Raith Rovers' Shaun Byrne reveals why he thinks this season has been such a struggle so far

Raith Rovers' Shaun Bryne fouls Ayr United's Anton Dowds which leads to a penalty and a red card during Raith's 2-0 loss on August 24 (Pic by Roddy Scott/SNS Group)Raith Rovers' Shaun Bryne fouls Ayr United's Anton Dowds which leads to a penalty and a red card during Raith's 2-0 loss on August 24 (Pic by Roddy Scott/SNS Group)
Raith Rovers' Shaun Bryne fouls Ayr United's Anton Dowds which leads to a penalty and a red card during Raith's 2-0 loss on August 24 (Pic by Roddy Scott/SNS Group)
Shaun Byrne says his “gutting” red card during Raith Rovers’ 2-0 loss at Ayr United on Saturday, August 24, is indicative of the misfortune the Fifers have endured during their below-par start to the new Scottish Championship season.

The pre-season title favourites languish down in second bottom spot with four points from six games after relinquishing a 3-1 home lead to draw 3-3 against Hamilton Accies last Saturday.

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And Byrne reckons his Somerset Park dismissal four weeks earlier – when he was controversially penalised for handling inside the box at the expense of a penalty which Anton Dowds scored – has been typical of the Kirkcaldy team’s bad luck.

The 31-year-old former Dundee midfielder told the Fife Free Press: "I think we’ve been a bit unlucky at times. I’ve been sent off in a game, Muzza (Euan Murray) has been sent off so we’ve not given ourselves the best chance in a couple of games so far.

"I would say my red card at Ayr was unfortunate. It could have gone the other way as well.

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"I think I’ve won about a million fouls doing that, getting hit from behind and falling on top of the ball.

"It’s one of those ones that went against me that day. I was gutted but I will move on and try and put it right in the future.

"We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to stick together.

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"I believe in this group of players and the staff we’ve got now. I think we will climb the table but there’s no point in talking about it.

"We’ve got to start doing it on the park and I’m positive we will.”

On last weekend’s late disappointment against Accies, Byrne added: “Take away the result and stuff, the way we played was by far the best we’ve played this season.

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"We had lots of shots on target, we had Hamilton penned in. We did a post match assessment and – after the penalty – Hamilton had not touched the ball in our box until the 80th minute.

"So it shows how much we dominated the game. It was a sickener to lose those goals at the end.”

Raith’s search for their second league win this season continues this Saturday when they host a second-placed Falkirk side who have won all five Championship games this campaign and impressed in a 5-2 Premier Sports Cup quarter-final loss at Scottish champions Celtic on Sunday.

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“It’s going to be an extremely tough game,” Byrne said. “They’re probably the best team in the league at the moment.

"They have started off really well. I feel they’ve taken the confidence from last season into this year.

"They’ve got a style of play, the same sort of squad and have added a few players. They all know each other’s jobs, they did really well at Celtic and I’m sure they’ll take more confidence from that game. Falkirk went there and had a go but it was a one off cup game so they didn’t really have anything to lose.

"We’re at home in front of our fans. We want to make it a tough afternoon for Falkirk and I think we’ve got good enough players to go and pose them problems as well."

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