John McGlynn: You’re not Houdini - injuries have an impact

After picking up two more casualties in Saturday’s home defeat to Stranraer, the Kirkcaldy side finished the match minus eight players, nine if including loan midfielder Regan Hendry, who returned to Celtic after suffering knee ligament damage.

Sympathy was in short supply from the Rovers fans at full-time, who booed the team off the park after throwing away a two-goal lead to fall to an eighth league defeat of the campaign.

While not making excuses for the performance - which he admitted wasn’t good enough - McGlynn stressed that the injury problem is a fact that cannot be ignored.

“I don’t suppose anyone looks at that, unfortunately, but that’s exactly how it is,” he said. “There’s not many teams in any league that can cater for that and continue to win games.

“We’ve been working this way for some time, and I suppose it’s just normal for people to come to an opinion based on what they see in front of them.

“They don’t take into consideration the amount of players and quality of players we’re without.

“No matter who you are, you’re not Houdini. You can’t continue to put teams on the pitch that are equally as good. It’s an impossibility.

“Anyone who has so many players missing can only expect there to be some effect on the performance.

“Even in Saturday’s game we’re having to make subs with fewer options. You’re forced into a change, then someone else gets injured, and you have to make a change to the change.

“There’s a lot of disruption, and we finished with a very young team on the park.

“There will be a lot of fans who understand that, but there will be others who don’t care, and just see it that we should beat every team.

“Recent history will tell you that’s not the case. Rovers dropped out of a league that had a part-time team in it, and Dumbarton survived in the Championship for a number of years.

“You have a part-time team in Alloa who beat the Rovers in the play-offs and are now beating full-time teams in a full-time league with vastly superior budgets.

“There are no gimmies, and Stranraer came here after a great result against Forfar, and have now beat the second and third placed teams in two weeks.

“They are no mugs, and I’ve said it before, I’ve been very surprised with the standard of this league. We’ve had exceptional days where we’ve scored four and five, but to think that’s going to the norm is unrealistic, especially when we’ve got our hands tied behind our back having our best players unavailable.

“I actually think we’ve done well to stay on track as best we have, because the pre-league betting would suggest that Dumbarton were favourites to win the league.

“They came down from the Championship and assembled a good squad but I don’t think they’ve even had as many injuries as we’ve had, and look at where they’ve been all season.

“I wish we could talk about something else, but it’s so apparent that this is what we’re dealing with.

“It’s devastating for the injured players but at the same time the manager has less tools to do the job, but still has to get results.

“I sympathise with the board of directors because every time we get an injury it’s scans, consultations, operations, and it’s costing fortunes.

“We don’t have medical health insurance so it’s coming out somebody’s pocket every time.

“It doesn’t make gaining promotion any easier, but it can still be done, of course it can.

“I’m hoping we’ll have enough players of quality and right attitudes that will go and make a fist of getting through the play-offs.

“The players need to raise their game, raise the standards, and just pull everything together for a semi-final and final – two cup ties over two legs – where it’s about giving everything you’ve got.

“In adversity, it’s team spirit that matters most in these situations.

“We’re asking fans to stay with us because it’s a young team needs as much support as it can get.

“We understand it’s difficult but staying strong and staying together is definitely the way to go about it.”

Rovers are expected to give a guard of honour to League One champions Arbroath in Sunday’s rearranged live BBC Alba clash at Gayfield.

Nathan Flanagan and Nat Wedderburn will both miss out, joining Robbie Thomson, Grant Gillespie, Tony Dingwall and Lewis Vaughan on the sidelines.

McGlynn also revealed that Iain Davidson, Kevin Nisbet and Callum Crane have missed training and are being eased through the week in the hope they will be fit for the 4.05 p.m kick-off.

“This is what’s been happening for a number of weeks now,” McGlynn explained.

“It has an affect because we’re having to nurse players through injuries, and they are losing sharpness by not training the whole week.

“It just all doesn’t help.”

However, in a much-needed boost, both Kyle Benedictus and Chris Duggan are back in full training and could feature against the champions.

“Kyle is back training at full pelt, so he’s potentially one that could be available,” McGlynn said.

“Chris joined in training today (Tuesday) and while it’s good we’ve got these guys back, the other side is they’ve not played for umpteen weeks.

“They are not match fit and we’re running out of games to get them match fit.

“It’s not necessarily a massive advantage for Sunday, but I’m glad that they’re back.”