Rovers have a crazy belief that means we always expect to win

Supersub Callum Smith grabbed a goal and an assist with a crucial cameo on Friday night – and insists Raith’s “crazy” belief means they are never beaten.

Ian Murray’s side are the comeback kings this season and produced yet another against Partick Thistle.

From 2- 0 up at the start of the second half, they found themselves 3-2 behind and blowing the chance to leapfrog Dundee United at the top of the Championship.

But Smith hit the equaliser in the 79th minute, just eight minutes after coming off the bench. And the former Airdrie and Dunfermline striker set up Sam Stanton’s winner just three minutes later to cap a breathless thriller.

Smith said: “I was going on with the mindset to get us a goal and get back in it. I managed to do that and at that point you get momentum again. It’s 3-3 and you think, ‘ We could actually go and win this.’

“We’ve shown it plenty of times this season we can do it. When it gets to that stage we know and believe as a team we can go and get a win.

“I came on when they’d just scored. Me and Aidan Connolly looked at each other and were like, ‘Let’s go and do this, let’s go and change the game.’

“We’ve done it all before. The bench always makes an impact and it was like that again on Friday night.

“But we were just full of belief. It’s crazy the belief we have in the team. We always know we can keep going and get a goal with the number of good attacking players we’ve got.

“You get that wee bit of belief from having done it before and keep doing it every week. It becomes a habit and hopefully that continues.

“When you’re scoring late goals like that, it’s sometimes better than winning 3- 0 or 4- 0 because it gives you such a buzz at the end of the game. And we’re taking so much encouragement from it.”

With a midweek trip to face Arbroath coming up, Raith have the chance to make sure they travel to face title favourites Dundee United next Saturday with a lead to protect at the top of the Championship.

Smith added: “It’s a good feeling when you go top of the league but it’s obviously still early in the season and we’re not getting too excited about that.

“We’re on a really good unbeaten run and we just need to try to keep that going.

“Next Saturday is a massive game but we’re just looking to the next game and that’s Arbroath on Wednesday.

“We’re not really thinking about Dundee United just now.

“We’ll go in on Monday morning and do our prep on Arbroath. That’s another tough place to go, we know what it’s like.

“But we’re confident and we’re on a good run so hopefully our form continues going into the Dundee United game.”