DAN PYBUS believes that tonight's derby with Raith Rovers is an ideal match for Athletic to bounce back in as they seek to give their Championship survival hopes a huge boost.

John Hughes' team, who were beaten at Inverness in their last outing on March 26, can move to within two points of eighth-placed Ayr United with victory in the final Kingdom clash of the campaign.

The game had been originally scheduled for Saturday, but has been moved due to Rovers' involvement in Sunday's SPFL Trust Trophy final, which they won 3-1 against Queen of the South.

Midfielder Pybus is relishing the occasion, and said: "It is a big derby and one that we will be looking to go and win of course and I’m sure that they will be looking to do the same with them still able to get into the top four.

"We just need to look after ourselves and play the way we have been playing in the last couple of games. I’m sure that the football will take care of the result.

"I feel that we owe the fans one. I know that we haven’t done the best as a team collectively this season but it would be great to take the bragging rights in the last derby of the season. Hopefully that can kick us on into Saturday when there is a quick turnaround.

"The full focus is on tonight first and making sure that we win the game of football.

"We had three games in a week and then we missed a weekend. Especially when you finish on a loss, and probably the way we played wasn’t great, so it is frustrating not playing for another ten days. I suppose you flip it and on the other side we have had the chance to freshen up and work on a few things.

"It can work two ways."

The last game against Inverness was a difficult one for Dunfermline, especially considering the terrific performance against Partick Thistle in their previous game, and Pybus continued: "Against Partick Thistle, we went one goal down and everyone was probably thinking ‘here we go again’, but the lads reacted really well and everything clicked as we went and scored four really good goals.

"You go into the Inverness game thinking let’s carry this on now, play this game and then we have ten days off.

"I think everyone will admit that we weren’t at it. The tempo was slow, we didn’t get after the ball and when that happens there is only one thing going to happen and that is getting beat. It was disappointing but we have had ten days to freshen up so we are looking forward to it."

It’s three draws against Raith this season for the Pars, with Pybus featuring in each of them.

The midfielder’s confident that they can use the previous meetings as a base to get a result this time around.

"The three games have all been different." he said.

"The first time we played them we got a bit fortunate; we weren’t at our best in that away game. When we played them at home, they scored late on to draw so we were unlucky. The last game on 2nd January I felt we should have won.

"The two teams are evenly matched, we both want to play football and we know that we need to be right at it with a high intensity, I’m sure we will be and hopefully we can take three points."

Pybus shared that he had watched the final at the weekend but was coy in sharing if he had seen anything of interest about tonight’s opponents, adding: "That is the manager and assistants’ jobs not mine but it is nice to know who you are playing against.

"I thought in the first half it was an even game but obviously in the second half Raith just edged it and went on to win.

"Hopefully they have had some late nights and aren’t ready to go this evening."