Maclean tipped to add crucial edge

Ross Matthews insists the loan signing of Steven Maclean can give Raith Rovers a massive boost in their League 1 title bid this season.

The experienced Hearts striker has joined the Stark’s Park side on loan for the remainder of the campaign and has plumped for the Kirkcaldy outfit over Championship suitors because of the prospect of helping the club to promotion.

The Fifers travel to face Airdrieonians this afternoon trying to protect a one-point advantage over rivals Falkirk at the top of League 1, with today’s opponents just three points further back.

Matthews is hopeful the arrival of Maclean, who has made 17 appearances for the Jambos this term, can help give Rovers fresh impetus for the run-in.

He said: “We’ve now got a few really experienced players in the club now – Steven, John Baird, Iain Davidson, Kyle Benedictus.

“He’ll definitely add something to the team and hopefully he scores a few goals for us in the second half of the season.

“He trained with us on Thursday night and on Friday and he’s looked good in training.

“The majority of the squad is quite young, so it’s good to have someone like that in the team that you can learn from.

“I’m sure he won’t be scared to give people advice and help the young players in the team, so he can only be good for the team and the whole squad.

“It’s a big boost for us that he’s decided to come to Raith Rovers and I’m sure he’ll do well for us.”

Raith, who had a three-goal lead at half-time, edged out Montrose last weekend after having to withstand a secondhalf comeback in the 4-3 victory.

Matthews opened the scoring and set up the third for young star Kieron Bowie and insists winning three points is all that really matters for John Mcglynn’s team at this stage in the campaign.

He added: “We’ve only got 14 league games left now, so we all know every one is massive because it is so tight. Out of all the leagues in Scoland, this is the tightest one at the moment.

“It’s especially crucial this weekend, going away to Airdrie, who are up near us at the top of the league.

“I think everyone knows how important it is, but every game is going to be important between now and the end of the season.

“After being 3-0 up at halftime, it wasn’t ideal last weekend. Before the game all we wanted was a win, but we could have made it a whole lot easier.

“Every week, we go through video analysis and the gaffer tells us what we could have done better and what we did well.

“I think there’s a lot we can take from that game because we did score some good goals and create some good chances, but then again some of the goals we lost were cheap.

“Being 3-0 up at half-time, we should have been a lot more comfortable than it turned out to be.”

Pictures: SNS. Steven Maclean has joined Rovers.

Ross Matthews scored last weekend against Montrose.