Gillespie says Rovers must keep believing the title race is still on

RAITH: Never say never for Fifers as runaway leaders slip up once again

RAITH ROVERS 1 AIRDRIE 0

Raith Rovers midfielder Grant Gillespie reckons Arbroath could still throw away the League One title.

Gillespie struck with 16 minutes left to earn Rovers a 1-0 win over Airdrie, which combined with Arbroath’s second successive defeat – surprisingly at home to bottom of the table Stenhousemuir – saw the Kirkcaldy side close the gap on the leaders to 12 points.

With eight games remaining it remains highly likely that the title will be heading to Gayfield, but while Gillespie admitted Raith have left themselves a mountain to climb, he has not yet given up all hope.

“It’s bitterly frustrating,” he said. “Arbroath are in a bit of freefall at the minute and we’re miles away.

“We can look back on games where we’ve been in winning positions and we’ve thrown away points.

“That’s the biggest disappointment to this point, but there are eight games left, so never say never.

“The way they’re going they might throw it away so it’s just up to us whether we can put enough points together if we can be there at the end of the season and catch them. It’s up to us to take the positives and move on to Forfar next week.”

Gillespie was particularly satisfied that Rovers managed to grind out a 1-0 win by earning only their fourth clean sheet of the league season.

“We’ve not had a lot of one-nils this season so it was good to get a solid performance defensively as well,” he said.

“We’ve often had to score two goals at least to win a game, but today we showed we can do both sides.

“It was a great team performance and a platform to build from.”

Gillespie almost put Raith in front inside two minutes as he raced into the box and touched Liam Buchanan’s pass on to the post.

Rovers dominated the opening spells without reward, and Airdrie almost landed a sucker punch before half-time when Daryll Duffy’s header beat Robbie Thomson but defender Iain Davidson saved the day with a brilliant goal-line clearance.

The home side were struggling to turn concerted pressure into clear-cut chances, until the 74th minute when Gillespie raced on to a Jamie Barjonas cut-back to volley home from close range.

Rovers were able to see out the game relatively comfortably, leaving manager John Mcglynn pleased to have capitalised on Arbroath’s defeat.

“It’s the first time we’ve actually taken advantage of Arbroath slipping up,” he said.

“We should be kicking ourselves because we should be a lot closer than it is. It’s all over bar the shouting and sometimes when that edge is away from the league leaders, you can drop your standards.

“We’ve just got to consolidate, we’re now back in second place, and we want to finish the season in form with good momentum and be prepared for whatever.”

SNS Grant Gillespie has called on his team-mates to build on the victory over Airdrie and put pressure on leaders Arbroath.