New boys Richard Chin and Jai Rowe get off mark for Raith Rovers in 4-1 pre-season friendly win v Alloa

Englishmen abroad Chin, 22, and Rowe, 23, got the better of visiting goalkeeper Scott Taggart on 44 minutes and 54 respectively, their contributions to the scoresheet sandwiched by Lewis Vaughan’s sixth-minute opener and a 70th-minute Josh Mullin strike, with a trialist getting one back for the visitors six minutes ahead of full-time.

Next up for the Fifers after that first win of pre-season against William Hill League One opposition is a friendly away to top-flight new boys Falkirk this coming Saturday.

Kick-off against their William Hill Championship rivals of last season is at 2pm and that away-day at the Falkirk Stadium will conclude their close-season preparations ahead of a trip to Elgin City on Premier Sports Cup business seven days later.

Manager Barry Robson was pleased by the reaction he saw to Saturday’s 2-1 warm-up defeat away to fifth-tier Linlithgow Rose, especially from younger members of his match-day squad, telling Raith TV afterwards: “It was a good exeercise once again.

“I think we controlled the game for large parts.

“Our counter-pressure was very good. I actually thought it was pretty good for the weekend there as well. The biggest difference was that we took our chances, like we never did at the weekend, which was pleasing.

“A big thing that pleased me was that I got a reaction from the young players. Lewis Gibson I thought did really well. Kai Montagu did really well. Logan Raeside came on and did good.

“I was really pleased by the way they came back and reacted after what I’d said to them at the weekend and that’s what I’m looking for in a Raith Rovers player.

“I’ve got a lot of time for young players and they’re important to have about your football club – we’ve got some really good professionals here to look after them as well – but they’ve got to keep learning.

“They’ve got loads to learn but they’re in a good environment to do that.”

Robson, 46, was also pleased with the performance put in by his senior players, adding: “I thought a lot of the first-team boys were good and we got some more minutes in players.

“It’s pretty difficult to switch and match and get all the players the amount of minutes they need, so I was pleased with a lot of that out there. We’ve still got a bit to go as well.”

Robson isn’t expecting his team to be fully up to speed by the time they take on the Bairns this coming weekend but hopes they’ll be well on their way.

“We’ve got another game coming at the weekend against Falkirk and we’ll not be going into that one perfect either,” he said.

“We’re still working our players and that’ll be their third game in nine days or whatever and we’ve got loads of training sessions in between, so we’ll be a bit heavy going into that game, which is what I want, and obviously we need to use it as a fitness thing.

“It’ll be a good game to be part of as well.”