Raith flop to first home defeat against Queen of the South

A goal in either half from Connor Shields and Thomas Goss gave the visitors a thoroughly deserved three points against a flat Rovers side who struggled to create any real chance of note throughout.

The visitors arrived at Stark’s Park sitting bottom of the Championship and left with their first away win in the league for over a year.

The home side’s midfield struggled to impose themselves and the prolific Manny Duku was well marshalled by Ayo Obileye in the Queens defence.

There was one change for the home side, Robbie Thomson took the place of the injured Jamie MacDonald in goal, whilst Queen of the South had some goalie woes of their own – Jack Leighton was injured during the warm up leading to an unexpected debut for 16-year-old Charlie Cowie.

And the youngster was called into action straight away, making a block from a Rovers shot whilst at the other end Connor Shields headed narrowly over just 60 seconds later.

Rovers stuttered in the early stages and having played so well this season it was expected that they pick up, but it failed to happen.

A shot from Gregor Buchanan was saved by Thomson but it proved to be a warning as the visitors opened the scoring a minute later from a low shot from the impressive Connor Shields.

Rovers were on the back foot and six minutes later it could have been 2-0 when Obileye headed over.

Another header – this time from Kyle Benedictus – almost sneaked an equaliser for Raith on 31 minutes but that was as close as they came and half time arrived with the score 1-0 to Queens.

On 57 minutes Allan Johnston’s side passed up a glorious opportunity to double their lead. A cross from Shields found Pybus unmarked at the back post but his attempted header was weak and Thomson was able to save.

Regan Tumilty shot well over on 66 minutes with a Fernandy Mendy header going over the bar two minutes later but Rovers weren’t troubling the teenager Cowie in the Queens goal directly.

They did have the ball in the net on 70 minutes through Duku but referee Barry Cook ruled that the striker had handled.

Rovers huffed and puffed and even the inclusion of strikers Lars Lokotsch and Gozie Ugwu failed to find and equaliser and as the match came to a close with Raith pouring men forward, Queens broke away and substitute Thomas Goss scored on 89 minutes to give his team the three points they richly deserved.

A night to forget for John McGlynn’s side.