Ian Murray has promised Raith Rovers will ‘give everything’ to land ’the most amazing’ promotion to the Premiership.
The Stark’s Park side are just two games away from a return to the top-flight for the first time in 27 years.
Friday night’s dramatic triumph over Partick Thistle on penalty kicks sparked emotional scenes in a support starved of top-flight football since 1997.
Murray is fully aware of the size of task that now faces his side against a Ross County team that defeated Rangers, Hearts and Hibernian in the last few weeks of a turbulent campaign.
But, with their opponents burdened by the stresses of survival rather than the more welcome pressure of promotion, he believes his players can rise to the challenge.
“It’s an exciting time,” said Murray ahead of the first-leg of their eagerly-anticipated Premiership play-off final on Thursday.
“There’s pressure to get into the Premiership, because you want to be there.
“But the pressure has not come from anyone. The fans have certainly not put myself or the players under pressure, and the board and directors certainly haven’t either.
“We’re ahead of where we thought we would be.
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it. Footballers will always back themselves and I will always back myself and my team.
‘Two games away’
“We’re two games away from the Premiership, which would be the most amazing achievement.
“You don’t get these sorts of things very often in life. We want to try and do it.”
Asked if there was greater pressure on County, he added: “I would say so, because they want to maintain their Premiership status.
“No player wants to be part of a team that gets relegated.
“Look, we’ll give everything we can to make sure that Raith Rovers are playing in the Premiership next season.
“If we’re not, for whatever reason, because anything could happen, then we’ll regroup and refocus and try to go one better.”
County came within seconds of avoiding 11th spot before St Johnstone’s 90th-minute leveller in their basement battle last midweek.
Then, with Saints beating Motherwell, the Staggies could only draw with 10-man Aberdeen in Sunday’s tense finale.
Most predictions were that it would be the Perth side that Raith would be facing this week.
But Murray is confident County will not allow their disappointment to linger against his Championship runners-up.
‘Very harsh on Ross County’
“St Johnstone were the team that was favourite to be in that position [11th] at the start of Sunday,” he added. “But football changes so quickly.
“I think it’s very harsh on Ross County, because they’ve had some fantastic results this season, especially at home.
“To beat Hibs and Rangers and draw with Aberdeen in the space of about a month is pretty impressive.
“They’re pretty rigid in their formation they play but they’re good at it and they execute it really well.
“And they’re pretty impressive in terms of their character this season.
“They were down at the bottom, they changed manager and then changed another manager, and they keep going and keep trying to produce results.
“They probably thought they were safe a couple of times and they’ll have been very dejected and disappointed on Sunday afternoon when they came off the pitch.
“But by Thursday that will be gone.
“Footballers get over things really, really quickly – probably a 24-hour disappointment, maximum.
“They’ll see this as a second chance to stay in the Premiership and certainly by now they’ll be getting ready for business.”
