Cowdenbeath manager Jimmy Nicholl reckons his players will be fired up for today’s Fife derby from the first whistle after their half-time dressing down against Hibs a week ago.
The Blue Brazil boss revealed after the 2-1 loss at Central Park last Saturday that there had been nowhere to hide at the interval as he tore into his charges following a shocking first half display.
And, after getting the desired reaction in the second half, Nicholl hopes his men have learned their lesson ahead of this afternoon’s game at Raith Rovers.
“I haven’t been like that for a while,” he said of his Sir Alex Ferguson-style hairdryer treatment last week.
“Normally if we go behind we bounce back, and it was the same against Rangers. We conceded a goal but we kept it tight and had two or three good chances, so we bounced back from a bad start.
“But against Hibs on Saturday we just stood off them and certain players ran the show.
“There were half-hearted tackles going in and just nothing there.
“We go a goal down, a lack of concentration at a set piece, and we end up being 2-0 down, so I had a right go at them at half-time.
“I’m sure the boys were thinking: “Why couldn’t the break just be five minutes rather than 15 minutes” and I was just non-stop. I was thinking about fining the lot of them!
“We just asked them to compete but they just stood off the players and treated them like they were China dogs.
“So the bottom line is that we can’t afford to be like that we’re in a real fight here and we’re bottom of the league, so it has to be better than that.
“You can’t go out and start a game of football and not compete like that or you’ll get punished. “That’s exactly what happened and we gave ourselves too much to do.”
It will be yet another return to Stark’s Park for former Raith manager Nicholl, who was involved in celebrations earlier this week to mark the impending 20th anniversary of the Kirkcaldy club’s Coca-Cola Cup win over Celtic in 1994.
That legendary squad entered the Hall of Fame, but Nicholl is concentrating on the here and now and helping to lift Cowdenbeath off the foot of the Championship.
“We’ve done reasonably well at Stark’s Park since I came back to Cowdenbeath, so if we go about our work properly we’ll have a good chance of getting the right result,” he continued.
“If we can put them under a bit of pressure then we can get the sort of result which can help our league position.”
Cowden’s long-term injury casualties will remain out, although midfielder Declan Hughes is much closer to a first team return than first thought after his ankle injury.