Defeat in Angus all but dashes Raith Rovers’ hopes of making play-offs

A win on the road in Angus would have taken manager Dougie Imrie’s fifth-placed visitors to within two points of fourth-placed fellow Fifers Dunfermline Athletic with six left to play for, but their 14th defeat of this football season leaves them five points adrift of the division’s play-off places and reliant on the Scottish Cup finalists 15 miles down the road slipping up three times over if they’re to stand even the slightest chance of ending up any higher in the table than they are at the moment.

Raith’s second loss on the bounce to the Red Lichties, following one by 3-2 at home at Kirkcaldy’s Stark’s Park in January, gives them a return of 42 points from 34 fixtures, with Dunfermline on 47 from 33 and third-placed Arbroath on 50 from 34.

Ending a three-match losing streak for co-managers David Gold and Colin Hamilton’s hosts and a four-fixture winning run for Raith, on-loan midfielders Jacob MacIntyre and Findlay Marshall netted past visiting No 1 Josh Rae just ahead of half-time and on 83 minutes respectively, with Kai Montagu registering a consolation effort for the Fifers just ahead of the final whistle in front of a crowd of 2,044 at Gayfield Park.

The remainder of Raith’s run-in pits them against opposition from opposite ends of the table as they visit league leaders St Johnstone this coming Friday then bow out at home to basement side Ross County seven days later, both 7.45pm kick-offs.

They head to Perth looking to end an 11-game winless run against the Saints dating back to 2004, but their record versus the Highlanders is more mixed, having lost 2-0 to them in Dingwall twice this season, in February and October, but beaten them 6-0 at home in between in December.

Imrie, 42, issued an apology to Rovers’ 700 travelling supporters on Saturday for failing to make their near-100-mile round trip worthwhile, telling Raith TV afterwards: “I need to apologise to our support. They were here in their numbers and they got absolutely nothing.

“It was a really poor performance and probably the reason why we’ve been fighting at the bottom end of the table all season. That was nowhere near the standard I expect at this football club.

“It was a great opportunity to come here and close the gap to two points, but we never laid a glove on Arbroath. All credit to them, they’ve been excellent all season and they deserve to be in the play-offs.

“They just thought it would be easy here but it’s a difficult place to come to. Arbroath were the team that looked like they wanted to be in the play-offs, the team that looked like they wanted to win the game.

“We never strung two passes together for the whole game and then we only started playing with three minutes to go. It wasn’t good enough.

“I’ve praised this group for weeks now for their performances and dominating the ball, but that wasn’t there today. It was as if they sent out their brothers to play. It was simply not good enough.

“It just looked as if our season was over and we were going through the motions. Too many players looked lethargic.”