Stirling Albion will have a big say in whether February is a month to savour for Raith Rovers, as the Stark’s Park side come up against Jocky Scott’s men twice in the next three weeks.
The first encounter takes place at the Forthbank Stadium this afternoon and Rovers are determined to take advantage of being the only promotion contender in league action.
Manager John McGlynn said, “This is a great opportunity for us to create a five-point gap over Dunfermline and a 10-point gap on Falkirk. That’s our goal. The good thing for me is that if we get this game played we’ve only got two more rescheduled games against Dundee and Cowdenbeath.”
Postponements have conspired to make Raith the first opponents for Stirling since Scott took over, and McGlynn acknowledged that this alone makes their task even harder.
He said, “It’s not ideal that it’s panned out that we’ll be there for Jocky’s first match. We’d have preferred that he had got a couple of games under his belt.
“They would have been fighting for their lives anyway but now they will also be trying to impress Jocky.”
Add the fact that Stirling have already beaten Raith at Stark’s Park this season and there’s every reason for the leaders not to take the second-bottom side lightly.
McGlynn said, “Back in October they got a penalty in the first half and scored deep into stoppage time in the second half.
“It was our first defeat after a really good run. I would hope that if we create the same number of chances tomorrow that we did that day we would go on and win the game.”
Raith have only taken one point from their last two matches but McGlynn is anything but dispirited.Confidence highHe said, “We were extremely unlucky in both those matches (a draw with Morton and a defeat to Falkirk), so there’s no need to panic.
“We played really well. Results are the most important thing but our confidence is still high because we have been great.
“I would have been much more worried if we’d performed badly and had the same results.”
He added, “Obviously, we’d like to get back to winning ways at Stirling, though. We’ll be very positive and if we’re at our best I would hope that will be good enough to win the game and we can kick on from there.”
Gary Wales is out, but McGlynn has no other fresh injury worries.
Scott hopes that it will be third time lucky and that he will finally get to see his men in action after two postponements in a row.
He said, “The guys have done well in training and bounce games but the best way to judge them is to see how they do in competitive games. This will be a tough match as Raith Rovers are leading the table on merit but we will go out there and do our best.
“It will be great to finally be back in the dugout again as I have missed it over the past 11 months since I left Dundee.”
Defender Scott Buist and midfielder Stephen Stirling are both banned for Stirling with defenders Ross Forsyth and Martyn Corrigan missing out through injury.