Queen of the South boss Marvin Bartley reckons Falkirk will have an “extra bounce” in their step after their Scottish Cup heroics.
The Bairns have a Hampden semi-final against Inverness Caley Thistle to look forward to after putting Championship side Ayr United to the sword on Monday night.
And Bartley reckons that could make tomorrow’s match against the team in second place in League One even more difficult.
He said: “They’ve got a semi-final at Hampden and if you’re a player out there between now and that semi-final you’ll be giving it absolutely everything to make sure you’re playing there. I’ve been in that situation myself and everyone is chomping at the bit to play in semi-finals and finals.
“Those players will be fully focused and they’ll probably have an extra bounce than they had before the quarter-final game.”
Queens go into the game on the back of a disappointing 1-1 draw at Clyde last weekend.
Bartley (right) was furious with the opening 45 minutes, that saw Queens trailing at the break before Ruari Paton rescued a point in the second half.
And he knows there has to be an improvement if they are to take anything against a side still harbouring hopes of catching league leaders Dunfermline.
He said: “We have to be better in possession and we have to be better out of possession from what we were in the last game. We have a game plan for every game, we’ve been implementing it in training and now we have to do it on Saturday.
“That’s the hard bit but the players are ready to do that. They know what’s expected of them and we’ll be heading into the game against a team that’s just got to the semi-final of the Scottish Cup.
“It’s a great challenge and one we should be looking forward to as professional footballers.
“We won’t shirk away from that, we’ll give them the respect they deserve, they’re second in the league, and we’ll have to go and play to a higher level than we did last Saturday.”
On the injury front, both Paul McKay and Jaze Kabia are back jogging.
McKay is being assessed on a day-to-day basis with Kabia still a couple of weeks away “at best” from a return.
But on-loan Hibs goalie Kevin Dabrowski is available after only making the bench for last week’s trip to Lanarkshire, opening the door for Gordon Botterill to make his debut. Bartley added: “Kevin has trained. I’ve always said we’ve got two good goalkeepers here.
“Gordon came in last week and both of them have trained and trained well this week.
“Gordon played in the reserves on Wednesday as well. He wants to play as much football as he can.
“Kevin trained Tuesday and Wednesday and he’ll be fit for Saturday.”
Bartley was shown a red card after talking to the referee after full-time.
