There has been little home comfort for Raith Rovers’ Craig Wilson since the Kirkcaldy club missed out on promotion to arch rivals Dunfermline last weekend.
The emotions are still raw for the Rovers players and the situation is even worse for Wilson who was born and brought up in Dunfermline and still lives there.
However, he admitted that some of his friends who are dyed-in-the-wool Pars supporters have not gone overboard with the verbal stick as they celebrate their promotion to the SPL simply because they realise just how much a hammer blow he has suffered.
“We are all still hurting and it might take a while to get it fully out of our systems,” said Wilson.
“We were at the top of the league for so long and were never out of the top two.
“It is even harder to take for me as I still live in Dunfermline.
“I have been receiving a bit of stick from some of my pals who are Pars fans but not too much as they know how much Raith Rovers being promoted would have meant to me.
“It is so disappointing that we lost out with just two games to go but we gave it our best shot.
“However, when we look back, we can consider we had a good season.
“The manager has not had the biggest budget or squad to work with and at the start of the campaign, we had targeted fourth in the league as a decent finish.
“So to get so near to going up to the SPL is a special achievement.”PainfulRaith’s failure to take the step up has ensured that there will be painful cuts at Stark’s Park this summer.
The full extent of them will probably not be revealed until next week and that uncertainty prompted manager John McGlynn to admit he would have to assess the mental state of some of his players at training on Thursday night before deciding whether they will feature at Partick today.
Wilson is one whose contract is set to run out but he insisted that if selected he would have no hesitation in pulling on the jersey.
“I have not spoken to the gaffer about a new contract,” he said.
“We know there are going to be cuts but we will get the last game out of the way before thinking too much about the future.
“I will also have to sit down with my agent as I may have to weigh up a couple of options.
“But if I am selected against Partick, I will definitely be giving it my all. I know it is the last game of the season and there is a lot of uncertainty at the moment but I still have a contract to finish and I also have my own professional pride.”
This Saturday’s game may on paper look a typical end-of-season fixture with little at stake but McGlynn insists that his players will be going all out to secure a victory which would cement their place in second above Falkirk, who travel to face champions Dunfermline.
“We have been in the top two all season so it would be really disappointing to drop out on the last day,” he said.
“It is no consolation missing out on promotion but it would be good to look back at the record books and see that Raith had finished as runners-up.”
Jags assistant Simon Donnelly could feature after playing in a reserve game during the week and David Rowson is free of suspension, and should return despite suffering a family bereavement.
Paul Paton, Colin Stevenson, Ryan MacBeth, John Robertson and Bryan Hodge are all on the sidelines through injury and defender Willie Kinniburgh joins them as he serves the ban he received for being sent off against Dundee last weekend.