Peterhead are aiming to reach the second tier of Scottish football for the first time, just a season after being promoted as League 2 champions.
Jim McInally’s side are in action at Brechin City tonight then face leaders Stranraer on Saturday in two key games in their season.
Here are 10 things you might not know about the Balmoor side:
1 Peterhead are known as the Blue Toon after the distinctive blue clothing once worn by the town’s fishing population. The socks bore a special set pattern and were hand-knitted using coarse blue wool, with the pattern being unique.
2 In 1923/24 the Blue Toon drew Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup and a protest by their players over switching the game to Pittodrie saw them field a weakened team. The Dons won 13-0 and that remains Peterhead’s worst ever defeat.
3 Willie Miller, who was to star in Aberdeen’s defence for almost 20 years and gained 65 caps for Scotland, scored 24 times as a striker for Peterhead in 1970/71. Miller’s goals helped Peterhead win the Aberdeenshire Cup that season.
4 The club’s Balmoor ground was opened in 1997 after their previous home of Recreation Park was bought by supermarket chain Safeway. Having such a new ground helped Peterhead when they applied for senior football status.
5 Former Scotland midfielder Ian Wilson had three spells as manager of Peterhead. His first ended in 1994 when he left to join Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan as a coach alongside his former Leicester City manager Gordon Milne. He returned in 1995, only to leave the following year to join Milne at Turkish side Besiktas. He had his final stint from 2000-2003.
6 Peterhead won the Highland League on five occasions, with their most recent success being in 1998/99, just ahead of joining the Scottish Football League in 2000.
7 Joe Harper, Dave Smith, George Adams, Iain Stewart, Steve Paterson, Neale Cooper and John Sheran were among the managers of Peterhead before current boss Jim McInally took charge in October 2011.
8 The record attendance at Balmoor is 4,855, which came against Rangers in a Division Three game on January 20, 2013.
9 Last season’s League 2 title was the club’s first senior honour but they had secured promotion before when they finished runners-up to Gretna in the Third Division of 2004/05.
10 The nearest railway station to Balmoor is in Aberdeen, which is some 32 miles away and makes the ground the furthest away from a train station in the UK.
Craig Stewart
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