The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Rovers earn points and three days off
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ohn McGlynn revealed he is rewarding his players with a well-deserved break after a fantastic win against Championship favourites Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
A first-half header from Liam Dick followed by a late Matej Poplatnik brace ensured the Kirkcaldy side headed home with all three points.
Delighted Rovers boss McGlynn has decided to let his stars enjoy three days off. He said: “All the plaudits belong to the players – they have done an amazing job.
“We will give them a few days off before we come back and prepare for East Fife.
“We are delighted because over the last nine or 10 days we’ve had four games and the energy levels and desire has been fantastic.”
The visitors took the lead in the 20th minute when a glorious floated ball allowed Dick to loop a header over a helpless Zach Hemming.
MacDonald pulled off a fantastic save two minutes later as the hosts looked for a quick response, but Scott Robinson’s shot was matched by the Raith No 1.
In the 73rd minute, Tom Lang almost turned the ball into his own net, and MacDonald was forced to tip it wide, which led to an indirect free-kick from six yards out – but a set-piece effort was blocked well.
A minute later, though, Killie did pull level thanks to new signing Callum
Hendry, who rose highest to head home a Chris Burke cross just minutes after they both came on as substitutes.
But it was a Rovers sub who made the biggest difference as Poplatnik fastened on to MacDonald’s long ball and drilled a shot into the net on 82 minutes.
And the Slovenian hitman pounced again in stoppage time when Raith hit Killie on the break to kill the game off.
McGlynn added: “I enjoyed it very much, it was a great victory and a great performance. We set up differently, so it was important we got the first goal.
“We came down to deny space and make it difficult for Killie, so it was a massive boost taking the lead.
“We knew we would have to absorb pressure, so we had to be well organised.
“We knew we would have to defend and we did that well, Jamie (MacDonald) had one real save to make in the first half. We knew they would come at us in the second half and we maybe had to thank Jamie for keeping us in the game a couple of times when that pressure built.
“Chris Burke came on and whipped a great ball into Callum Hendry who was a guy we were trying to sign. He scored and it was game-on.
“Last week we were up 3-0 against Partick and conceded two, so no doubt Kilmarnock were thinking they’d go on and win, but our guys showed great character and mentality to not buckle. They didn’t give up and kept going until the end.”