Raith Rovers up to fifth in William Hill Championship after biggest win v Ayr United since 2007
Raith Rovers’ biggest win against Ayr United for almost 20 years has lifted them up into the top half of football’s William Hill Championship and taken them nine points clear of the foot of the table.
The Kirkcaldy club’s 3-0 victory against the west coast side at their Stark’s Park home ground on Friday in front of a crowd of 3,113 takes them up two places to fifth, on 36 points from 31 fixtures, ahead of their next league fixture at home to sixth-placed Greenock Morton on Saturday, April 11, with kick-off at 3pm.
Manager Dougie Imrie’s hosts are now only four points off the division’s play-off places, though fourth-placed fellow Fifers Dunfermline Athletic have got two games in hand. Visiting gaffer Scott Brown’s Ayr fall three places to eighth, on 35 from 30, after seeing their current winless streak extended to nine games.
Friday’s result – secured by goals past visiting keeper Max Thompson from loan striker Innes Cameron on six minutes and 60 and Richard Chin on 67 – was their biggest margin of victory since one by the same scoreline back in December 2007 on the road.
It was their ninth win of this season and also their 15th clean sheet, with home No 1 Josh Rae only having to deal with one shot on target, a sixth as many as faced by Thompson at the other end of the pitch.
Imrie, 42, was delighted to see his side notch up their second win in their last three games – their last being by 3-1 hosting Airdrieonians six days previously, sandwiching a 2-0 defeat at home to Partick Thistle last Tuesday – telling Raith TV afterwards: “It was a terrific night. It was everything we wanted.
“We took our opportunities when they came along.
“The first goal from Innes was a striker’s dream. He used his body against their centre-back to get in and then the lift over the goalkeeper was excellent.
“The last week’s been very good. We wanted more points than we had, and to get six out of nine is OK. We’d rather have had seven or nine but it wasn’t to be. To get six out of nine is excellent.
“This week alone the players have shown how good a team they can be when they switch on and do the right things, like we’ve been asking them to, and the confidence is there now.
“That confidence is coming back at the right time of the season as well.
“A few weeks ago, everything looked to be doom and gloom but this week has got us looking up the way and we want to continue that between now and the rest of the season.”
Friday’s win came at a cost, however, with defender Paul Hanlon going off injured on 39 minutes and midfielder Andy Winter doing likewise six minutes later, with Darragh O’Connor and Josh Mullin respectively replacing them.
“We picked up two injuries in the first half, which didn’t help the flow of the game, so to go in 1-0 up at half-time was excellent as we could reset from there,” said Imrie.
“Paul picked up a knock to his knee, so we’ll need to see how that is. Andy went off with a knock to his back as well.
“That kind of stopped the flow of our game but the other two fitted in seamlessly. I thought they were excellent.”