Peterhead hit the road this weekend as they travel to Broadwood to face Hamilton Academical in William Hill League One action.
John Rankin’s men will be eager to get back to winning ways after a draw and a defeat in their last two outings. The Accies have also been hit with a six-point penalty deduction, which has seen them drop to seventh in the table.
The Blue Toon, meanwhile, will be looking to continue their improving away form. After a difficult spell on the road earlier in the season, Peterhead have now recorded back-to-back away victories – a run that has lifted them into the playoff places.
They’ll also be out for a bit of revenge after the sides’ last meeting at Balmoor, when a late McKinstry equaliser snatched a point for Hamilton in a frustrating 2–2 draw.
From Ryan Strachan: “It’s been a really positive week on a number of fronts for us. Firstly sitting on a win against your local rivals with no midweek game allowing the players to soak in that extra bit of confidence really helps us at the moment as we’ve been a bit short on numbers so it’s important the minds are in a good place, which they are. We weren’t at our best last week, far from it however the team showed the second side of them and that’s fighting, grinding and ultimately finding solutions.
On the injury front we’ve also seen really good progress this week with a number of players participating in the full weeks training schedule. Andy McCarthy, Adam Carnwath, David Wilson and Pete Pawlett all fully trained. The latter still being non- contact for the next 7-10 days but is getting ever closer to a return.
This weeks opposition albeit having a turbulent season off the park are still very much a formidable team on it and will still be expecting promotion. We’ve done a lot of homework on Hamilton and know this one will be a big test for the players. They like to keep possession, are aggressive in attack and don’t leak many goals at all so we know we’ve our hands full. It will be a great test to see how far this team has came in the last 6 months but for us it’s about showing that consistency week in week out that the technicality and physical elements of this league demand. Each week is unforgiving – if you’re not at it entirely then you are punished.
Team news – it’s very likely, barring any late reports on reactions to players, that we have a pretty full card to chose from apart from Pete Pawlett and Cieran Dunne.
We hope our supporters are as energetic as they were last week and look forward to seeing them as always”.
