Raith Rovers skipper Jason Thomson has admitted he probably won’t need to fire up his team-mates for today’s trip to Dumbarton.
Last week’s horrific loss at home to Livingston did that.
It was an afternoon to forget seven days ago at Stark’s Park as defender Ross Perry’s sending off and concession of a penalty with barely two minutes on the clock left Rovers with an almighty battle to take something from the game against bottom club Livingston.
Ninety minutes later, Rovers were on the wrong end of a 5-1 rout and facing flak from their own fans which only worsened when it emerged the club’s Christmas night out was held in Belfast just hours after the game.
However, Thomson insists the only way to get over last week’s result is to bounce back strongly starting with this afternoon’s game at Dumbarton.
“Fans have got their own opinions they pay their money and they can say and do whatever they want,” he commented.
“We’ve just got to go out on Saturday and get the result.
“We’re aware that we’ve dropped a few places in the league and if we were to lose at Dumbarton they would go above us as well, so we’re certainly going there to get the three points.
“It was this sort of time last season that this sort of form started creeping in, we never really turned it around and the season sort of petered out a wee bit.
“So it’s something we did face last season and it’s something I can assure you we’re trying to fix.
“People look at us say we’re only four points off the play-off spots, but others will look at it and say that it should be a lot more than four points.
“But realistically it is four points and a win on Saturday would certainly help towards what we’re trying to do.
“Dumbarton is a tough place to go and if the weather’s not great it’s not one of the nicest grounds to play at but we’ve been there before and won.
“Every time we’ve played them they’ve been high scoring games, and the first game of the season was 3-1, so we’ll go there and try to go with confidence.
“Results haven’t been great but I wouldn’t say confidence was low, we’re going there to try and get the three points.”
Partygoers in Belfast last weekend would have been treated to the sight of Rovers players dressed in WWE costumes on their festive night out but, while the pre-planned bash raised the spirits off the pitch after a heavy loss on it, Thomson stressed the players have been hurting all week about last week’s result.
He added: “I know there’s been a wee bit of stick from some fans after last week’s game but there was no intention to offend anyone.
“Boys weren’t there thinking: “Who cares?”
“I can certainly tell you that it wasn’t like that at all and it had been planned for months.
“I can understand fans getting upset after coming off the back of a 5-1 defeat but life goes on and it actually helped to take the mind off the game a wee bit, because it was really disappointing.
“Obviously Ross was sent off after two minutes but after that we know the 10 men should do better than we did.
“It’s something that’s happened quite a lot this season and as soon as we go behind and lose one or two goals we lose three, four or five, which is disappointing.
“In saying that, when we were 3-1 down against Livingston we were up against it but we had a couple of chances that might have changed the game a bit.
“Obviously the chances didn’t go in and they scored their fourth and fifth.
“So I wish we could put our finger on it, but I don’t know what it is.
“Out on the park we do like to attack and maybe sometimes we’ve been trying to attack at the wrong sort of times where we should be killing the game a bit and keeping possession better than we should.”
Defender Craig Barr is still expected to be sidelined as he continues his comeback from knee surgery, while goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert remains out with a shoulder injury.
Perry, shown a straight red last week, will be suspended.