Winning the League 2 title against Queen’s Park tomorrow would be the biggest achievement of Jack Leitch’s career.
It has come down to the final day for Peterhead to seal the championship and promotion back to the third tier, an opportunity Leitch does not want to miss.
The Blue Toon missed out last season as they were defeated in the play-off final by Stenhousemuir, who could swap places with Peterhead this weekend as they sit bottom of League 1.
Jim McInally’s side missed the chance to win the title a week ago in agonising fashion, as Peter MacDonald’s last-minute goal snatched a point for Stirling Albion at Balmoor.
Leitch, who scored Peterhead’s goal last weekend, is eager to seal his first bit of silverware at Hampden Park this afternoon.
He said: “It would be massive to win it and the biggest achievement of my career. I’ve never had the privilege of winning anything and it would be great, at 23, to have that feeling.
“I made my debut for Airdrie at Hampden and I went to Motherwell’s Scottish Cup final against Celtic, which wasn’t the greatest of memories. But what a stage to go out and play.
“We were so close, 30 seconds away from it, but you can’t afford to have hangovers in football.
“We’ve got a very important game and it’s still in our hands.”
Leitch reckons the manner of last weekend’s draw against the Binos will make any title success this weekend all the sweeter.
He said: “We were disappointed to concede so late but any win now will see us over the line. We’re still top of the league and in a better position than anyone else. It will be a better feeling should we win it, after the disappointment of last week.”
Peterhead have won two of their last seven games and dropped points against bottom sides Albion Rovers and Berwick Rangers. However, Leitch has rejected any assertions they are feeling the pressure of winning the title.
He added: “We’re not nervous – we’re that close to getting over the line. Teams don’t want you to win the league against them and you saw that with Stirling Albion, who had five strikers on the park against us at the end. It’s always going to be difficult in this league because the teams are so similar.
“We’re still creating chances but it’s just not going in for us. At the start of the season we were battering teams but now it’s the end of the season, if we don’t play well and win 1-0 then no-one will care.”