of long balls which is always difficult to play against but we defended well.
“When we got the goal we maybe should have been a bit tighter. We talked it about it afterwards but if you look at Edinburgh’s equaliser I was left one-on-one against Allan on the halfway line and we know from his time here he is quick.
“In hindsight I should have taken him down and taken one for the team but I was on a yellow card and if I had clipped him, knowing he had a long way to go, I could have been sent off.
“It was one of those ones where we’ve done so well and Greg Fleming hasn’t had a save to make yet he has picked the ball out of his net. That’s why it was so frustrating.”