Unbeaten start to new football season over for Raith Rovers
Raith Rovers were hit by their first loss of the new William Hill Championship football season away to Partick Thistle on Saturday and that defeat leaves them three points shy of pole position.
They’re now second in the table and level on seven points from four fixtures with third-placed Arbroath and fourth-placed Partick, their goal difference being two better than the former’s and three superior to the latter’s.
St Johnstone are top of the table, on ten points, after keeping up their unbeaten start to the current campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Greenock Morton at the weekend, that stalemate being the first points they’ve dropped.
Raith’s 3-2 defeat on Saturday, in front of a crowd of 3,871 at Firhill Stadium in Glasgow’s Maryhill, extends a winless run away to Thistle to three games, their last win there, by 2-1, having been in a premiership play-off in May last year.
Dylan Easton scored for the Kirkcaldy club past home goalkeeper Joshua Clarke on 22 minutes, converting a penalty awarded by referee Peter Stuart for a foul on Paul McMullan by Lee Ashcroft, and Ross Matthews got their other goal on 36, with Tony Watt, Aidan Fitzpatrick and Logan Chalmers netting in the other direction, on seven, 13 and 75 respectively.
Next up for Raith is a trip to Morton this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm at Cappielow Park, and manager Barry Robson’s side head west to Inverclyde hoping to end a three-match winless run there since their last away victory against the Ton in October 2023.
Robson, 46, blamed getting off to a slow start for his team’s first league loss of the season, telling Raith TV: “The thing that frustrated me was that I didn’t think we performed for the first 15 minutes of the game and that’s not like us.
“We didn’t commit to our press like we normally do and it was too easy for them to get through.
“It’s very unlike us as a team, not like us at all.
“It was like we had to lose two goals to waken up, which, for me, is strange, but then we did and we got back into the game and after that it was probably all Raith. We went for the game and we got our equaliser.
“We were the one team going for it in the second half. We went to a four-two-four to try and win the game.
“We created some really good opportunities and we looked really dangerous at times, but it’s that same old thing, that first ten to 15 minutes that cost us.
“It was really, really unlike us because we normally fly out of the traps for the first ten or 15 minutes.
“It’s a difficult one to take. We didn’t deserve to lose the game, that’s for sure. I think we would all agree on that.
“It was a close game and I think the best clear-cut chances came from us.
“It’s the first time in, I think, 14 games that they’ve lost, so it’s not a natural feeling for them, and they should feel aggrieved because we probably didn’t deserve to lose that game.
“My grievance is just with that first ten minutes because you could see after that that we’re a good side.”