Raith looking '˜far and wide' in hunt for a goalscorer

Chief executive Eric Drysdale told the Press yesterday (Wednesday) that the club is looking both inside and outside Scotland for the centre-forward that manager Ray McKinnon desperately needs after 270 minutes without a goal.

“We’re examining all the options,” Drysdale said.

“I’ve had direct discussions with two clubs in the last 24 hours regarding the availability of players that the manager thinks will fit the bill.

“One of these discussions didn’t go well so we’re no longer pursuing, but we still have one live enquiry ongoing at the moment and we are awaiting a phone call.

“That’s not to say these are the only options available to us - they’re just the ones at the top of the list.

“We are looking far and wide to come up with somebody who has a record of scoring goals, but who is not currently commanding a first team spot at their club.

“Here’s hoping we can bring this pursuit to an early conclusion but it’s more difficult when we’re not in a position to pay transfer fees.”

Manager McKinnon knows exactly where the weakness in his side lies and is working tirelessly to put it right ahead of Saturday’s trip to face St Mirren.

For all the possession they had and chances they created against Alloa on Tuesday night, the lack of a clear goal threat was obvious.

And that’s not lost on the Raith gaffer who continues to scour the leagues for a man to put the ball in the net.

Louis Longridge signed on at Stark’s during the week on loan from Hamilton, and McKinnon is hoping to add another fresh face soon.

He said: “It’s clear we need a goalscorer, anybody at the Alloa game could see that.

“We need a natural.

“We’re looking hard for it but it’s very difficult.

“Against Alloa we created chances but for whatever reason we’re not sticking it in the net.”

Longridge impressed on his debut in the 1-0 defeat at Stark’s Park.

Particularly in the opening exchanges, the winger was at the heart of what the home side created.

“He’s not an out and out striker but we needed somebody to come in to add to our frontline,” said the Raith boss.

“He’s more of a wide player coming in and he showed some nice touches; he’s a decent player and he’ll add to the squad.

“We’re working hard to get a striker but it’s not easy to bring someone in who’ll score a barrowload of goals.”

The defeat was Raith’s third on the bounce.

“It’s been tough, two of those games were against Hibs,” said McKinnon.

“But anybody watching the Alloa game will agree that, on the balance of play, we should have won the game.

“Fair play to them, they hung in and fought hard before giving us a suckerpunch at the end.

“That’s football, it can be cruel and you don’t always get out of the game what you deserve.

“I’ve said to the players that we need to be more clinical and they have to step up and score .

“We could have gone five points clear in fourth and that’s the most disappointing thing.

“I’ll not be critical of the players, they tried hard to create chances and on another night we win that game, there’s no doubt about that.”

Raith have a chance to bounce straight back from the win this weekend when they travel to face St Mirren.

Alex Rae’s side have struggled to put a run of wins together but will be high on confidence following their 1-0 Renfrewshire derby victory over Morton.

“We’ll roll our sleeves up and go again,” said McKinnon.

“They’re a good squad, just out of the Premier League.

“But every game is tricky in this league as you can see by the Alloa result.”