The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Goal-hungry trio can fire Rovers to league glory, says Spence
RAITH ROVERS 2 COWDENBEATH 0
Raith Rovers front man Greig Spence reckons a friendly rivalry among the strikers can help fire the team to promotion this season.
Spence lost early ground in the race to be top scorer as strike partners Liam Buchanan and Lewis Vaughan grabbed the goals in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Cowdenbeath in the Betfred Cup.
Vaughan is the early frontrunner with four to his name already, while Buchanan has three and Spence one, but the 25-yearold expects the competition to be close.
“The biggest asset we’ve got is the three of us are hungry to score goals,” he said.
“You get players who are just happy to be involved, but the three of us want to score.
“I didn’t score today but I’ve set Buchanan up for his goal, and I get plenty out of that as well.
“As long as we’re winning, playing well and scoring goals that’s the main thing.”
Raith failed to progress to the knock-out stages but Spence believes the team can take confidence from their Betfred Cup performances into next week’s league opener against Alloa.
“After the two Dundee games it was vital we won the next two and we’ve done that quite comfortably,” he said.
“It’s good that boys have scored goals, the team’s played well and we’ve got a clean sheet. It’s been perfect preparation for next week.”
After scoring six against Buckie Thistle in midweek, Raith started the match on the front foot and took just eight minutes to break the deadlock.
Ross Callachan hit the by-line and his cross was helped on by Buchanan to Vaughan, who took a deft touch to tee the ball up before hitting a volley past Joe McGovern.
Cowdenbeath struggled to contain Rovers free-flowing football and the ‘keeper was beaten again on 31 minutes when Ross Matthews crossed to the far post where Spence nodded down for Buchanan to fire home from 10 yards.
Raith remained comfortable after the break and although they struggled to regain the fluency of the first half, boss Barry Smith was pleased to finish the Betfred Cup campaign on a high.
“The boys have certainly given us something to smile about in the last two games,” he said.
“It lets us go into the Alloa game with momentum but we will only get a result if they work as hard as they have done through pre-season and the cup games.”
Cowdenbeath boss Billy Brown admitted the team will need to improve for their League 2 opener away to Elgin City this Saturday.
“We didn’t compete at all in the first half, but we acquitted ourselves fairly well in the second,” he said.
“We’ve got to be realistic and say we’ve got to get better, but we won’t be playing teams as good as that in our division.”