Raith stalwart optimistic ahead of league campaign

The 1-0 reverse was Gary Locke’s first competitive defeat and resulted in Raith exiting the Betfred Cup at the group stage, but Davidson insists that things are going well under the new boss and his assistant Darren Jackson.

The 32-year-old midfielder has worked under six managers in 10 seasons at Stark’s Park, split across two spells.

He has been encouraged by the early days of Locke’s tenure and has high hopes of another good season in the Championship.

“The gaffer and Jacko have really impressed me,” Davidson told the Press.

“They are very well organised in their preparation and attention to detail.

“I’ve really enjoyed the short time we’ve been with them already and I think there’s a lot of positives, barring Saturday obviously.

“Hopefully it can be another decent season for us in what will probably be a harder league than last year.”

Despite dominating possession on Saturday, particularly in the second half, Raith struggled to find space against a packed Alloa defence.

“We probably played into their hands,” he said.

“It was a game of throw-ins, free-kicks and it suited them.

“We just couldn’t get going. We couldn’t get our creative players on the ball.

“You have to give them respect but it’s up to us to do something about that, and unfortunately we weren’t good enough and let ourselves down.

“That’s the saddest thing because we’d done a lot of hard work up in the competition up until then, and now we’re out.”

Davidson stressed the need to respond at Somerset Park this Saturday as the league campaign starts with a tough trip to newly-promoted Ayr United.

“It’s a horrible place to go,” he said. “I remember going down there with John McGlynn years ago and it was always difficult.

“It’s always a battle and sometimes the wind machine is on down there.

“The boys are a bit low, but it’s all about how we react now and make sure we get a positive result from Ayr.”