Raith Rovers' Barry Robson praises "brilliant" fans' support in 2-0 Fife derby win over Dunfermline
Raith Rovers manager Barry Robson has praised home fans for their “brilliant” support in Friday night’s 2-0 home William Hill Championship victory at Stark’s Park.
On loan Hearts midfielder Finlay Pollock shot Raith into a 22nd-minute lead after wonderful set up play from Dylan Easton, before dominant Rovers clinched victory over the hapless Pars in the second half when defender Paul Hanlon stabbed home his first Rovers goal following Jamie Gullan’s 56th-minute free-kick to the back post.
And former Aberdeen gaffer Robson told Raith TV post match: "I’m delighted for the players, I’m delighted for the fans first and foremost. What an atmosphere, brilliant, I loved it.
"We would love to have them every week like that.
"I know it’s expensive and I get all that with football.
"Don’t get me wrong. When they are here they are always loud and they do well for the football club.
"That’s massive for us. I love managing in front of it and the players love playing in front of it.
"They (the fans) are the ones that make you play like that.
"When we’ve got them like that it really helps the players.
"I thought all over the pitch we were very good tonight.
"Since I’ve come in we’ve had some really, really good performances and lost a couple of games we didn’t deserve to lose.
"There today I thought we looked absolutely electric on transition.
"The way we set up, any time they played a forward pass we were after them.
"They (Dunfermline) couldn’t breathe, they couldn’t get out and we transitioned and scored a goal through Finlay Pollock.
"And then when we had the ball, especially first half, we didn’t want to make too many passes.
"We wanted to make short, quick, diagonal ones, ones where a wing back goes low and we want to get down the side of teams quickly and exploit their centre-backs.
"We did that time and time again. And then in the second half it was more about we didn’t go chasing anything.
"We just wanted to be professional, we wanted to say to them: ‘Where do you want to go? How are you going to get through us?'
"What was worrying them was the way we were pressing and transitioning on them. That was making them a bit wary of passing it.
"So by the time we got the goals we were pretty comfortable in the game and I don’t think they had a shot.”
The three points – achieved in front of the live BBC Scotland television cameras – moves Raith onto 37 points from 28 matches in fifth place, boosting their hopes of reaching the play-off positions come the end of the regular season which is now just eight games away.
Ahead of the matches today (Saturday), Raith are just four points behind fourth-placed Partick Thistle who have played the same number of matches.
Thistle host Ayr United in a 3pm kick-off this afternoon.
Raith continue their league campaign with a trip to Partick Thistle on Friday, March 21. Robson’s side then visit Greenock Morton on Tuesday, March 25. Both matches kick-off at 7.45pm.