Wing man Armstrong puts Raith Rovers away victory down to character

The Kirkcaldy side hit five goals despite driving rain and a swirling wind at Alloa, and both sides deserved credit for serving up a decent-paced, lively, passing game.

Armstrong was heavily involved in Raith’s opening two goals – the second of which was a Christmas gift –and had a hand in at least one other. His free-kick from the right on 17 minutes was headed by Manny Duku past a virtually-absent Alloa defence for the opener, while a 32nd minute cross from a similar position ended up swirling and dipping straight into the net for 2-0. Armstrong also helped set up sub Lars Lokotsch for Rovers’ third.

“We knew what the conditions would be like on our way up and that, in the first half, we'd be playing with the wind or without it – you get it either way,” said the 23-year-old. “You just need to take advantage, rather than having the wind on our side, and we managed to – we got two goals.

“In the second half, we knew they were going to come out and it would be attack, attack, attack. It's about character then and how the boys did, and I thought they managed very well. We conceded quite a scrappy goal but then we had the character to bounce back and score again.”

Alloa got the all-important next goal but, said Armstrong, Rovers’ character came back into play again. “It was brilliant to see Ethan get off the mark as well,” he added. “He has been brilliant, so it's good to see him getting a couple of goals. It shows the squad we have too, with Lars and Brad both coming off the bench.”