Raith Rovers manager Grant Murray believes the best way to get over their Ibrox beating is to put three points on the board at Alloa’s expense this weekend.
The Kirkcaldy club travelled west with high hopes of taking something from Rangers on Saturday, but their trip to Govan ended up being a galling experience for all concerned as the hosts ran riot.
The 6-1 scoreline will not be forgotten in a hurry, although Murray insists there is little point in dwelling on a seriously bad day at the office when there are several important fixtures coming up.
“It definitely hurt all round,” he stressed. “As a group of players, as a club, the supporters, everyone would have been going through there would have been looking forward to it.
“When the fixtures came out, players would have looked at going to Ibrox, Tynecastle, Easter Road as massive occasions.
“The fans would have, the club would have, and I certainly did. So to come away with a 6-1 defeat is definitely disappointing and it was a sore one to take.
“But I think we’ve got to bounce back, we’ve got to be positive about it and we’ve got to learn from it.
“Ibrox is a difficult place to go when you go behind in games, especially so early, but we’ve got to move on.
“I think the players have got use it as motivation, especially going into this Saturday’s game against Alloa.
“We’re at home and we want to get the crowd behind us because they’ll be disappointed with last week’s result especially the fans who travelled through last Saturday.
“I think the players have got to focus totally on Saturday now – they’ve trained great all week because they realise that Saturday was a disappointment and one that we can’t afford to have.”
Although the DVD of last weekend’s game might go down in the video nasty category, Murray took heart from the way his side started the fixture at Ibrox albeit he was left to lament some poor defending in the end.
“We were competing reasonably well early on but we still went behind in the game which is difficult at these places,” he noted.
“It was one of those games where, in the first half after watching it back, it was a bit end to end to be honest.
“Grant Anderson gets in behind them on numerous occasions, Jimmy Scott does on numerous occasions, Ryan Conroy is unlucky with a free-kick, and obviously they’ve had a couple of chances as well.
“I thought we had a lot of the ball first half, if I’m honest, but that doesn’t win you games. Scoring goals wins you games.”
Ahead of the Alloa clash, Rovers will definitely be without striker Christian Nade who is now facing a race against time to be fit to face his old club Hearts on November 8 due to a niggling ankle injury.
“At the time we didn’t think it was as bad as it was, the swelling went down, but I think he’s possibly nicked a ligament a wee bit,” Murray explained.
“As soon as that heals, I think you get a better idea of the timescale involved but he’s definitely not available for Saturday.
“We’ve got a couple of big games coming up, they are all big games, so he’ll be wanting to get back as quick as he can. But he’s got to be right.”
Kevin Cuthbert and Craig Barr remain out long term, although Dougie Hill should be available for selection after resuming training this week.
The defender, who is on the comeback trail following surgery on a groin problem, felt a twinge during the warm-up at Ibrox but has completed light sessions so far this week.
And there is also good news concerning striker Calum Elliot, who is due to resume training today despite a foot injury.
He is unlikely to be ready for Saturday’s game against Alloa, however.