Arbroath can still throw away title, says Raith Rovers match-winner Grant Gillespie

Gillespie struck with 16 minutes left to earn Rovers a 1-0 win over Airdrie, which combined with Arbroath's second successive defeat - surprisingly at home to bottom of the table Stenhousemuir - saw the Kirkcaldy side close the gap on the leaders to 12 points.

With eight games remaining it remains highly likely that the title will be heading to Gayfield, but while Gillespie admitted Raith remain "miles away", he has not yet given up all hope.

"It's bitterly frustrating," he said.

"Arbroath are in a bit of freefall at the minute and we're miles away.

"We can look back on games where we've been in winning positions and we've thrown away points.

"That's the biggest disappointment to this point, but there's eight games left, so never say never.

"The way they're going they might throw it away so it's just up to us whether we can put enough points together and catch them.

"It's up to us to take the positives and move onto Forfar next week."

Gillespie was particularly satisfied that Rovers managed to grind out a 1-0 win by earning only their fourth clean sheet of the league season.

"We've not had a lot of one-nils this season so it was good to get a solid performance defensively as well," he said.

"We've often had to score two goals at least to win a game, but today we showed we can do both sides.

"It was a great team performance and a platform to build from."