City have picked up 6 points from a possible 6 from their last two matches against the bottom two and they hope to make it nine points against the bottom three as Raith visit Glebe Park tomorrow, who currently languish in a disappointing 8th position. Raith Rovers are currently without a manager as Craig Levein filled the vacant managerial position at Dundee United last week, but Gary Kirk stepped in as temporary manager for the Fife derby against Cowdenbeath last week-end, in which Raith triumphed 2-1 winners. The Kirkcaldy side set to unveil their new manager sometime next week.
With 3 wins in the last four games in the league, plus an impressive cup victory against SPL outfit Dundee United mid-week, confidence is high at Glebe Park and three points is most definitely the aim tomorrow afternoon. City may not have been entirely convincing against Forfar last weekend but the reds put in an excellent performance to defeat to the Arabs on Tuesday evening in the Forfarshire Cup.
Walker- Impressive against United
Table toppers Morton and Stirling face each other at Forthbank tomorrow so it gives City the ideal opportunity to close the gap at the top, and push further away from the pack at the bottom where it is extremely tight.
City Chairman David Birse will be delighted with three points tomorrow afternoon, he said: “It would be great to get all three points and it would also be the first time this season that we’d won three games on the trot. We’ve got a chance to close the gap on the top two and while we have to beat Raith, we have home advantage and should win.
“Raith did alright at the weekend even without a manager, but at the end of the day the result will be down to what we do rather than the opposition.”
Despite the poor performance, Birse was thrilled that the players grinded out a win against Forfar last Saturday and he was also pleased that they were also able to draw first blood.
“The win has given us a wee bit of breathing space over fifth place, which is important, and at the end of the day I suppose the result was more important that the performance because we only played in spells. We don’t seem to be getting any consistency, but if we continue to grind out wins then maybe we’ll pick up a bit more confidence and build from there.
“It was also important to score early on and then we got the winner. Everybody agrees we could have scored one or two more, but at least we are creating chances and hopefully if we put away more of them we’ll make life easier for ourselves.”
City manager Michael O’Neill has had plenty of selection problems throughout the season with the amount of injuries but he now has the selection problem every manager wants with pretty much a full squad to choose from, bar Grant Johnson who will be put through a late fitness test as he bids to recover from an Achilles problem that has plagued him recently. Steven Ferguson continues to make significant progress after breaking his leg earlier in the season and Kevin Byers is match fit. Both Stuart Ferguson and Ross Archibald featured in Tuesday’s win over Dundee United and are available for selection again.
Craig Levein may have only been at Raith for a short period but he made a couple of decent acquisitions during his stint at Starks Park. Marvin Andrews, who boasts over 100 caps for his native country Trinidad and Tobago, is set to start against City tomorrow and Hjalmar Thorarinsson, currently on loan from Hearts, netted Raith’s winner against Cowdenbeath last week and will be looking to cause plenty of problems for the City defence. Raith have no fresh injury worries ahead of the match.
