Raith Rovers draw blank but pick up point on road at Arbroath

That stalemate in Angus yielded caretaker manager Paul Hanlon’s first point in charge of the Kirkcaldy club and it lifts them up one place in Scottish football’s William Hill Championship to sixth, on 19 points from 16 fixtures, four points shy of their fourth-placed hosts and the division’s top-four play-off places ahead of a trip to league leaders St Johnstone on Saturday, December 6, with kick-off at 3pm.

That was the first time Raith and the Red Lichties had drawn a blank since December 2021, also at Gayfield Park, their 11 meetings in between having seen 39 goals scored.

Co-managers Colin Hamilton and David Gold’s hosts got closer to adding to that tally at the weekend in front of a crowd of 1,688, forcing visiting goalkeeper Josh Rae into four saves from six shots all together.

Raith, playing three up front to Arbroath’s one and enjoying almost 60% possession, also registered six shots over the course of Saturday’s 90 minutes but none were on target.

Defender Hanlon, 35, was happy enough to head back south with a point come tea-time on Saturday, telling Raith TV afterwards: “It was a hard-fought point. It always was going to be hard fought up here.

“They were difficult conditions, especially in that first half. We had to defend for our lives at times and put our bodies on the line.

“That’s what I asked of the boys before the game, to give everything they’ve got, and I don’t think anybody could be in any doubt that we got that.”

Hanlon was disappointed not to see his four-three-three formation test home No 1 Aidan McAdams but was full of praise for his midfielders and forwards none the less, saying: “We changed it a little bit.

“We’d been looking at Arbroath quite a bit and they sometimes want to play through the middle, so we tried to have as many bodies in there as possible and trust in our quality to tidy it up at times in those tight areas, then get wide and attack.

“It worked at times. The game was scrappy at times, especially in the first half, but I felt like we went in at half-time with a real platform to build on and go and win the game.

“At times in the second half, we had good opportunities but we just didn’t get those fine details right to make those opportunities even more clear cut.

“I thought we saw some big performances. I thought Jack Hamilton was fantastic, providing a real kind of platform for us and giving their back-line a really hard time.

“There’s a platform there to build on but there’s just frustration at the finer details not quite being there and that’s maybe what would have got us three points.

“We felt like a proper team. Everyone to a man that set foot on the pitch was giving everything, and that needs to be the standard every single week. You could tell it was real team effort.

“Everyone was focused and determined.”

Next up for Raith is a third-round Scottish Cup tie at home to William Hill League One’s Alloa Athletic, with kick-off at Stark’s Park at 3pm