Reaction

Andy Scott scored a magnificent goal against Raith Rovers on Saturday at Kirkcaldy, only to be cancelled out a minute later when Fraser Forrest handled the ball, giving the home side the chance to draw level. The Wasps had looked to take something from the game but found Gary Wales, Kevin Smith and Graham Weir in sparkling form. Raith Rovers are a good side and moved to the top of the League after Saturdays 4-1 victory, we must continue to focus on each game and the next three games are all important games which we will look to take something from, no better game to look forward to than a local derby against our closest rivals, Stirling Albion. The players are all fully aware of just how big a game next Saturday’s game is, and are looking forward to the game. Having won our last two home matches we will be looking to keep that going and look forward to building on the confidence of winning at home again.

allan maitland after raith rovers defeat

We came up against a very good Raith Rovers side today, the tempo off the game was obviously played at a tempo they wanted, they banged it forward as quickly as they possibly could, they got plenty of support, we didn’t deal with enough of the first balls well enough, I thought their front three caused us problems throughout, but having said that, I thought we started the game well and scored an absolute magnificent goal, but having done that it is really important that we hold the lead for a length of time and the penalty we gave away was inexcusable, there was no need for it, the ball played against his hand when there was nobody within ten yards of him, so that allows Raith Rovers a break which they probably didn’t need at this stage, It was a penalty I have no qualms about it, then they got a break at the second goal, somebody shoots, we block it and it falls straight to Mark Ferry who finishes it fantastically well. They were just sharper and better than us simple as that, on the day they were just better that us, they have a lot of confidence and you can see why they are sitting top of the league, they have loads of good players playing well, the front three caused us problems throughout and I think we contributed to our own downfall – with the penalty kick, we didn’t defend the second goal well enough and you know I’m going to have a go about referee’s – I just feel that when you come to places like Kirkcaldy, it is really important that you manage to stop to momentum of the game coming towards your end of the park all the time and I don’t think that happened because we were going up for headers, the front three who were not going to win the ball at that stage are constantly jumping into you and the ball is never getting cleared from our end of the park, we don’t clear it properly the momentum of the game is constantly at our end of the park, but that is an observation more than anything else. It is difficult for the referee as it is, the crowd are loud, they claim for free kicks, Graham Weir likes to go down for the free kicks, they obviously get them and that causes a problem, but no qualms that the better team won and we have a long way to go before we can reach Raith Rovers standard at the moment. Our start to the season has been so bad that our away form must improve rapidly – we have Stirling Albion at home next week, Stranraer the following week away and Queen’s Park at home the following week and it’s really important for our season that we start to win these games. When we go to Kirkcaldy or even Brechin, you could argue these are games at the moment we are not capable of winning, our confidence isn’t high enough but we have to make sure we get something from these next three games, our away form is horrendous but we need to address that.