John McGlynn makes no secret of the fact Celtic have been the inspiration behind Raith Rovers’ success this season.

Now, it is the mighty feats of Liverpool who could give them encouragement in their desperate bid to cling to their Premiership dreams.

The Stark’s Park side are staring bitter play-off disappointment hard in the face after Wednesday night’s 3-0 drubbing from Dundee in their semi-final first-leg.

Despite the Dark Blues making all the right noises about the tie being far from over, few will believe Raith have even the slimmest of chances of turning things around at Dens Park tonight.

But McGlynn, nominated for the PFA Scotland manager of the year award, insists his players can take massive belief from football’s greatest comebacks through the years as they attempt to pull off the near-impossible.

Even this season, Rovers’ rivals, Dunfermline, scored three times without reply in the final 12 minutes to secure a stunning 3-3 draw against Dundee at Dens.

And McGlynn is set to point his players in the direction of footage of Liverpool’s triumph in their Champions League final against AC Milan in 2005 when they were 3-0 down at half-time but lifted the trophy on penalties.

The 59-year-old said: “I’ve not seen the bookmakers’ odds, but I’m sure we’d be 1,000,000/1 outsiders.

“But many favourites have been beaten too. Dundee are in a very strong position and they’ve scored in every game they’ve played at Dens Park.

“We’ll try to get them nervous by being on the front foot and getting the ball in the box while making sure we don’t get caught.

“There are examples of comebacks - Liverpool in the Champions League comes to mind.

“There was also a game involving Sweden in a World Cup qualifier when they were 4-0 down and came back [to draw 4-4 with Germany in 2012].

“There have been games like that and we have to try and take every positive thing we can take. These types of examples we’ll need to put across [to the players] to give ourselves a chance.

“Get the first goal and give us enough time to get more back, and that bit of panic might set in. We’ve got to hang onto that hope.
“It’s certainly something to motivate the players. There are some things you can use like that, definitely.

“We could use it and I’ll probably put it to them that we can do something on Saturday pre-match to give them the belief it can happen.”

McGlynn, who has admitted his spell working on Brendan Rodgers’ backroom staff helped him formulate Raith’s passing style, has been lauded after steering his side to third in the Championship just a year after promotion from League One.

It was a season that started, however, with him lying in hospital having undergone an operation to have his gallbladder remove.

Setbacks meant he did not fully return until the turn of the year but he believes that gruelling experience has ratcheted up the pleasure he has taken from the campaign - no matter how it ends.

He added: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the season. It’s one of the seasons I’ve enjoyed the most of all my time in management and coaching because of the style and the team goals we’ve scored.

“It speaks volumes for the season. I was ill and not necessarily in a good place. I think that’s part of it too – you start to consider a lot of things when you’re not well.

"Things like being grateful to be in the position and being able to come in every day and work with the fantastic people and players I am. Sometimes you just have to weigh up things like that.

"I stood back and watch the team develop and play and I’m so proud of what they’ve done. But it doesn’t take away from the disappointment of Wednesday because your expectations rise as well.”