Gaz game for fightback and says he’s just getting started
FORFAR ATH v RAITH ROVERS
GARY IRVINE says Forfar can’t be frozen out of the promotion hunt – because he’s only just getting “warmed up”.
The Loons must overturn a 2-1 first-leg deficit to preserve hopes of playing in the second tier for the first time in 28 years.
Ex-St Mirren defender Irvine is part of a side on a 10-game unbeaten home run having arrived in the January window.
And the 34-year-old, left without a club for the first half of the season, said: “I missed a lot of games and I’m in the BY ALAN ROBERTSON frame of mind where I don’t want the season to finish now.
“I’m just getting warmed up and enjoying it now. My fitness is good again and I want the season to keep going, so the play-offs have been good for me that way. The fact that it’s given me more games.”
Irvine admits the away dressing room was still “upbeat” despite Tuesday’s defeat given Station Park’s standing as a fortress.
He said: “It’s the old-fashioned stadium, tiny dressing rooms, it’s got all the tradition there like a Scottish team should have in the lower leagues.
“It’s an Astroturf pitch, it’s a bit of travelling for most teams as well. If you take all that into it, it’s a hard tie for anybody.
“And just to make it better for us and harder for other teams, we’ve got our home form to add to that as well.
“We’ve got great confidence at home and that will be the same today.”
Kyle Benedictus has fought back from what was, at first, feared to be a season-ending knee injury to be a part of a fifth successive play-off campaign.
With the last three, all with Raith, ending in misery, asked if the football gods owe him one he said: “I’d like to think so, I think I’m due a good summer.
“Hopefully we get promoted, it can be a successful season and we can rebuild in the summer on a high.”