RAY McKINNON’S PRE-MATCH THOUGHTS

The Bairns boss spoke with the press earlier this week ahead of tomorrow’s crunch match against Greenock Morton.

On the relegation battle…

“We’ve been saying for a while it’s probably going to go to the end of the season, there’s a bottom five or six that will be feeling the same as us going into every game, there’s pressure for all the teams down towards the foot of the table. It’s going to be a very exciting end to the season there’s no doubt about that.

“Everyone will be thinking they can win a couple of games and push themselves up, nobody will think they’re safe. I was speaking to the Dunfermline boys and they still think they need another point or a win, so even they don’t think they’re safe.”

On last Saturday’s derby win…

“We’ve been competitive in every game, but the three points were great, especially on the back of the defeat to Alloa. I’ve said before that I believe we’ve deserved more from the last three games, so it was good for everyone at the club to get the three points.”

On Davis Keillor-Dunn’s goal last week…

“It was a great goal from him, we know he’s missing two of the last three games which is why he didn’t start on Saturday, Morton and Ross County, but he’s capable of that and it was a great goal.”

On the fans…

“The ticket prices have been dropped to a tenner and a fiver which is great from the club, hopefully we can get as many fans in as possible and get all the support and backing that the players need on Saturday.”

“They’ve been brilliant, the home fans have been superb. Even the away fans, down at Partick thistle and at Dunfermline on Saturday we had 1500, it’s been amazing. We’re doing our best and the players are doing everything to get it over the line for them, but it’s much, much appreciated by both myself and the players.”

On Alloa’s good form the last few weeks…

“They’ve had an incredible run and an incredible time. We played them two weeks ago and on chances we feel we deserved to win the game, but they got their goal, they’re getting results and fair play to them, but they’re still only a few points ahead of us.”

On the injury and suspensions front…

“There’s Davis who won’t be able to play two of the last three. We have a few guys struggling with wee niggly injuries just now as well, so training has been reasonably light this week just because we can’t really afford to lose anyone. We have William missing the United game as well so we’re going to need to rotate the squad a bit in the last three games.”

“We do have doubts which is unfortunate. Fingers crossed they’re fit for Saturday, because they’re big players for us. It’ll be a battle though, so if anyone’s unfit they won’t be playing because we need players who are able to fight and run.”

On the tactics for tomorrow’s game…

“We’ve had success with different formations throughout the season, we’ll pick the players and the system that we think will win the game and get the three points. We need to figure out their weaknesses and target them to beat them, and if that involves overloading certain areas of the park that’s what we’ll do. Saturday, we played two and got the points, but previously we’ve got points with a back five, got points with three up top. It comes down to what we think will win the game, and who’s available, as we have a few doubts for the game.

“We’re just going to go out and win every game like we have since the start of the season, there’s no point trying to change the mentality now, it’s a bit impossible. We will aim to win the game and be competitive, it’s the same message we’ve had in every game so far.”