COLIN NISH insists his Cowdenbeath side will go out looking for victory at Hampden tonight in the first leg of their play-off semi final.
The Blue Brazil’s quest to avoid the end of season lottery fell just short on Saturday as Mark McGuigan’s side sealed victory for Stranraer and send the Blues into what promises to be a tense clash with Queen’s Park.
Defeat was hard to take for Nish, whose side would have stayed up on goal difference with a draw at the expense of Stenhousemuir, who lost to Albion Rovers.
But despite seeing his pre-match preparations hit by their team coach breaking down that led to the players missing their pre-match meal, the Central Park boss told Times Sport: “I thought the players handled the occasion well and played well enough on Saturday, although I’d have liked us to have been a bit more of a threat. 
"Our preparation wasn’t great and we had a few injuries as well, but it didn’t really affect the players on the park. In the first half we had a gameplan which I think worked quite well, and in the second we planned to play based on what we needed. 
"A draw would’ve been good enough, but when we lost the goal, that pushed us to go for it.
“The plan was working but we’ve made a mistake at the back. These things happen and although I don’t think Stranraer were miles in front, it wasn’t to be on the day. But I’ve no complaints about the players’ attitude and if we play like that against Queen’s Park then we should be ok.
“In my mind, we have to treat them as two different games and we have to go out and win both. We’re not going to go there and sit in, that’s for sure.”
Nish continued: “We have to concentrate on ourselves and every one of the last 8-10 games have been pressure games. We’ve handled most of them well, with the only one that we didn’t being the Stenhousemuir game, and we have to deal with that. There is pressure on us, but the other teams are under pressure as well.
“I think the boys should be looking forward to playing at Hampden. It’s not every day you get to play there and we’ve played a little bit better away from home. I think it will be easier to attack on a bigger pitch and we want to go out there and get a positive result to take into Saturday.”
The Cowden boss was set to assess the fitness of Declan Hughes and Lewis Milne on Tuesday night (Tuesday) but was hopeful both would play a part at Hampden and their class could make all the differnce. Kick-off tonight is at 7.45pm.