PORT Glasgow hope to start the New Year on a fresh footing on Saturday, and put a disastrous December behind them.

Their season was going along nicely until then, with the club very much in the top half of the Central League Second Division and doing well in the Scottish Cup.

But three back-to-back defeats in the league this month has seen that progress come to a shuddering halt.

However with half of the season — 10 league games — still remaining, they are far from out of the promotion hunt, and of course have the mouth-watering prospect of a home Scottish Cup tie against Auchinleck Talbot on 17 January.

So manager Craig Brown, pictured, remains upbeat, but admits his side need to get back to winning ways very soon.

He said: “Up until a few weeks ago I was pleased with how our season was going. But December was a terrible month for us, and we need to start picking up the points again and get moving back up the league table.

“Perthshire would be a good place to start, as although they are five points ahead of us we have three games in hand, so a win would see us really make up some ground on them.’’ The Glasgow club have had a strange season, with some spectacular victories, but also some unexpected defeats.

But unfortunately for the Port, one of those stunning wins was against them, with Perthshire runaway 6-1 victors when the sides met at Parklea in September.

Eddie Walton and keeper Robbie Graham were both sent off in a match the Port won’t want to remember.

Walton won’t get the chance to erase the memory this Saturday, as he remains sidelined through injury.

Mark Bowie is also out, as is Paul Gordon, who is away for a New Year break.

But Ross Kearns, who would have missed last week’s game at Newmains had it gone ahead, has what manager Brown describes as ‘an outside chance’ of recovering from a shoulder injury in time to feature on Saturday.

Perthshire go into the game with the benefit of having played last weekend, when a narrow 2-1 home win over Royal Albert consolidated their third place in the league table.

It was one of only three games out of 12 in the lower leagues to go ahead, so hopes are high that whatever the weather throws up, the Port will get their first action of 2015, and hopefully a return to their early season form.

Kick-off at Keppoch Park, Possil, is at 1.45pm.

Port Glasgow Juniors are sponsored by Regents Vehicle Sales, Greenock, and MAC HSL Ltd.