Ferguson believes added motivation can give his side an edge over Queen’s

Stenhousemuir manager Brown Ferguson hopes the prize of promotion will be enough motivation for his men to gain an edge over Queen’s Park in tonight’s first leg of their play-off semi-final.

Having secured fourth place in League 2 at the weekend in a 1-1 draw with Stirling Albion, Ferguson said: “We have dealt with the pressure of getting into the play-offs, so now we can concentrate on win- ning them. The players have the chance to win promotion and that does not happen too often in a career. I am hoping the desire for that prize will be greater than the motivation Queen’s Park have not to lose something – their place in League 1.”

The Ochilview boss is, however, wary of the Spiders following their 3-0 defeat of Arbroath. He added: “Rather than being disappointed at being in the play-offs they will feel pleased to have a second chance, but hopefully we have an extra edge.”

Queen’s boss Gus Macpherson, who has asked his play- ers for the same again, said: “All I can ask is that we play like we did on Saturday. That performance has been coming for a few weeks now but the difference was that we scored goals at good times.

“Our forward players were terrific and Luke Donnelly showed how good he can be. We just need to have him and everyone else at the same level.”

Macpherson added: “I imagine most people would tip Stenhousemuir to be the underdogs as they are in a lower league. However, they have more experience than we do.” Spartans captain Michael Herd insists the Edinburgh club have to believe they can make a stunning comeback in their pyramid play-off against Cove Rangers.

The Lowland League champions lost Saturday’s first leg 4-0 to their Highland League counterparts but will look to make home advantage count on their artificial pitch at Ainslie Park this evening.

Midfielder Herd said: “It

0 Michael Herd: Mountain. wasn’t the best performance from our side of it but we’ve still got one leg left to play so we’ll try to be positive and put a lot of wrongs right. We’ve