Raith Rovers boss Grant Murray believes home advantage will boost his side’s chances of booking a place in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup as they host Airdrie United in tonight’s third round replay.
An injury-time equaliser by Greig Spence earned the Kirkcaldy side another crack at the Diamonds thanks to a 2-2 draw 10 days ago, and Murray is confident his players can finish the job when the two teams meet again at Stark’s Park.
With a home tie against Highland League side Deveronvale on the cards in the fourth round, Murray knows a victory this evening would make Raith overwhelming favourites to secure a fifth round spot on December 1.
He said: ”I don’t underestimate how hard a task it is for us to win through and the players don’t either, as it took an injury time goal for us to earn this replay.
”We will take confidence from the Falkirk game at the weekend but we need to be ready from the first whistle.
”We are at home now and have to make that advantage count in our favour.
”We had a great adventure three seasons ago when we reached the Scottish Cup semi-finals and it would be terrific to do the same this season but we can only do that if we take care of Airdrie.”
Murray was delighted with the way his players came from behind to beat Falkirk 2-1 in the league on Saturday, although they have had little time to recover before having to refocus on tonight’s cup tie.
”It was a very difficult game and we always knew it was going to be a difficult game,” he said.
”Falkirk deserved to be ahead and I thought they were the better team first half, but we got ourselves together and looked strong as we have done at home most games this season.
”It was a great performance from the whole team.
”We found it hard first half and we had to weather the storm a bit, but we came out the second half with a bit more self-belief about us. We want to make it difficult for sides to play at Stark’s Park and we’ve done that, so all credit to the boys.”
Rovers will be without striker Brian Graham, who is serving the second match of his two-game suspension following his sending off in the first tie, while on-loan Hearts winger David Smith is away on Scotland under-21 duty. Goalkeeper David McGurn, who was forced to sit out Saturday’s win with a rib injury, could return, however.
Meanwhile, the Diamonds will add Michael Hart and Jamie Bain to their squad. Cameron MacDonald and Sean Lynch are expected to miss out, while top goalscorer John Boyle is facing a late fitness test.