Con nolly cracker knocks the stuffing out of fellow Fifers
A workmanlike performance from Raith Rovers saw the Kirkcaldy side edge out near neighbours East Fife to progress to the quarter finals of the SPFL Trust Trophy and manager John Mcglynn was in bouyant mood as he looked forward to the prosepct of a trip to the Highlands to face Inverness Caley in the next stage of the competition.
“Perhaps we laboured a bit early on,” said Mcglynn, “but we were comfortable throughout the game.
“It was good to see the goals being shared out among the players.
“It was disappointing to lose a goal so soon after taking the lead but we recovered quickly and after we got back in front, East Fife didn’t cause us any problems whatsoever.”
Despite languishing at the bottom of League One, with only one league win to their name all season, East Fife have enjoyed contrasting form in the SPFL Trust Trophy, hence their march to the cusp of a place in the last eight of the tournament.
And during the early stages of the game they certainly made things difficult for their Championship opponents who are very much on course for an involvement in the endof-season play-offs.
Raith squandered an early chance to take the lead when on-loan Stoke City striker Ethan Varian contrived to somehow blast the ball high over the crossbar from just three yards out.
After that, for large parts of the first half they were heavily reliant on the touchline runs of Darien Zanatta to find a way through a resilient East Fife defence.
But although the Canadian winger was seeing plenty of the ball, he found himself up against a sturdy opponent in Aaron Steele, whose surname proved to be an accurate reflection of his defensive capabilities.
With both sides flooding the midfield with bodies and, as a consequence, largely nullifying each other, a breakthrough was beginning to appear unlikely but the game exploded into life with three goals in four minutes as half time approached.
Dylan Tait opened the scoring for Raith in 37 minutes when he collected a pass from Liam Dick before somehow managing to thread his shot through the forest of defenders’ legs in front of him.
The visitors’ response was immediate.
Scott Mercer, taking advantage of a post-goal concentration lapse in the Raith defence, fired his low shot past Jamie Macdonald.
Then, as if this wasn’t sufficient drama for fans of either to side to deal with, Aidan Connolly completed the four-minute goal rush, curling a 20-yard free-kick past Jude Smith to restore Rovers’ advantage.
Raith’s decisive third goal, midway through the second half, came from the proverbial training ground move. A Zanatta corner was headed down by Christophe Berrra to substitute Matej Poplatnik who nodded home from close range.
“We did have some chances but we didn’t create as many as I’d like“reflected East Fife boss Darren Young.
“There was no lack fight nor lack of desire and I felt there were plenty positives to take from our performance.”