Rutherglen Glencairn boss Willie Harvey says the potential for only six sides to drop out of the West of Scotland League Premier Division is a bonus – but survival is in their own hands anyway.
Neither of the bottom sides Gretna 2008 or Vale of Leithen would be dropping into the West set-up, which takes the pressure off of 12th-placed Glencairn, but Harvey says they want to make sure.
Glens are heading into a heavy month with seven fixtures in March, starting with the visits of Darvel tonight (Wednesday) and Largs Thistle on Saturday, with a trip to Auchinleck Talbot next midweek.
Harvey says it’s games against teams round about them, like Cumnock, Benburb and Largs that really count.
He said: “It’s only six that drop out if the team that win our league gets promoted into the Lowland League – they’ve got to win their play-off.
“But it’s a wee extra bonus, because you’re starting the season thinking seven are going down, and if it’s six then it gives you a little bit of a barrier.
“But we can’t be thinking that way, we’ve just got to think about ourselves.
“We know it’s in our hands, we know that we can pick up the points we need to stay safe.
“We had a massive run at Christmas, we were unbeaten or only lost one in nine or something like that, so we know we can hit that run again.
“It’s just getting the players to believe that again, and it will come, because they’re a good bunch of lads.”
Harvey added: “Darvel and Auchinleck games will take care of themselves, but Largs Thistle is a very important game.
“They’re all important games, but more so the teams about us, like Largs Thistle and Cumnock – these are the teams that we have to take things from, to make sure we’re going to be safe.
“If it’s a draw, you stop them from getting closer to you, there’s no change, or if you beat them you push them a wee bit further from you.
“We’ll try to win every game, obviously, but we’ve got to beat the teams round about us who are down in that area.
“We have to take points from them, that’s very important, so we’ll be concentrating on trying to do that.
“We’re targeting three points from the Darvel game as well, but that will be difficult.
“We’re not crazy, we’re not going to turn around and say that it’s a team we should beat.
“But we believe anybody can beat anybody and we will go into the game looking for three points.
“We’ll do our best and see where it takes us.”
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