Raith Rovers midfielder Kyle Turner has had his fair share of play-off experience.
As a teenager, he was part of the Stranraer side that relegated Livingston in the Championship play-off semi-final before losing to Ayr United in the final.
He was also in Ian Murray’s Airdrie team that reached the final of the same play-offs while on loan from Dunfermline in 2021.
More recently, the 26-year-old narrowly missed out on promotion to the Scottish Premiership with Partick Thistle last season.
A spectacular comeback by Ross County, who went on to sign Turner, saw Thistle lose on penalties.
He could now face his former club again in the semi-final of this year’s Premiership play-offs while his current employers occupy 11th in the top flight.
Saturday’s draw with Thistle secured a top-two finish for Raith but it leaves Dundee United on the verge of the title.
Turner chose to focus on the positives and said the side would have no problem finding motivation.
Kyle Turner: We have to build momentum
“For the boys, it’s not difficult to get yourself up for them,” he said.
“It’s the highest the club has finished in a number of years. We need to look at the positives.
“Raith Rovers finished seventh last year and finished second this year.
“We’ve got four games to get into the Premiership and at the start of the season we’d have bitten your hand off for that.
“Now it’s just focus, try to win the next three games and take it into the play-offs.
“We just have to build some momentum now.
“The league is going to be a big ask, but now we need to look a the play-offs and get ready for them.
“We need to go into them ready to go. We know that it’s potentially going to be between Thistle and Airdrie that we play and it’ll be a tough two legs.
“I’ve experienced before with other clubs. It’s hard.
“You need to be on top of your game because after Airdrie or Thistle or whoever it is, you then have a team that’s second bottom of the Premiership who are a good team and in that league for a reason.”
‘We maybe just shaded it’
Turner started Saturday’s game on the left of Murray’s 4-1-3-2 and was replaced at half-time by Dylan Easton.
It was a difficult afternoon for both sets of players as the wind disrupted their respective approaches.
“There wasn’t much in the game, we maybe shaded it just,” said Turner.
“It’s been tight between the teams all season. The last game at Firhill, we scored against the run of play in the first half and managed to hang on.
“most of the games, the results there has been one goal in it maximum.
“The conditions were difficult, it was the same against Ayr, it was really tough, It’s so windy and hard to judge the flight of the ball.
“Even crosses, corners and free kicks, it just gets caught up in the wind.”
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