Peterhead midfielder Jordon Brown wants to play his part over the festive period after coming back from a hamstring injury.
The season has been a frustrating one for Brown, who has missed more than two months with a recurring issue that he hopes he has got to the bottom of.
He has made two brief cameo appearances in games against Clyde and Civil Service Strollers but it has felt like a long road back for the former Cove and Aberdeen man.
Peterhead have four games between now and January 2 and Brown is confident he can be a useful figure for manager Jim McInally.
He said: “I’ve managed training the last couple of weeks and we had a bounce game before the Scottish Cup game. I came on a couple of times and I’ve built it up – I’m just trying to build it up.
“It’s been nearly three months, so it feels like an eternity. It’s probably the first time, while I’ve been playing part-time, that I’ve had a muscle injury and it’s been frustrating.
“It’s finding that balance between getting fit again and not overdoing it, which I’ve been guilty of in the last wee while.
“It’s happened a couple of times now and because you’re so eager to get back – you’ve only got certain times to get fit, like Tuesday or Thursday night at training or a bounce game. You’ve got everything crossed you get through that.
“I’m looking forward to being back involved and hopefully get back in the team. I want to be affecting games again; we haven’t really got any midweek games apart from the Boxing Day one which has been moved forward (to the 22nd).
“Hopefully I can prove my fitness to the manager and be involved.”
Brown has been doing a significant amount of gym work, as well as following a programme given to him by Peterhead fitness coach Stuart Hogg.
The frustration has been added to when the Blue Toon have struggled for numbers in recent weeks, although the injury issues seem to be abating.
He added: “It’s been frustrating the whole season, to be fair. At the times when we’ve been low on numbers you really want to help and affect games.
“Hopefully the next few weeks will be busy for us and it’ll be a good period. Then we can go into the new year full of confidence.”