Raith Rovers' Jack Baird reflects on his 'whirlwind' debut at Dunfermline Athletic

Only announced as Dougie Imrie’s latest signing a few hours before kick-off at East End Park, the 30-year-old former St Johnstone centre-back took his place on the Raith bench but his tracksuit was off within 14 minutes as he came onto the field as a replacement for the stricken Callum Fordyce who sustained a horror eye injury.

Reflecting on his hectic start to life with the Kirkcaldy outfit, Baird told the Fife Free Press: “It was a bit of a rush in terms of getting paperwork over the line and getting signed but I think the manager wanted me involved in the squad and I was absolutely happy to do that.

"Obviously, when you start on the bench you don't expect to come on quite as early as that but it's sometimes a good thing. There's no time to think about being thrown right on.

"You're making your debut before you know it, instead of maybe overthinking it.

"It was probably important that I got 80 minutes under my belt in my first day as a Raith Rovers player so that was pretty positive. I can't really control these things. I'm happy to do it.

"I was put on between two good players in a strong back four. I’d played with Zak (Delaney) before which was good. And Paul (Hanlon) has played a number of games at an extremely high level so he made it extremely easy for me to slot in.

"Jai (Rowe) was good to play with as well. Obviously, I've been in front of Josh (goalkeeper Rae) which is good as well. He's a very strong goalie, especially at this level.

"Coming on could have been a far tougher thing to do but the four of them made it easier for me.”

Although Baird looked assured on his debut, the Fife derby was ultimately to prove a major disappointment as Josh Cooper netted the only goal of the game for Dunfermline on 88 minutes to inflict Rovers’ first 90-minute defeat of this season and their first loss in nine competitive fixtures going back to the last campaign.

Baird said: “Ultimately I was gutted to not win the game. I think it could have gone 1-0 either way. A 0-0 for me would have been a fair result.

“Both goalies made some good saves, both teams had some good chances.

"I thought we did enough for a clean sheet. We just need to take that one and move on."

The closest Raith came to scoring came after 37 minutes, when home keeper Aston Oxborough made a sensational save high up in his right corner from Calum Adamson’s brilliant volley.

Baird said: “That's a great save from their keeper. It was actually a decent move.

"I thought we worked it out well to the other side. I went long to Anton (Dowds) who had a great knockdown and it was great technique on the volley (by Adamson).

"To be honest, it's probably right up there for save of the season that one.

"But, playing against him last year, the goalie, Oxborough, you can tell he's a good goalkeeper. It's a really good save.”

Baird also looked ahead to this Saturday’s league fixture for third-placed Rovers – who have seven points from four matches – at an Inverness Caledonian Thistle side who are eignth on four points, having drawn three and lost one of their league games so far this term including being defeated 3-1 at shock league leaders Stenhousemuir last Saturday.

He added: “As a whole, it's hard to go and play Inverness, obviously because of the travel. They're a good team.

"They're off the back of a good season last year. They've got a great home record, so it would be a really tough afternoon for us to go there and get something.

"But we'll work hard this weekend and try and make that possible.”