Chris Duggan keen to make his mark after biding his time at Raith Rovers

The 24-year-old has yet to start a match under John McGlynn having endured an injury-hit first half of the season following his move from East Fife in the summer.

However, an unfortunate injury to top scorer Kevin Nisbet in the 10th minute presented Duggan with a chance to make his mark, and he certainly seized the opportunity with a goal as well as a significant contribution to the overall team performance.

"It's been tough for me getting back into the team," said the Australian-born front man.

"The timing of the injury wasn't great with the gaffer coming in, and when you're pushing for a league title chances are you're going to win most weeks.

"I knew when I came back I'd have to bide my time.

"It's unfortunate with Nizzy, hopefully it's not too bad, but it's made me ready whenever called upon."

A 15-goal return at East Fife last season would suggest that Duggan certainly knows the way to goal.

He showed his penalty box prowess with a well-taken goal shortly after half-time to put Raith 5-1 up, and he could have added to his tally were it not for the woodwork and two close offside calls.

"On another day I could've had four," he said.

"I've been told the first one was never offside ... so that's great.

"The one off the post, on another day it goes in.

"The last one I knew myself I'd maybe strayed a little bit offside because I was that eager to get there.

"That's the longest I've played in a couple of months, so there are still little things I wasn't happy with, touch-wise.

"It was a case of about putting myself about and I know if I do that I'll score goals no problem."

Rovers' performance, albeit against 10 men for 70 minutes, was a significant improvement on the previous week's derby defeat at home to East Fife.

"The boys were really disappointed about the derby last week," he said.

"We showed that we could have done that last week if we were on our game.

"Them going down to 10 men early doors helps but I've played against 10 men before and not been able to break them down at all.

"It just shows with the players we've got, if we're firing on all cylinders it's really hard to stop us."

Raith fans already have one eye on the big Scottish Cup derby against Dunfermline at Stark's Park on January 19 but Duggan is only focused on the next league game.

"It's a big game and you always want to play in those kind of matches," he said.

"But the main thing for us is to get a run going before that game, so the only game we're looking to is Airdrie next week."