Raith Rovers: Skipper Scott Brown excited at possibility of closing gap on third-placed Ayr United to two points with win tonight

Ian Murray’s team go into the live TV clash sixth in the league table with 34 points from 25 games – after going unbeaten in their last 13 games in league and cup – ahead of taking on Lee Bullen’s side who were the last team to beat Raith in a 2-0 league success for them at Somerset Park on December 3.

Former Peterhead ace Brown, 28, told the Fife Free Press: “Ayr are third in the table for a reason. We know they’ve got a lot of good players and a lot of good strengths in their team.

"But if we win the game we go two points behind Ayr and we think it’s a massive chance for us to go and get the three points.

"We are at home as well which we feel we have turned into a bit of a fortress, obviously beating Motherwell.

"But we know in the dressing room we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves because the run isn’t going to last forever.

"It’s not to say when the run comes to an end that everything comes to an end. We know that we need to bounce back straight away if that was to happen.”

Meanwhile, Brown reckons that the Stark’s Park squad members have coped admirably with the pressure on them to launch a successful defence of the SPFL Trust Trophy.

Raith – who will play Championship rivals Hamilton Accies at Falkirk Stadium in this year’s final on Sunday, March 26 – are trying to emulate John McGlynn’s side of last term who won it with a 3-1 final success over Queen of the South at Excelsior Stadium.

“I’ve not really had any joy personal wise in cup competitions,” Brown said. "I was at St Johnstone when they won the Scottish Cup in 2014 but I wasn’t in the squad on the day of the final which was a bit disappointing.

"It would be good to win the SPFL Trust Trophy final. The boys won it last year so there was a bit of pressure on for the new boys that came in.

"Listen, Hamilton are doing really well just now and we know it’s going to be tough to win the final.

"But it’s one that we go into with confidence and hopefully we can continue our recent good run and go in with a bit of momentum as well.

"There is a real character about the place. We’ve got a lot of boys in the changing room that all kind of pull in the same direction and it’s the tightest knit changing room that I’ve certainly been in.

"Obviously new players and a new manager came in during the summer so it was always going to take time for everything to gel.

"I feel we have done so well during our run that we should be higher up the league table than what we are.

"Momentum is a big thing in football. Sometimes when you’ve got that belief in your dressing room that you are on an unbeaten run that we will go out and get an equaliser or take a win.

"Obviously we lost Connor O’Riordan back to Crewe in January but Tom Lang’s come in and done really well.

"We’ve kind of been a wee bit lucky that injuries haven’t been as bad because we don’t have a massive squad.

"We have obviously lost Vaughany (Lewis Vaughan) and Hammer (Jamie Gullan) recently which is a big blow for us.

"But we have had Esma (Goncalves), Will (Akio) come in and Sam (Stanton) come back into the team.

"We’ve been lucky that players have come in when other players have got injured.

"We haven’t had an injury crisis in a certain position, where we don’t know who’s going to play there or somebody’s going to need to play out of position.”