Scott Brown isn’t motivated as much by winning as he is by the fear of failing.
That may come across as overly negative but the Raith Rovers captain doesn’t mean to sound all doom and gloom.
That is far from what he has experienced in his maiden season at Stark’s Park after Ian Murray made him one of Raith’s first summer signings.
Brown came through last weekend’s 6-1 victory over Cove Rangers after recovering from injury and will lead his side out to defend their SPFL Trust Trophy crown.
Hamilton stand in the way of Rovers and a second successive Challenge Cup – a third if you include the shared trophy with Inverness.
Bearer of bad news
Brown is hoping to be part of another success in the competition for the Kirkcaldy club and will use his own previous cup-final experience as motivation.
The box-to-box midfielder just missed out on being part of Tommy Wright’s Scottish Cup-winning squad in 2014.
“I was on the bench for the semi-final and then in the final, I was the 19th man,” recalled Brown.
“I wouldn’t say I knew it was coming but I’d played the week before against Celtic and I scored and we drew 3-3.
“I was thinking it was maybe enough, I knew I wasn’t going to play, but to get me on the bench.
“I left breakfast in the morning and I could feel the manager behind me. I knew what it was going to be. He did it in the best possible way.
“I was really disappointed but it’s kind of weird being there but not involved on a cup final day. You’re happy for the boys but you really want to be a part of it.
“It’s stuff like that that inspires you to go out there on Sunday and hopefully we’ll lift the trophy.”
Negative motivation
Brown said the atmosphere around Stark’s Park has been “buzzing”, even if he feels the week is dragging a little.
Weeks like this were one of the motivations for making the move from Peterhead in the summer.
“I spoke before about how much the manager was a big pull for me to come to the club,” added Brown.
“But I’ve heard a lot from the boys this week about how good it was to win the cup. As a new captain, you don’t want to be the one that lost the trophy.
“It’s in my mind as a negative, I don’t know why that is! You want to be a part of something like what the boys achieved last season.
“I don’t know why but my mind always works in a negative way. I’ve always been inspired by not failing as opposed to winning, if that makes sense.
“For some reason my mind seems to work like ‘let’s not be a failure today’.”
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