Character is key at Raith Rovers says John McGlynn

Raith Rovers manager John McGlynn has called on his side to show character in every game they play following Saturday's loss to Forfar.
Raith Rovers boss John McGlynnRaith Rovers boss John McGlynn
Raith Rovers boss John McGlynn

The Stark’s Park boss said he was disappointed with the second half performance at Station Park which saw Rovers throw away a 2-1 half time lead to lose 3-2.

With League One leaders Arbroath winning, Raith now trail the Gayfield side by seven points as they bid for promotion.

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McGlynn said Rovers were “too passive” in the second half, adding: “To play at Raith Rovers you have to show character every week.

“We do have it – before I was here they came back from being down to 10 men and two goals behind to Airdrie, and then last week we played a whole half with 10 men and won the game.

“But you can’t just turn that off and on Saturday in the second half we didn’t show enough of that.

“As far as I’m concerned Raith Rovers is a massive football club and you can’t take your foot off the gas here. You have to keep working hard for however long the game lasts.

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“We weren’t aggressive enough, we were too soft and we can’t allow that to happen.

“We did it away to Stranraer – we had to dig in with just 10 men – and we did it very well.

“On Saturday we gave Forfar far too much time on the ball and they eventually punished us which was a sore one to take because we hate losing football matches.”

McGlynn added that, as Rovers are the full-time team in League One, he expects to see them overpower other teams as the match goes on.

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“In the second half that wasn’t quite the case. It was disappointing all over,” he said.

“Obviously we lose our unbeaten record and Arbroath have capitalised with them winning and us losing.

“But we’ll dust ourselves down, train well and gear up for our next match.”

Having had over a month to work with the squad after returning to the club, McGlynn says he’s pleased with the quality of players at his disposal, but has pinpointed an area in which they need to improve.

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“We’ve got plenty quality and talent, with some very gifted players,” he said, “ and with the ball we are very good – we need to get better without it.

“When we don’t have the ball and the opposition do, we need to get better at that side of the game.

“It’s something that my teams in the past were always very good at so we need to get this team to be good at it as well.”

Rovers welcome Brechin City to Stark’s Park this afternoon and the boss says it’s a chance to get back to winning ways.

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“It probably doesn’t matter who it is this weekend, I’m looking for a response from my players after last Saturday. They need to show that it was a one-off.

“When we’re on top in games and we’re passing the ball well, we need to kill the opposition off and don’t give them any lifelines or chances to get back in the game like we did at the weekend.

“Brechin will cause us problems if we go about our business in that way, so we’ve got to show that we’re ruthless when we’re on top.

“These are the things that we are trying to implement and move forward in our game, for this weekend and games to come.”