Raith Rovers will come back fighting next season - McGlynn

Rovers lost out in the League One play off final after Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Queen of the South saw the Dumfries side retain their Championship status after they won the first leg 3-1 at Kirkcaldy last Wednesday.

Speaking after the match McGlynn said he thought his side played well, but bemoaned their failure to get a game-changing goal.

“I think for the neutral that would have been a great game to watch,” he said, “If there’s ever a good 0-0 that would have been one.

“It was end to end stuff. I thought we started really well. We knew exactly what we wanted to do, but we just didn’t get a goal. We created enough chances.

“I thought we put Queens on the back foot right from early on. The goalkeeper has made a great save from Chris Duggan, Nisbet’s had a header at the near post and Ross Matthews has had a go from the edge of the box.

“These are very thin margins but we needed to get that first goal.

“Let’s be honest, we had to score first today to turn the nerves in the stands and terracing onto the pitch and unfortunately for us it didn’t materialise.

“Over the two legs I couldn’t be prouder of the effort the players put into the games.

“As I said, it’s fine margins. In the first game at Stark’s Park I said after that we could have been 2-2 at half time and three each at the end of the game, such were the chances.

“We had chances in that game, we just didn’t take them and that’s probably why we’ve not gone up and Queen’s have stayed in the Championship.

“There was a good claim for a penalty in the second half. I’ve seen them given, I’ve seen them not given, but it was a question asked but the referee didn’t give it. If we’d scored that and gone ahead it’s game on.

“Probably after that we didn’t quite produce the quality to attack more, which was a bit disappointing.

“Dean Lynass in the goal made a few good saves for us and I thought we defended very well to keep a clean sheet. We’ve not had too many of them this season.

“That kept us in the game right up until the final whistle. Getting a goal would have changed the game at any point.

“So I’m really proud of the players’ effort and I’m delighted with the fans who came down here today. It was an amazing support and noise.

“I want to thank them for their support this season.

“Over the 36 league games we just came up short. We couldn’t quite consistently deliver to come straight up but we’ll do our utmost to try and do that next season.

“I’m gutted that we’re playing League One football again next year. We’ll just need to dust ourselves down and come back fighting.”

McGlynn will now turn his attention to next season’s campaign where Rovers will be joined in League One by Falkirk, Peterhead and Clyde.

He said building a team to challenge for the title on a small budget will be difficult.

“We’re a couple of weeks behind everyone else now in preparation for next season,” he said, “we didn’t know if we were going to be in the Championship or in League One.

“We need to look at our budget. We have a number of players on two-year contracts which is obviously eating into the budget so we’ll need to do a bit of ducking and diving and see what we get.

“We’ve now got teams like Kelty Hearts spending fortunes on players. They’re taking players from League One and the Championship in Scotland. Those are potential players that Raith Rovers could get.

“It’s frightening the amount of money that’s going around. East Fife are buying players,

“I’ve bought one player in the seven years I’ve been at Raith Rovers, Craig Winter way, way back. He’s the only player I’ve ever bought and I’m not expecting to get any money so it’s not easy to try and do it in this league when other teams are spending money. It’s very difficult.

“I wouldn’t mind finding out what Arbroath spent last season.

“There’s 12 players that have got contracts for next season so we’ll have talks over the next couple of days. We’ll need to speak to every player individually and see what their thoughts are.

“We’ve got a League One budget, so it’s not massive.

“It won’t be easy but the Raith Rovers fans know that I will do everything I possibly can for the club.”