Buchanan: We need to question ourselves and put it right

Rovers were out-played, and out-fought, throughout a tortuous 90 minutes at Somerset Park as Ayr seized the initiative in the title race.

“The boys are hurting, and so we should be,” Buchanan said. “We came here full of confidence, and we saw what it meant to them to win a game of football.

“We now need to question ourselves, question where we went wrong, and put things right.”

Buchanan felt the loss of the first goal on 16 minutes was crucial to the way the game turned out.

“I think we started the game well, then they got their noses in front and when an Ian McCall side gets a lead, they smell blood and they took advantage of that,” he said.

“We’ve just got to look at ourselves, where we can get better, where we went wrong, and work hard on the training field.”

After a flying start to the season, Raith are now struggling for form having won just one of their last four fixtures, but Buchanan has confidence that they can come through a sticky spell.

“We don’t become a bad side overnight,” he said. “We know we’ve got good players, and it’s just important we get to playing how we know we can, and how we train every day.

“Dumbarton beat us and Tuesday was a bad result, but we’re full of belief that we’ve got enough quality in that changing room to start putting wins together again, and getting back to our best.”

Rovers cause has not been helped by injuries in defence and Scott Robertson playing out of position but Buchanan refused to use it as an excuse.

“Every team during the season will come up against injuries, and it’s about dealing with them and still finding a way to win football matches,” he said.

“We just didn’t do it and they were better on the night.”

There is still a long way to go but Buchanan wants Raith to right the wrongs of Tuesday’s performance in Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie at Peterhead.

“We want to get better and work harder so we look forward to Saturday to turn what is a bad result tonight around,” the striker added.