Raith Rovers take the points against Hearts

You have to go back to January 1994 to find Rovers’ last win over the Edinburgh side – it’s been a long time coming but it was thoroughly deserved.

Goals from Gozie Ugwu and Regan Tumilty either side of a Manny Duku penalty secured the win for John McGlynn’s side, with Liam Boyce pulling a double back for Hearts.

Rovers could even afford a missed first half penalty on the way to victory.

Despite the Covid outbreak at Stark’s Park which had forced the cancellation of the club’s previous fixture against Inverness, McGlynn was able to field what was close to his first choice side.

One noticeable absence was top scorer Duku. In his place came Ugwu for his first start for Raith, with Rangers loanee Kai Kennedy making his debut.

The match had barely started when Raith stunned the league leaders by taking the lead.

A Dan Armstrong corner was played short to Kennedy and when the ball was played into the box it pinged around until it landed to Ugwu who rolled it into Craig Gordon’s net.

There was little between the sides after that until around the 20 minute mark when the home side started to exert some pressure, but then Rovers came close to scoring when Kennedy’s pass to Armstrong was played low across goal and Ugwu was a whisker away from meeting the ball.

But just two minutes later Raith were handed a golden opportunity to double the lead.

Dan Armstrong was tripped in the box by Stephen Kingsley and Regan Hendry stepped up to take the resultant penalty but it was superbly tipped on to the post by Craig Gordon and cleared.

On 37 minutes Regan Tumilty hit a shot that was too high then a minute later Hearts had their first shot on goal but Mackay-Steven’s weak effort was easily saved by Jamie MacDonald.

Half time arrived with Raith who had looked lively in attack and solid at the back well deserving of their lead and once the second half got underway, they added another early goal.

Kennedy was tripped in the box and Manny Duku who had replaced Ugwu at half time made no mistake with his first touch of the ball.

Six minutes later and Rovers were in dream land when they added a third.

Kennedy, giving the Hearts defence a torrid time yet again made his way into the opposition’s box and played the ball across goal where Regan Tumilty tapped it into an empty net.

Rovers were now firmly in the driving seat but the home side began to fight back and on 58 minutes when sub Josh Ginnelly crossed for Liam Boyce to flick home a header.

The Jambos were now determined to get back into the match but found a keeper in inspired form with former Hearts stopper MacDonald pulling off three stunning saves to keep his old team at bay.

Hearts did pull one back, Boyce again with a header from an Andy Irving corner, and right at the death MacDonald denied Steven Naismith with a wonderful point-blank save.

It would have been harsh on the visitors who battle hard for a richly deserved win.

Hearts were poor, Rovers excellent and there’s nothing to suggest that they can’t make it a double when the Jambos come to Stark’s Park on Tuesday.