Our supporters did us proud, says Raith boss McGlynn

Despite losing the Scottish Cup tie 4-0 the Stark’s Park boss said was absolutely delighted with the response from the supporters who made the trip to Glasgow and who gave the team their noisy encouragement throughout the 90 minutes.

“I want to give a big thank you to our fans,” he said, “they sang from the minute we got into the stadium to the minute we left.

"It was an absolutely fantastic backing for everyone.

“They didn't get to the last game in the Premier Sports Cup but they certainly made up for it in the Scottish Cup.

“They sang from start to finish.

“It was great for the players to experience.

"Outwith the Green Brigade the only ones who were singing on Sunday were Raith Rovers fans.”

McGlynn says he was pleased with his team’s performance, which he says will give them encouragement going into this weekend’s away trip to Kilmarnock.

"We all feel that the scoreline was a bit harsh. I was gutted for the players

“Celtic have been absolutely flying recently and it was a strong team that they put out.

“We had to match them early in the game because they've been blowing teams away early doors, so we wanted to keep ourselves in it.

“I felt we did that and we were unfortunate that the boy has hit a great strike for the first goal, other than that we had managed to keep them down to very little.

“I've seen other teams in the Premiership having to make many more saves than Jamie MacDonald did on the day.“I thought we did really well. I thought the work rate and the spirit of the team and the organisation was very good.

“We didn't create an awful lot but we certainly had a shout for a penalty which might have made a difference.

“We got a couple of good crosses into the box which we might have got someone on the end of.If we had sneaked a goal it would have been an interesting game.

“Celtic have a massive squad, a very good squad and bringing on players like Abada gave them that quality and pace at that late stage in the game that they probably needed, and it was the last thing we needed.

“To be fair, Jamie has made a really good save from a header and it sits up nicely for Maeda to head it over the line, then he saves a penalty and it breaks back for them to score.

“On the day I think Celtic got all the breaks, though of course they were worthy winners, but we didn't get a break on the day at all which might have helped us and made the score a reflection on how well we actually did.”

Along with the scoreline another downside from the trip to Glasgow was the hamstring injury picked up by team captain Kyle Benedictus.

McGlynn says: “It's not a bad injury, it's more a two to three weeks type. He's not going to be out for months.

“He can be a quick healer so we're not going to put any real timescale on it, we're just keeping our fingers crossed and seeing how it goes.

“Christophe Berra tried to get ready for the Celtic game but he wasn't quite there.

“We'll assess him again to see if he's going to be ready for Saturday against Kilmarnock, but I do think it's going to be very much like 50/50.”

Raith head to Ayrshire looking for an elusive win having gone eight games in the Championship without one – a run of five draws and three defeats – but despite that most unwanted of records, McGlynn says he is heading to Rugby Park full of confidence.

“We can go there taking a lot of positives from the Celtic game,” he says, “playing against a team like that gives you a lift.

“Even though you've lost you've played in a massive game and acquitted yourself well.

“Players get a boost from that.

“It's similar to the last time we played Celtic. It was a Thursday then we had Partick and Dunfermline next to play, which was the start of our 15-game unbeaten run.

“Obviously we'd like to do that again. That would be massive if we could start a run.

“So although we lost the Celtic game we can take confidence from it. We learned a lot from them.

“It's good for the players individually to play against that quality to see how well they do and ask themselves "can I do that?" as individuals and as a team.

“That's the type of thing we have to take into the Kilmarnock game.

“We did well down at Rugby Park earlier in the season [a 3-1 win in October] so we know we can go there and win.

“There's obviously been a lot of changes at Kilmarnock since we were there.

“There's a new management team and they've brought in a lot of players, Dylan Tait being one of them.

“We understand that it's going to be another big game.

“The way it's looking just now Kilmarnock are probably going to be favourites to win it, so we know we're going to have to rise to the challenge.

“It's another big game but they just keep on coming, they've been coming all season, but we've gone to Celtic Park and played a big game in front of a big crowd so there's no fear in going to Rugby Park.”