AS Peebles Rovers gear up for the return to Whitestone Park this weekend, veteran striker Alan McMath believes it’s now time to start building momentum.

Manager Ger Rossi is likely to have a full squad for Saturday’s game against Tweedmouth Rangers, with the clash set to be Rovers’ first home game since the end of October.

It’ll be a crucial match in what has become a worrying slide in form for the Rovers, as the team have recorded three consecutive seven-nil defeats.

The fixture list, admittedly, has provided stern tests for Peebles – with games against high-flying Lothian and Kelty proving to be significant challenges.

McMath, the Rovers’ top-scorer this season, admits that whilst the defeats have been stinging – they might provide the young players at Peebles with valuable experience.

Speaking to the Peeblesshire News, he said: “I almost think this kind of run will be beneficial to some of the younger guys in the squad in the long-term.

“Playing against teams that are such high-quality, and taking these kind of tankings, should provide a learning curve for the guys who have never really experienced that in their careers.

“It’s up to us learn from these matches and to listen to what the guys on the side-line are saying. We then need to put that into practice and progress from that without slipping into the same old rut.

“We’re certainly looking forward to getting these games out of the way and just focus on the weekend.

“I think the important thing on Saturday is that we get a few goals – just to get squad morale back up to where it should be.

“Not even necessarily the Tweedmouth game, just the next few games coming up. We need to give ourselves a better image to the rest of the league again.

“We don’t want others to view ourselves as a team struggling at the bottom – we’ll need to see how it goes from here on out: starting against Tweedmouth on Saturday.”

Rovers have already crossed swords with Tweedmouth in Berwick this season: with Colin Smith, David Lindsay and McMath himself, all getting on the scoresheet in a 3-2 win back in September.

McMath knows that Rangers will provide a tough test, and admits that any hope of a win will depend on what Rovers team turns up on Saturday.

He said: “If the first game against them is anything to go by, they’ll certainly give us a stern challenge. At the end of the day it’s all up to the players. In theory, if we go out and play well – we’ll be confident at getting three points.

“But playing well is obviously something we’re not doing at the moment, we tend to take our foot off the gas far too easily. We need to win this, but it all depends on what Peebles Rovers team turns up.”