In-form Fifers have Saints on full alert, says skipper McGinn
STEPHEN McGINN says there is no danger of St Mirren underestimating East Fife, because their League One opponents are the form team going into the tie
he Saints are still marooned at the bottom of the league table, but the Scottish Cup provided some sweet relief for them as they defeated Dundee away from home in the fourth round.
A quarter-final place will be their reward if they can overcome Barry Smith’s Fifers today, but given their general form this season and East Fife’s current eightmatch unbeaten run, McGinn certainly isn’t looking that far ahead.
“I do not think we are in a position to disrespect anyone,” McGinn told the club website. “We are not used to winning games and we need to get into that habit.
“We will go up there, they are on a great run, we are not on a good one ourselves but we need to go and try to win the cup tie.
“Just because we are not playing in the league does not make the game less important. We need to get together, play together as a team and win the game.”
Buddies manager Jack Ross isn’t counting his chickens ahead of today’s game either, but he does acknowledge that the prospect of a place in the last eight should act as a massive carrot for his men.
“Being a cup tie and the incentive of a quarter-final place makes it an exciting match for us,” Ross said.
“The opportunity of progressing to the last eight of any competition, for any player, any manager, should be huge for anyone.
“Our cup form has been excellent, across different cup competitions. If you look at our last 10 games results they have been okay. We have won three, lost three and drawn four. .
“In different circumstances our form is alright, still not brilliant, but the position we find ourselves in means we have to be better than that.
“How we prepare from a training and an analysis point of view is exactly the same.
“East Fife in a cup-tie is treated exactly the same as if it were Hibs in a league game.”
Next week sees St Mirren on cup duty again in the semi-finals of the Irn-Bru Cup against Welsh side The New Saints.
But despite still fighting on three fronts, and the league being by far the most important of those, Ross believes he has enough depth in his squad to handle the extra matches.
“I feel we have a stronger squad now,” he said. “The challenge is to gel them together and some are playing catch up, but the fact we have had another week of training should help us ahead of tomorrow as well.”
Ross has meanwhile backed on-loan Crewe Alexandra defender Harry Davis to make a huge impact at the club after scoring on his debut against Dumbarton last week just two days after arriving at the club.
“Harry Davis only came in on the Thursday and by the Saturday he was still getting to know player’s names,” he said. “With another week’s training he feels a lot more comfortable, and he looks good in training.”