Raith Rovers bid to win last three league games and also seek a helping hand

The Kirkcaldy side are trying to look positively on the mission that faces them – three opportunities left to get into the promotion deciders for a possible step up to the Scottish Premiership.

The first part of the job is at Partick Thistle this Saturday, followed by another away match, at Hamilton, and concluding with a home game against Kilmarnock.

Injury and illness-stricken Rovers were very disappointed to lose last Saturday to Morton but they know it’s still possible to get into the top four.

They are in fifth place in the table, six points behind Ian McCall’s side, and also have the notoriously bad surface at Firhill to overcome if they are to reduce the gap on the Jags.

“We don’t want to make it easy for Partick. We want to try to go there and take it to the next stage,” said manager McGlynn.

Victory would pare the deficit back to three points, with another six available, which would make for a very intriguing run-in.

“You just never know,” added the boss. “It’s not beyond us. The park there is a great leveller.

“It will just be a matter of dealing with that little bit better and who is better on the day.

“Partick were not great against Queen of the South last Friday night and they will be looking to do better, but if they play like that again, we have every chance of beating them.”

The well-documented condition of the park in Maryhill would be “taken into consideration”, said McGlynn, with both teams aware of what was at stake.

“If you play a passing game and it’s not conducive to passing, then you’ve got to watch what you’re doing,” he added.

“You don’t want to be taking risks when the ball is not going to flow and run, and you know it’s like that.”

With so few games remaining, McGlynn said the way ahead is to be positive, rather than dwell on the negative aspects of Rovers’ relatively poor recent league sequence.

The side had won the SPFL Trust Trophy the previous Sunday but then been brought down to earth by Dunfermline in midweek before Saturday’s loss to Greenock Morton – but they had not become a bad side

overnight, he maintained.

“We've been on a bad run – we understand that and we put our hand up to that – but it wasn’t like we played badly. Morton scored a great goal out of the blue but I thought we were in control of the game.”

Rovers had several chances which should have been buried, he added, although he thought they handled the number of long throws, free kicks and corner kicks with which the Cappielow side antagonised them, before crafting some good moves of their own.

“I thought we played some good football. We had to stand up to direct play, which is not a problem, but you still have to stand up to it.

“I thought we coped very well, got the ball to pass and created some good opportunities.

“Much as we are disappointed, we have to stick to the positive, try and keep the guys’ confidence up, move to the next game and try to do the best we possibly can.”