Raith will put first league loss behind them

Rovers’ four-game run without defeat in the Championship came to end on Saturday with a lacklustre 2-0 loss away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.To make matters worse, Raith were leapfrogged by Fife rivals Dunfermline who now top the table after their 2-1 win over Hearts on Friday night.It was a rather flat performance from the Stark’s Park side who had started the season in excellent form but Smith admits they found it tough going in the Highlands.“We were disappointed to lose our unbeaten run in the league but it was always going to come to an end sometime,” he says.“Inverness is a very difficult place to go, they won't lose many home games this year.“On the day, we just weren't as good as we have been in the previous games.“Looking back at it, Jamie MacDonald had to make a couple of good saves early on and we just didn't create enough.“Possession-wise it was very even in the game, as it was when we played them at Stark's Park a couple of weeks ago (a 3-3 draw in the Betfred Cup), but on Saturday we weren't quite as dynamic as we have been in that last third of the park."We didn't pick the right pass or make the right run.”Ideally Smith says he would like to see his side get back out on the pitch straight away but Rovers are idle this weekend.

The club are without a match this Saturday due to the knockout stage of the Betfred Cup being played.

"We would much rather be playing on Saturday and keep everything running smoothly so it's unfortunate we don't have a game this week.”“So we'll sit down and look at the Inverness game, put that to bed, then start to prepare for the Dunfermline game a week on Saturday.“We've looked at them a wee bit already.”Smith says Rovers plan to take the opportunity to work on the fitness of players coming back from injury and to give others a well deserved rest.He said: “We tried to get a game on Tuesday night so that the players coming back from injury like Gozie Ugwu could get a good run out, but that was cancelled unfortunately.“So we'll play a practice match later on in the week to try and get those guys' fitness up a wee bit more.“The few of them that have come back from injury have been training well.“Some of the other players, like Ross Matthews and Reghan Tumilty, have played every minute of every game so maybe it's an ideal time to recharge their batteries.“If you look across football as a whole, there's a lot of boys picking up injuries and we've had our fair share as well.“So it will give the boys a rest and come Monday they'll be back in to start to prepare for the derby.”At the time of the FFP going to print, injured striker Lewis Vaughan was due to go for an operation on his hamstring on Friday.Smith said: “He’s booked in so as long as nothing happens with the Covid situation, that will go ahead and hopefully it will go well.”