Rutherglen Glencairn boss Willie Harvey says all of their 15 remaining West of Scotland First Division games are ‘cup finals’ as they bid to claw their way back to the top flight.
Four straight wins in January – following up their 3-1 midweek win over St Roch’s with a 2-0 triumph at Cumbernauld United on Saturday – has seen them rocket from 14th place to fifth, with three promotion slots available.
However, Harvey isn’t looking any further than the visit to seventh-placed Benburb on Saturday. He said: “We’ve gone from 14th to fifth in the table in the space of about three weeks, but there’s still a long way to go, and we’ll take it one game at a time.
“Each game just now is a cup final, because we really can’t afford to drop anything.
“I’ve said before that on our day we’re a very hard team to beat, and we’re starting to prove that, now.
“We’re pleased at the minute, but we did say that once we got everybody back fit and were able to pick a full team, we’d be a squad to reckon with.
“The players are all fit, their confidence is up, as winning games does for you, and probably Saturday was one of our poorest games, but the difference is that even if you’re not at your best, you’re still managing to get some wins out of it.”
On the prospect of targeting a title win or one of the promotion spots, Harvey said: “I’m not even looking that far down the road. At the end of the day, we just need to keep winning and see where it takes us.
“There are 15 games left to play, so we’re only halfway through the season. Halfway through the season we’re sitting in fifth spot, and but for a 98th-minute goal for Kilbirnie against Gartcairn [3-2 win], we could have been sitting fourth, so it shows you how close it is.
“Teams above us have to play each other. We’ve played Gartcairn twice, we’ve got St Cadoc’s to play again, Benburb to play twice, Kilbirnie to play twice, and Drumchapel United to play.
“Hopefully we stay a wee bit under the radar, but I’ve got no doubt some of the clubs round about us are suddenly saying ‘where did they come from!’”
Harvey says his side must be on form to take points from Benburb this weekend.
He added: “They’re a really fit, strong team, a hard-working team and physically strong. We’ve got to be on the top of our game.”
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