Partick Thistle are due to visit Stark's Park, and with the pitch completely clear of snow and beginning to soften as we went to press, manager John McGlynn was optimistic over the game's chances of going ahead.

Rovers have been without a match since December 15, but opponents Partick have played through the big freeze, courtesy of Firhill's undersoil heating.

McGlynn expects this to give the Jags, currently third in the First Division, an edge over his men, whose last league win came against Ian McCall's side in October.

"There's no doubt it's advantage to Partick Thistle," he said. "That's the benefit of having an undersoil heated park.

"They've managed to keep their players match fit — we've not. We can't complain about the amount of training we've done, but there's no substitute for games.

"The past month has been as good as a close season, and you wouldn't start the season without playing any games when you're opponents have. We'll just have to roll our sleeves up and get on with it."

Should the match go ahead, with three home games due to take place within the next week, a heavy pitch could be turned into a quagmire.

"The snow and ice has turned into water, so the park will be heavy," McGlynn advised. "It will cut up badly on Saturday, then it's straight into a Scottish Cup tie on Tuesday. We'll probably be left with a mud heap at the end of that."

Rovers have managed to maintain full-time training thanks to the use of Hearts academy, but the part-time players have been forced to do their own training.

"We've not had our full squad together this year," McGlynn explained. "We've had no facility to train in on our usual nights so our part-time guys have suffered.

"The rest of the squad have trained consistently, but we're still talking about seven members of our squad.

"The goalkeepers and Mark Ferry trained at Heriot Watt University last week, and some of the guys are just going to the gym tonight (Tuesday). It's very frustrating position for a manager to be in."

Raith could be without Iain Davidson and Stephen Simmons, who both missed training this week, while Dougie Hill is suspended. Davidson has severe bruising on his foot, while Simmons is suffering from a cold.

The January transfer window opened last week, but McGlynn stressed that is unlikely to result in any comings or goings at Stark's Park.

"We don't have any money to pursue anything so unless a fairy godmother grants us three wishes we won't be signing anyone," he said.

"I'm not trying to put players out the door, but if someone wants to leave that's different. Nobody has asked to leave, so I'm not expecting anything to happen."

The Scottish Cup draw has offered Rovers a money-spinning home tie against Aberdeen in the fifth round should they progress.

McGlynn watched the Dons take on St Mirren on in midweek, but stressed that he is not over-looking the threat posed by his fourth round opponents on Tuesday.

"I took the opportunity to watch Aberdeen, and that's simply being professional," he stressed. "That doesn't say for one minute that we're taking anything for granted.

"We have to take care of Airdrie first, and that will be a very tough game. They out-played us at Stark's Park in our last match, and have beat the league leaders away from home since.

"We'll assess the performance against Partick and then pick a team that we believe can get us through to a Scottish Cup tie against a top SPL side. It would be a huge match for the club financially."