Rutherglen Glencairn may have spent this week top of the league but manager Willie Harvey admits his team are under no illusions and will not be sitting there come the end of the season.
The Celsius Stadium boss has guided The Glens, who sit on 44 points with one game left, to the summit of the Super First Division thanks to a run of 10 unbeaten matches in 11 games. A 0-0 draw at home to Irvine Meadow on Saturday put a dent in the club’s ambitions of claiming one of the two automatic promotion spots.
And five of the other sides in the league still vying for at least the third place playoff spot, all have games in hand to play. Harvey revealed a win at the weekend would have at least secured
a place in the top three but knows his players could miss out on a promotion party if other results don’t go their way.
The Glens boss said:“If we had won on Saturday that would probably have got us third, maybe second.
“As it is, all we can do is win our next game and get to 47 points. We just need to do our job.
“We know we are in a bit of a false position and we won’t be there by the end of the season.”
Glens fans were left tearing their hair out as their team failed to unlock a stubborn Irvine Meadow defence.
The result was enough to keep the club at the top of the table for the week before they travel to Shettleston’s Greenfield Park tonight (Wednesday) in the Central League Cup.
Commenting on Saturday’s match, Harvey said:“After 10 minutes we could have been 3-0 up – that’s how quickly we were out the traps.
”You could see as the game went on we started to get nervous. The boys started to do things we wouldn’t normally do.
“We were playing long balls when we should have kept possession.
“At half-time it was about settling them down and getting them to get the ball down and get in behind them.”
Irvine also needed a win to keep their promotion hopes alive, but they did not play like a team searching for a win.
Harvey added:“I was surprised by them.
“You could tell the way they had set up that they had come for a draw – even though they needed to win. We should have won the game.
“We didn’t take our chances and that’s been the story of our season and the goalkeeper has put the shutters up. But I can’t complain, the boys have done really well.”
A date has yet to be confirmed for their last league match at Cumbernauld United.
The Glens have a free weekend coming up but only after a tough trip in the cup this evening.
Harvey is expected to rest several players for the clash.