Peterhead’s Boyle gets tough on recovery road

Paddy Boyle believes Peterhead being out of action this weekend can benefit him.

The left-back has started the Blue Toon’s last two games, the 3-1 win over Annan Athletic and Saturday’s 3-0 victory at home to Elgin City.

Prior to that he made his debut for the Buchan outfit as a sub in a 1-0 win against Berwick Rangers on September 22.

Boyle had endured a frustrating start to his time at Balmoor after suffering a nerve injury in pre-season.

He is pleased to have overcome the injury and will have this weekend off as Peterhead don’t have a game due to the third round of the Irn-Bru Cup taking place.

Boyle is expected to feature tonight in a bounce game that Blue Toon boss Jim McInally has organised against Forfar.

The 31-year-old believes having the weekend off will help him when they face Kelty Hearts in the Scottish Cup a week on Saturday because he will be closer to being fully match fit after having three or four training sessions and tonight’s bounce game. Boyle said: “I’m starting to feel good.

“I had my first 90 minutes against Annan a week past Saturday and I was knackered with 30 minutes to go.

“But the gaffer kept me on in that game which has probably done me good in the long run.

“On Saturday against Elgin I was a wee bit tired towards the end, but I’ll feel stronger for it so it’s good I’m getting there.

“You want to keep playing competitive games.

“But the weekend off might do someone like myself good because I can do tough training sessions and play the bounce game and have longer to recover.

“It means I can do potentially four tough sessions instead of just one or two in a normal week.

“So this might work out better for myself.”

After the first quarter of League Two fixtures Peterhead are second in the table with 22 points, two adrift of leaders Edinburgh City.

Boyle added: “It’s an excellent haul for the first nine games and if you’d offered us that we’d have taken it.

“We’re not top of the league, but it just shows there are other good teams in this league.

“We have to maintain this level and if we can do that we should be good.

“I think we have set a standard for going forward.

“We’ve got everyone fit now and we’ve got competition for places so it does raise everyone’s games.

“The Elgin game was probably the first time in a few weeks that we’ve hit the levels that are expected.”