Raith Rovers defender Paul Watson has admitted that his side are still harbouring hopes of sneaking into the play-offs ahead of this afternoon’s home game against Hibernian.
The Kirkcaldy club did their slim chances of a top four spot no harm at all in midweek as they swept Queen of the South aside 3-0 at Stark’s Park, a result that moved them to within eight points of the promotion mix.
And with fourth-placed Queens facing a tough assignment at what will be a jubilant Tynecastle today, Watson says Rovers are keen to take advantage of any slip-up when they welcome Edinburgh’s other big club to Fife today.
“The boys still talk about the play-offs and we know that Queen of the South have some hard games coming up,” he explained.
“They are in Edinburgh the next two weeks to play Hearts and Hibs, so if we can get points on the board and hope that other results go in our favour then you never know what can happen.
“I think Hearts will want to celebrate becoming champions in style at home on Saturday so if they could do us a favour that would be great.
“We still need to go out and get the victory against Hibs to take advantage, but we’re capable of doing that.
“I think the last game we played against them at home, we played well against them and I thought we were actually on top second half.
“They got a couple of goals and won it 3-1, but we were well in that game.
“I think we were maybe a bit fortunate to come away with a point in the two games we’ve played at Easter Road, and the second time we hung on a bit, but if we can just stay in the game as long as we can this weekend then you never know what can happen.”
Hibs’ hopes of securing second place in the Championship suffered a setback when they lost 2-0 at home to Rangers last weekend, but Watson isn’t reading too much into that result.
He continued: “It’ll be a big game against Hibs because they’ll be wanting to bounce back from losing to Rangers last week.
“Rangers are a good side and maybe caught Hibs off guard a little bit with the formation they played, I’m not too sure, but that defeat won’t take Hibs out of their stride.
“They’ll be looking to get it out of their system, focus on us and come to Stark’s Park looking to get the win.
“To be honest, I would say Hibs are still favourites for the play-offs because they’ve been more consistent than Rangers this season.
“They’ve had a great season so far and Alan Stubbs has done a great job there so they’ve got to be confident going into the play-offs.”
Rovers head into today’s clash looking to complete a perfect week following wins over Alloa and Queen of the South, and Watson reckons Raith are hitting a good vein of form at the right time.
“We’ve still been doing the same things and focusing on each game as it comes, but maybe the pressure has been off us a little bit in the last few weeks and we’ve been able to play with a bit more freedom to go and enjoy the game,” he said.
“But nothing’s really changed in terms of preparing for games.
“We’re still doing the same things, preparing right and thankfully things have clicked for us recently.”
Rovers striker Christian Nade is available following his two-game suspension, although boss Grant Murray could well be tempted to start once more with Mark Stewart and Lewis Vaughan up front.
Fellow forward Calum Elliot is also available following his knee injury, although midfielder Kevin Moon is still sidelined with a calf knock.