1-0 victory over title rivals Dundee United takes Raith Rovers five points clear at top of football’s Scottish Championship table

Thanks to a 2-1 victory at Arbroath last Wednesday night, the Kirkcaldy side were already in pole position ahead of kick-off at Tannadice Park at the weekend, but they’re now five points clear of United, though their hosts have a game on hand on them.

Their haul of 39 points from 16 fixtures also takes them 22 points away from fifth place in the table, meaning that the play-off placing that eluded them last season is now theirs to lose even if they’re unable to hang on to top spot until next May.

Saturday’s defeat was the first of this campaign – and first versus Raith since March 2017 – for manager Jim Goodwin’s Dundee United side, though their ten wins to date have been accompanied by four draws, including one away to Raith at Stark’s Park at the start of October with a 1-1 scoreline.

Visiting manager Ian Murray’s team, on the other hand, have extended their current unbeaten run to 13 games in all competitions, ten of them in the championship, their last – and thus far only – defeat of the current campaign having been by 1-0 away to Airdrieonians back in September.

Next up for the Fifers is a visit from sixth-placed Ayr United this Friday, with kick-off at 7.45pm, and Dundee United are away to basement side Queen’s Park at Glasgow’s Hampden Park at the same time.

Midfielder Dylan Easton got the only goal of the game in front of a crowd of 10,334 in Dundee, about a fifth of them travelling supporters from the other side of the River Tay.

The 29-year-old struck just ahead of the hour mark, curling a left-footed shot from the right-hand side of the box into the far corner of home goalkeeper Jack Walton’s net for his ninth goal of the season after being set up by Sam Stanton.

It might have been a bit of a maverick move, taking the No 23, at Raith since May 2022, out of his allotted position and leaving space behind him in Saturday’s 4-4-2 formation, but Murray wasn’t at all put out by that, instead welcoming the three points it yielded.

The 42-year-old told Raith TV: “I had a great view of it. It was a wonderful pass from Sam and a great run from Dylan. Some managers like their players to stay in position, but I think when you’ve got a player like Dylan, you have to give them a bit of licence to go and do their own thing.

“It was two versus one and then he faced up against another player and cut inside and his finish was wonderful. The goalkeeper had absolutely no chance. It was one of those ones where you can just see the ball’s going to hit the back of the net.

“Dylan can do that. We’ve seen it numerous times since he joined Raith. He keeps producing. He keeps working hard, which is really, really important.

“I think every player and manager, including myself, in this league knows what Dylan can do, but it’s how you stop him because he’s a livewire. He keeps going. Even if he misses three or four, he’ll go for the fifth one, and that’s what you need.”