Raith Rovers' Barry Robson: Striker injuries or lack of match fitness is crippling us
With last Friday night’s 2-0 reverse at Dunfermline Athletic making it three successive losses by that same scoreline for Raith Rovers in the William Hill Championship, manager Barry Robson is facing his toughest spell since taking over at Stark’s Park last December.
But Robson, 46, whose team have slipped to sixth in the standings with 14 points from 11 matches ahead of facing Partick Thistle at home this Saturday in a 3pm kick-off, has cited the considerable injury problems he is currently having to deal with, particularly in the attacking areas.
"We’re missing players at the top end of the pitch,” Robson told Raith TV. “It’s difficult because we’re trying to find the right balance.
"Jack Hamilton has just played his fourth or fifth game in a year, he’s not played many games.
"Smithy (Callum Smith) who came on against Dunfermline and played for 15/20 minutes. He’s had his first two appearances in a year.
"Richard Chin is going to be out for three months. Vaughany (Lewis Vaughan) hasn’t played recently as well.
"So we’re a wee bit lightweight at the top end of the pitch. We are struggling but what we need to do is make sure that our setplays are better. We need to keep working with the players because they’re going through a wee tough spell right now.
"A season never goes smoothly. Nobody feels sorry for anyone, we go again and we work hard and we get ready for Partick Thistle.
"We need to get back to what we were doing at the start of the season. And we will. The players are honest and a really hard working bunch.”