Jeanfield Swifts striker Chris McLeish insists Linlithgow Rose can still be caught in the race for East of Scotland League Premier Division honours.
The Perth side, who sit third in the table and nine points back of the leaders, are set to return to competitive football this weekend after a lengthy lay-off not helped by recent postponements.
Swifts travel to 13th-placed Blackburn looking to build on their last outing which was a 7-0 win against Oakley United at the beginning of the month.
“I think, so far this season, the team have done alright,” said McLeish, who used to play for Elgin City.
“It has been a wee bit up and down but hopefully we can get a really good run going and push on up.
“There is definitely time to catch Linlithgow. I’m sure there will be some twists and turns up until the end of the season.”
The lack of competitive action has not been ideal but McLeish, who has 16 goals already this season, is raring to go.
He told the PA: “There’s always a few postponements this time of year, which is expected.
“But we just have to be ready whenever a game is on.
“It was a very good performance and win against Oakley in our last game and something we need to try and carry on to the next match. We want to keep that same standard going.
“Training has been a bit difficult recently but we are told to keep ourselves ticking over if we can get together.
“Blackburn are a sticky side and can be difficult to play against.
“But if we are on it, we’ve got more than enough firepower to hopefully get a win.”
Wintry conditions in recent weeks has made training and preparation work challenging but Swifts assistant Logan McConachie revealed indoor fives and futsal have been proving popular.
He said: “We’ve known pretty early that we’d be out of competitive action for 20 days when Dundonald got given a cup fixture, so we’d been prepping the guys for that.
“I won’t lie though it’s been challenging, with even our all-weather pitch having been either frozen or covered in snow and any pre-arranged friendlies were unfortunately thwarted.
“We’ve been relying on fives or futsal to get the ball rolling, which has been music to the ears of the futsal internationals I’m sure you can imagine.”
McConachie believes Swifts are well-placed to push on and apply pressure in a league that he feels is very competitive this season.
“We’re shaping up for a good season in my eyes,” he said this week.
“I’m a glass half-full kind of guy. Yes, there are some points we could have gained in games we may have won or drawn but we’re still right in amongst the pack for the second half of the season.
“I think the league is as competitive as it’s ever been and I can only see it being a tight finish for the top spot.
“We’ve got a busy January with four teams in the bottom half of the table and a cup fixture against a very good footballing side in Heriot-Watt University.
“We’ll hopefully have a couple of friendlies in amongst there too to get all of the squad back up to full speed.”
