Ian Murray has warned Raith Rovers to prepare for ‘blood, guts and thunder’ in their on-going bid for promotion.
The Stark’s Park men now finally know for certain they will need to prevail in the gruelling play-offs if they are to realise their dream of reaching the Premiership.
They made Dundee United work for it at the weekend after an extremely hard-fought victory over Inverness in the Highlands on Friday night.
But the Tangerines’ narrow 1-0 win against Ayr United the following day effectively sealed the Championship title to spark wild scenes of celebration at Tannadice.
Murray and his players have realistically been resigned to the play-offs since losing their crucial game in hand against Airdrie earlier this month.
However, he hopes the manner of the success against Inverness, who struck the woodwork four times and piled the pressure on in a grandstand finish, bodes well for the coming weeks.
He said: “We all hope the play-offs are lovely games with nice free-flowing football.
“But very rarely do you get that, especially in this league.
Big performances
“It’s going to be blood, guts and thunder, that’s pretty much it.
“It’s games like Friday night where we’re going to have to defend our box and block shots and maybe have the rub of the green at times.
“And we’re going to have to have some big performances, like we got from our goalkeeper in Inverness.”
He added: “We’re kind of in a cycle where we’re not playing brilliantly well and our attacking threat is not as high and the quality’s not as high as it was at the start of the season.
“But our defensive side of it is much higher.
“I’m asking for a lot from them. We know in the play-offs it’s going to be very, very difficult, regardless of who we play.
“That’s just to get through the first tie, never mind the next one.
“But we’re giving it our best shot, we’re giving ourselves every chance.”
