Spencer relishing crucial Fife derby

BRAD Spencer admits Raith Rovers are thrilled to still be top of the table after their selection crisis – but he admits there will no excuses for this afternoon’s Fife derby clash.

The Stark’s Park outfit had to field a makeshift defence in last weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Dumbarton – just their second in 17 outings – after being robbed of the services of Kyle Benedictus and Iain Davidson through suspension and Steven Anderson and Michael Miller because of injury.

They survived the loss to stay at the summit of League One on goal difference ahead of today’s trip to Bayview to face local rivals East Fife, who are just one goal worse off.

Rovers have failed to beat their Methil neighbours in two attempts this season and succumbed to a 4-2 reverse on their last trip along the coast in August. But Spencer is hopeful John McGlynn’s side, with Benedictus and Anderson set to return, can come out on top this afternoon – in more ways than one.

The former Kilmarnock and Forfar midfielder said: “We know this is a big game. We’re joint top with them just now and it’s a derby.

“It means a lot to the fans, so hopefully we can go and get a better result than the last time we played them away from home. We know it wasn’t good enough last week against Dumbarton and we want to go and put it right.

“It’s hard playing with a makeshift back four but, still, we weren’t good enough, but it will be good to get a couple of experienced boys back in the team for this game.

“If we can get a stronger team on the pitch it’s a bonus but, no matter what, we all know what we need to do to win the game, and we’ve got a squad of players who can go out and get the result we are looking for.

“We’re sitting top. Even if it’s by goal difference, we’re still top of the league and it’s good to be sitting up there, especially with the luck we’ve had with injuries.”