Raith Rovers' Barry Robson 'incredibly proud' of 2500+ travelling support at Celtic

Although the 25/1 underdogs ultimately lost 5-0 to Hoops goals by Daizen Maeda (3), Luke McCowan and Yang Hyun-Jun to exit the Scottish Cup at the fifth-round stage to the runaway Scottish Premiership leaders, Raith never stopped running and this impressive work ethic was matched by their colourful supporters adding greatly to the atmosphere in a crowd of 39,207.

"Not a lot of premier league teams will come here with that amount of fans,” Robson told Raith TV post match.

"When you're a player out there and it is a big lonely pitch to play on, you do need those fans.

"They were singing, singing and singing. I'm just gutted we couldn't get a goal for them.

"I hope they had a brilliant day. They saw their players were fighting and running for them and I was proud of that fanbase and proud of Raith.

"If Josh (Mullin) had just scored that chance it could have been a wee bit different.

"But it was always going to be a massive struggle. We fought and we run and we move onto the next game.

“That excited me today. That support, I'm liking that.

"This club is a really good club and I'm here to try and do my best. And I'm here to try and take this club forward.”

Ex-Aberdeen boss Robson, who made 42 league appearances for Celtic between 2008 and 2010, reckons his Rovers players will learn greatly from their experience at Parkhead.

He said: "I'm proud of the fans today. I'm proud of the work-rate of the players. The players have learned bucketloads today and they see what it's like three, four levels up.

"We knew as a team Celtic pass and move it and when they give the ball away their counter pressure is instantly on you. I watched them against Dundee the other night, they were brilliant at it.

"And that's what makes it difficult for us as a team. And when you have to go and move from side to side and chase the ball, you do lose a bit of energy on the other side of it.

"So that's the difficult part.

"But this is an unbelievably tough place to come. Raith Rovers came here today as a club and I thought the players showed up, the fans were here and were singing songs.

"I'm not happy with the result but I was happy with the way the club handled itself all round.

"There's no such thing as a free hit because this Celtic team can take countless goals off you.

"First half we should have gone in at 1-0. Second half I think we got right through to whatever time until we lost a goal.

"But even then after the fourth one went in we were still fighting to be in there.

"I'm really disappointed although a team like Celtic is not our fight."

Raith resume their William Hill Championship campaign at home to Partick Thistle this Saturday in a 3pm kick-off.

Robson added: "I said to the players in there, the message was clear: 'Let's go and attack Partick Thistle and be positive', because we've put some really good performances in over the last month.”