It goes without saying that we must win tonight, and that we must win convincingly and thus settle some of the nerves which Sunday’s game has thrown up.
It stands to reason that the more comfortable the victory is the more momentum we take into the weekend.
It also stands to reason that even a comprehensive victory will not answer any of the questions people have about this team.
Those questions, such as they are, are waiting for us in October.
They are waiting for us on the road, and until we take our home form on our travels and start beating teams by good margins nobody is going to believe that we can.
It will be nice tonight if we can hit Raith for six and play them off the park.
Nobody will be convinced that any corner has been turned though, because the level of opposition doesn’t merit that optimism and home games aren’t where the league will be won and lost.
This is a good game to get, but it’s a frustrating one too because I think most of us would have welcomed an away match at this time, to get that win that we need, to get this monkey off our backs. The longer the run goes on the more it weighs heavily.
Nevertheless, let’s not underestimate what a win tonight means; it puts Ange and his team 90 minutes away from a final. A final, in his first campaign, the first chance to win a trophy, the opportunity to set his mark and ramp up the pressure elsewhere.
That’s a real prize, and regardless of the opposition it will be a big deal to take a step closer to it.
Reaching a cup semi-final will be a step further than Lennon got in that ridiculous final, so it will represent undeniable progress.
What it will not entirely do is steady our nerves.
They depend on away points on the board.
Until we have a handful of those, we’re going to feel that things are slightly out of key.