Goalie tips can help Raith striker score free-kicks

A cleverly worked move in Tuesday night’s 6-1 win over Buckie Thistle saw Rovers overload the back post, only for Vaughan to fire a sensational 25-yard effort past the ‘keeper at his near post.

And while the execution had to be perfect, the striker, who already has three goals to his name this season, credited Cuthbert, inset, with the idea.

The Raith goalie is currently sidelined by injury but after being promoted to Barry Smith’s coaching staff during the summer he has been working with Vaughan on his set pieces.

“I saw the ‘keeper had positioned himself more to his left hand side then he probably should have done and gave himself a lot of work to do,” Vaughan told the Press.

“Our assistant manager Kevin Cuthbert has been trying to make it obvious to me that if the ‘keeper has given himself work to do then to make sure I hit the target, and that’s what I did, and it’s paid off.

“Hopefully I can get a few more like that this season, it’s a long season and it’s just getting underway.”

Vaughan made a bee-line for the dug-out to celebrate his strike with Cuthbert, but the ‘keeper played down his own role.

“Fair play to him, it was some hit,” he said. “We give them ideas but you need someone of Lewis’ quality to produce.

“I hope he and the other strikers can hit a big number of goals this season.”

Rovers complete their Betfred Cup campaign at home to Cowdenbeath on Saturday but Vaughan already has one eye on the league opener at Alloa.

“We’ve got Cowdenbeath next and hopefully we can use it to build momentum before Alloa,” he said.

“They are coming to our place and we want to make it a fortress this season.

“Even if they won’t count for anything we still want to get the points, build the fitness and momentum for Alloa.

“It’s another 90 minutes in the tank and hopefully we can build as much momentum as possible ahead of the first league game.”

Raith boss Barry Smith was full of praise for his players’ performance in the 6-1 midweek cup victory.

“We had had good performanceS in the last two games and were unlucky at times but tonight the boys have stuck at it and worked hard and when we got the opportunities we took them with some great finishes,” he said.

“Scoring goals pleases me but it is made better when we get the goals that we did tonight because as much as some of them were good strikes, some were also moves we had worked on in training.

“Putting that into practice in a game is good for the coaching staff to see. It was about gaining confidence which I think we’ve done and we will take that into Saturday against Cowdenbeath and aim for the same thing and hopefully take it into the league opener against Alloa.”