Although you try to keep things as normal as possible in the build-up to a game, it’s been slightly different this week. With the match taking place 25 hours later than normal, we tweaked the training schedule to suit and because it’s Rangers, the media interest is far greater than any other league game.
As well as that the Club announced a three year deal with kit suppliers Macron, personally I think it’s a great move forward and what we’ve seen so far, it looks good.
We go into Sunday’s game against Rangers on the back of a couple of good performances against a strong St Mirren side. Although we didn’t get what our performance deserved in Paisley, we managed to get the victory last weekend, a win that moved us back into fourth place in the table, into the play-offs where we want to be.
A top four finish has been our main aim since the start of the season, I know there will be a lot of twists and turns to come before the end of the season, with Saints, Raith Rovers and Morton all challenging but we think we’ve got the players to do it and I’m sure come the end of April we can make it.
We knew it was a vital game last Saturday, Saints had been on a good run and we didn’t want the gap between ourselves and them to get any closer. We dominated the first half without scoring, but I said to the players at half time keep believing and we will get the goal that we need, overall I’m pleased to get the win, the three points and a clean-sheet.
Winning games gives you confidence so we will take that into the game against Rangers and have the belief that we can win. We’ve played well against them in games so far this season, we had Derek Lyle red carded (which was later overturned) in our last game at Palmerston and then lost out to a late goal at Ibrox, so we know we can compete.
They’ve got good players, Mark added to his squad during the window so they will be stronger and we’ll have new strengths to deal with but hopefully we can play our own game, pass the ball, look to attack and be strong defensively, if we do that, then we give ourselves a great chance.
It’s a game we are all looking forward to.
With Rangers being his parent club, Andy Murdoch isn’t available for the game, Dale Hilson continues his road to recovery and is getting closer to a return, but isn’t ready yet. Apart from these two, everyone else is fit and available for selection.