Raith Rovers boss Neill Collins gutted by 'sobering' nature of 3-0 loss at leaders Falkirk

"Disappointed is an understatement,” Collins said. “I think from the first goal going in I thought we were second best all over the pitch.

"Falkirk are a very good side and we made them look even better today. John (McGlynn) will be happy from their perspective but from our perspective there are just so many things that we need to do better.

"We were fortunate to get in at half-time 1-0 down. I actually thought from being second best pretty much all over the pitch in the first half, first five minutes of the second half I thought we were going to get back. But again we were fragile, lost the second goal and we didn’t do enough in all departments.

"It’s very sobering. I don’t think in my time as a coach I’ve had a 90 minutes quite like that one.

"We had spells in possession but we didn’t do anything.”

Falkirk went ahead after just five minutes when Alfredo Agyeman slotted home after Calvin Miller’s cross.

After Raith had lost skipper Scott Brown to injury – he was replaced by Kai Montagu – the Bairns went close to going two up when Calvin Miller shot just wide.

The hosts came close again on 36 minutes when Miller shot inches wide of Kevin Dabrowski’s far post.

It was one way traffic towards the Raith goal and Dabrowski made a smart stop after MacIver diverted Aidan Nesbitt’s long ranger towards goal.

Although Raith started the second half with more urgency, the hosts went 2-0 up in stunning fashion when Agyeman advanced and scored with a rasping low shot past Dabrowksi from distance on 57 minutes.

Falkirk netted a third when Keelan Adams scored with a headed effort.

And Dabrowski then sprawled to stop substitute Callumn Morrison’s shot from squirming under his body.

But the damage had been done and Raith have now dropped to eighth place in the Scottish Championship on 15 points from 15 games, a whopping 23 points behind leaders Falkirk who have played a game more.

"Today I thought we started fine,” Collins said. “But we got punished, we lost a goal and from there they took the ascendancy.

"They are a team that you don’t want to be behind to at home for them.

"I still expected us to put up more of a fight, give them more problems. We just din’t do that."

Collins said that the injuries to Brown (calf) and Dabo (hamstring) would need to be assessed.

On hosting Dunfermline Athletic in the Fife derby next Saturday, Collins added: “Honestly right now I’m not really considering who we’ve got next week. I’m more considering about what we did today.

"But it’s certainly an opportunity for us to try and repay the fans who have turned up in terms of a derby win. But we’ll need to be vastly better than we were today.”

Falkirk: Hogarth, Henderson, Spencer, Nesbitt (McKenna 81), Agyeman, Oliver (MacIver 14), Adams, Graham, Ross (Morrison 73), Mackie, Miller (Yeats 73).

Raith Rovers: Dabrowski, Dick, Hanlon, Murray, Matthews, Hamilton (David 67), Stanton (Jamieson 67), Gibson (Mullin 45), Dabo (Stevenson 27), Brown (Montagu 24), Easton.

Referee: Graham Grainger​

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