East Fife’s players know how much three points from today’s trip to Stranraer could mean to their season.
That’s the view of defender Steven Campbell, who was part of the side that struggled for much of the last campaign yet managed to stay in the former Second Division via the play-offs.
Victories were hard to come by for the Fifers last season and they found themselves embroiled in a fierce battle with Stranraer to avoid the relegation zone last term.
The Stair Park outfit eventually won that particular fight in the end, but East Fife head west today knowing three points will see them steal a march on their hosts in this season’s efforts to escape the drop.
There is still a long way to go, of course, and a victory could haul the Methil men right up the standings, but Campbell does not want to contemplate a defeat that would see the Fifers fall to the foot of the table.
“It’s a massive game and they’re down there with ourselves already,” he said.
“Obviously we need to try and take three points because you don’t want to be down at that end of the table early doors.
“We need to try and get the three points and hopefully pick things up from there. There’s a good team spirit here and we work really hard and we all get on well.
“We just need to start taking it on to the park, which I’m sure we’ll do.”
Fresh from a coaching spell in the United States, Campbell returned to action against Forfar last weekend and was disappointed to end up on the losing side.
He added: “We looked at our team and we thought we could beat them. We’ve got the players to do it, but we just never performed, unfortunately.”
East Fife boss Willie Aitchison was disappointed to see his team’s efforts in training last week fail to translate into points and he will be hoping for better this afternoon.
“We’ve worked even harder this week and that’s all we can do,” he said.
“Everybody can beat everybody in this league, but we realise that ourselves and Stranraer are bringing up the rear and points are starting to be at a premium.
“But we also know that a win against them puts us right back in the middle of the table.”
Aitchison will have a full squad to choose from for the trip to Stair Park.