John McGlynn has told Raith to expect a fired-up Ayr United tonight after recalling the way his own players returned from their coronavirus lay-off with a bang.
Rovers were forced to shut down the whole club and ask for the postponement of their clash with Inverness back in January following a major outbreak of Covid-19 cases in their squad.
It was a worrying time for the Fifers but they emerged from their period of isolation to dish out an memorable against-the-odds 3-2 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle.
McGlynn admits that stunning win against last season’s champions-elect should serve as a warning for the Kirkcaldy men as they prepare for this evening’s rearranged trip to face a ring-rusty Ayr.
David Hopkin’s side were the latest team to be hit with a flare-up of the virus late last month and succeeded in having their home encounter with Raith rescheduled because they could not muster a team.
It means the Honest Men have not played in more than a fortnight, whilst Raith’s SPFL Trust Trophy win over Forfar at the weekend was their first outing since beating Aberdeen in the Premier Sports Cup on August 15.
McGlynn said: “Saturday was our first game in three weeks and I’m hoping that’s the cobwebs blown away.
“Now, we go down to Ayr and it’s been two weeks since they played.
“Who knows how they will have been affected? We had Covid in January and came back and beat Hearts.
“So, we go down there knowing it’s going to be a tough game.
“Hoppy’s team, along with Jim Duffy, they’ll be very, very competitive and they’ll make it a scrap, and we’ve got to be prepared for that.
“But hopefully we’ll come out on top.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here