Sam Stanton kicked off the season playing European football and is desperate to prolong it by achieving domestic success with Raith Rovers.
The midfielder played in all six of Dundalk’s Europa Conference League qualifiers last summer as the Irish outfit eventually exited the tournament with a narrow one-goal defeat to Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem.
The former Dundee United and Hibernian player is hopeful the pressure of those occasions will stand him in good stead as he goes into Raith’s must-win encounter with Hamilton Accies this afternoon.
Three points adrift of Partick Thistle with only two games remaining, the Stark’s Park men know only a victory will do, whilst hoping rivals Dunfermline can defeat the Jags to take the play-off race to the final weekend of the season.
Stanton admits that would be the perfect way to finish the campaign.
He said: “It’s been a good season, I’ve had some good experiences. I started the season playing in Europe and this is an exciting end to the season.
“Hopefully we can make it go down to the last game.
“It would be a great way to finish if we could get into the play-offs, having started in Europe.
“Fingers crossed we can make that happen.
“The boys are determined. There’s always determination to win and we know how important this is for us and the club.
“We’ll be going out to give it everything we’ve got.
“It’s not too much different because you go into every game with pressure on yourself to win.
“But when you absolutely have to win, it’s slightly different.”
Raith gave themselves some hope with a 1-0 victory over Partick last weekend.
That was last-chance saloon for the team after taking just one point from a possible 12 during a dire run of just one win in 16 league games that looked to have cost them the shot at promotion they enjoyed last year.
Having risen to the occasion last weekend in a head-to-head, they accept it is no longer in their own hands but retain hope.
‘Focus on ourselves’
Stanton added: “We need the same again. It was great to get the result last weekend and to keep ourselves alive.
“It’s down to us to try to win again, there’s no other result we can have, so we know what we have to do.
“We just have to go out and try to do the same thing.
“Then we have to hope that Dunfermline do us a favour by beating Partick.
“But we have to focus on ourselves and make sure we do what we need to do.”
