Boss looks to walking wounded as injuries take toll on Peterhead

Peterhead boss Jim McInally insists they are good enough to beat Cowdenbeath, despite an injury crisis.

Strikers Rory McAllister and Russell McLean, midfielders Paul Cairney, Jamie Stevenson, Nicky Riley, Jack Leitch, Jordon Brown and Samson Gabriel, and defenders David McCracken and Mikael Ngango Diboko, are all struggling.

The manager admitted some of them may have to be on the bench or even play through their injuries.

But despite the lack of fully-fit players, McInally is confident the Blue Toon can return from Central Park with three points.

He said: “It is tricky but you just get on with it.

“We do have to try to build on our performance against Montrose last week (a 1-1 draw in a game Peterhead dominated), and whatever side is out there they are good enough to win.

“We’ve won two cups ties against East Fife and Annan with some of the fringe players coming in.

“I’m not somebody who moans about this sort of thing because there will be times when we have everyone fit and other teams have injuries, it’s just what happens.

“We’re good enough to win we just need to make sure we are organised and we tried to do that at training on Wednesday night.

“It’s a young back four so we need to get as much work into them as we can.”

Last week against Montrose the Buchan outfit controlled the game but the Gable Endies scored in stoppage time to salvage a point.

McInally was impressed by the display from his team who are fourth in the league with seven points, five behind leaders Stirling Albion. He has told his playersm if they continue to perform in a similar manner, victories will come.

He added: “The players know wins will come if they play like that. And I said after the Montrose game we will play worse and win.”

However, McInally does not expect an easy game against the Blue Brazil, who sit ninth in the table with four points.

The Peterhead boss believes they have improved greatly from the side who finished bottom of League Two last campaign.

He said: “Cowdenbeath have a really good manager in Billy Brown.

“I really like Billy, he’s one of my old-school favourites.

“He’s a good organiser and, if you look at their results ,they’ve hardly lost a goal.

“It’s going to be tough. They have improved massively from last season and I think a lot of that is down to Billy Brown.

“He’s been around for a good bit so it will be tough for us.

“The top two, Stirling Albion and Montrose, are playing each other and it would be nice for us to get something out of our game, especially with us not having a lot of bodies.”