Spartans defender Callum Booth confident better days are ahead

Spartans defender Callum Booth. Picture: Mark Brown.

The Ainslie Park men have hit a bit of a rut and without a victory in League Two since the middle of September.

Just two points from a possible 15 since that 1-0 success over Forfar has seen the Capital men slip down to sixth in the standings - eight points adrift of promotional play-off spots.

The club were also knocked out of the Scottish Cup last weekend following a 2-1 defeat to Lowland League outfit Cowdenbeath.

However, ahead of this afternoon's trip north to face third-placed Peterhead at Balmoor, the former Hibs and St Johnstone defender is adamant better days are just around the corner.

"There's no getting away from the fact we are on a bad run," the 33-year-old told the Evening News. "We can't really put our finger on it to be honest. Some of the games we've not been getting the wins but we've played ok, so it's just one of those things that teams go through. We've got real good quality throughout the squad and I'm very confident we'll turn it around soon. I think it's probably a bit of a surprise to some people given we did so well in getting to the League Cup quarter-finals and had such a good season last year. There's always going to be that expectation. But there's still a long way to go.

"This doesn't even come close to the 10-game losing streak I had at St Johnstone but all players go through spells like this at some point in their careers. But as long as we have that belief and stick together then it will turn. The manager is really good at keeping everyone on the same page. We know the quality is there because it was only a couple of months ago we were putting a Premiership team (Ross County) out of the cup.

"We just need to find that win, get a bit of momentum and that should get us going. If you take last Saturday against Cowdenbeath for example, we created numerous chances, had most of the ball but all we had was a disappointing result to show for it. A couple of months ago that wouldn't have happened.

"The club has been on such an upwards trajectory these last few years and it's the same in any walk of life. There are always going to be bumps on the road."

Booth admits the chance to progress in the cup last week and a potential crack at another top-flight side in the new year was a missed opportunity.

"We've had some really big games so the result was so disappointing," he said. "We've done so well in the cups so we wanted another crack at it. It's so fresh in our minds since we played Hearts at the beginning of the year.

"But we have to dust ourselves down and go again this weekend. We've got a fairly good record up there and we drew 0-0 with them earlier in the season so I'm sure it will be a close game. The pitch is always good so we're looking forward to it. When you're on the run we are you're wanting the games to come fast."