Jim McInally rates East Fife as the best team Peterhead have played this season – but believes his side are equipped to deal with them today.
The Methil men visit Balmoor sitting third in the League One table and mixing it at the top with full-time sides Raith Rovers, Airdrieonians and Falkirk.
The Blue Toon’s only previous meeting with the Fifers this season was on August 10 when the sides draw 1-1 at New Bayview.
However, McInally admits the Buchan side were very fortunate to leave Fife with a point that day and says that was the best display against them he’s seen this season.
But McInally believes this afternoon’s clash won’t be so one-sided as seventh-placed Peterhead look to climb the table.
He said: “East Fife are the best team we’ve played this season. It’s been a long time since we played them but I still stand by that. That’s how highly I rate them. We drew at Bayview but it was a very lucky draw.
“We didn’t deserve anything from the game and they ran over the top of us at times.
“It’s quite a while since we’ve played them and we’ll need significant improvement from that performance.
“I think we will be better when we play them this time, but East Fife are where they are in the league on merit.
“We’ve been playing OK and we need to keep working hard.
“We need to stop the opposition’s better players from having an impact and I think in possession we’ve been keeping it well and we need to keep doing that.
“It’s a good gauge of where we are because East Fife are the best we’ve played, nobody else has done what they did to us.”
Peterhead aim to return to winning ways today after last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Airdrieonians in Lanarkshire.
McInally has been frustrated that the Blue Toon have failed to find consistency in League One.
Scotland’s longest-serving manager believes being more clinical in attack is something they need to be this afternoon as they look to maintain their good home record.
He added: “Any points are important because every week you look at the team and the results throw up surprises and it’s so tight.
“Every point is precious and it’s a home game and we’ve done well at home and we need to continue that.
“We also need to take our chances. The first thing is that we need to keep creating chances and then hopefully we can take them.”
Despite defeat to Airdrie last time out, McInally was encouraged by some aspects of Peterhead’s performance.
He said: “We’ve suffered some narrow losses, particularly away from home, so we need to keep at it and keep believing and turn some of them into wins or draws.
“There have been some encouraging aspects in the defeats.
“We’ve created chances which is always good and even at Airdrie last week, I didn’t think we deserved any more than a draw.
“But they felt they had got out of jail by winning so for us to give the team that’s second in the league a game like that should be encouraging for us.”