Ian Murray is adamant he has no preference over who Raith Rovers play in their Premiership play-off semi-final.
That is despite wildly different fortunes against the teams who will stand in the way of a shot at the top-flight.
The Stark’s Park side will play either Airdrie or Partick Thistle at the penultimate stage, with Ross County or St Johnstone likely to be lying in wait in the final.
Raith have lost four – and drawn one – of their five meetings with Airdrie this term.
By contrast, Rovers are unbeaten – with two wins and two draws – against Partick this season.
But, ahead of Friday night’s finale in the regular campaign against Arbroath, Murray insists all teams will enjoy a clean slate in the tension of the play-offs.
“Our league’s so hard that most games are high-pressure anyway and are decided on small moments,” he said.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t think form is a massive thing in the play-offs. Yes, you want to go into them with a bit of momentum.
“But I don’t think you look back over previous score-lines and think you are – or are not – going to go through.
‘All three teams will back themselves’
“I think it very much depends on what happens in the tie.
“You just have to look at the teams in the play-offs to see how different it is.
“We’ve got a great record against Thistle, they’ve had a pretty good record against Airdrie (two wins and a draw in their last three meetings) and Airdrie have a good record against us.
“Once you’re in the play-offs, I think all three teams will back themselves to get to the final.
“But it’s going to be down to who performs better in those moments.
“Literally a bad 30 minutes can cost you very, very dearly. We’ve seen it so many times. That makes it tough for all the teams.
“But, look, I don’t have a preference for who we play, that’s for sure.
“I know regardless of who we play, it’s going to be very, very hard, and it can flip very quickly.”
Murray has experience of how ‘form goes out the window’ in the play-offs.
Murray: ‘Very tight’
With four league meetings as well as clashes in the League Cup and Challenge Cup, Murray’s Airdrie side ended up playing Queen’s Park eight times when they reached the Championship play-off final two season ago.
With four previous wins and two draws, the teams could not be separated after two more draws in the two-legged final.
Simon Murray’s extra-time penalty then clinched promotion for Queen’s Park.
“Play-offs tend to be quite tense affairs,” added Murray. “You don’t tend to have too many brilliant games in them.
“I expect Airdrie versus Partick Thistle to be very tight in the first round, and I expect whoever’s playing us in the next round to be tight.
“I saw that when I was at Airdrie and we played Queen’s Park. We played them eight times that season and we never lost in 90 minutes.
“Then we got undone with a penalty in extra-time and we didn’t go up to the Championship.
“In that eight-game run against them, we probably only outplayed them once; all the other games were really tight.
“And then they prevailed in the final.”
