Raith Rovers travelled to Dundee on the 19th April for the second group of fixtures in this year’s league. Sitting second in the league 2pts from the top and 3pts ahead of third, with matches against both teams, the aim was to try and wrestle top spot from Forfar or, failing that, consolidate our current position.

Game one was against St James. Raith started well with shots from Ally and Ryan in the first 3 minutes. In the 4th minute Darren lays the ball off to Ryan who shoots and beats the keeper. 1-0 In the 6th minute John wins the ball on the left touchline. From n impossible angle, and with the keeper rising, his attempted lob rolls just past. In the 9th minute St James tie the game with shot from the left. 1-1 It’s almost a first game disaster as St James have the ball in the net in the 13th minute however the ref, rightly, blows for a penalty box infringement by the shooter. Despite further pressing by both teams there’s no more scoring and the game ends 1-1.

Linlithgow Rose 3-3 Forfar Athletic
Luncarty FC 1-1 Dundee East CSC
Oriam 1-2 Arbroath – Maroon
Raith Rovers 1-1 St James WF

Game two against Oriam starts with a bang when Ryan once again receives a pass from Darren and shoots and scores in the first minute. 1-0 Four minutes later it’s Ally feeding Ryan as he scores with a long shot from midfield. 2-0 In the 7th minute Davie makes contact with an Oriam player in the penalty area and it’s a penalty to Oriam. Oriam looked to have scored as Moog dives to his left but he throws out a foot and knocks the ball away. The hat trick comes for Ryan in the 10th minute. Good link up play sees the ball arrive at John’s feet. He holds it up nicely and places it in Ryan’s path for a keeper beating shot. 3-0 The game is all but wrapped up but Raith kept pressing with John almost scoring in the 12th minute with a turn and shot.

Hibernian CF 2-2 Dundee East CSC
Linlithgow Rose 3-0 Arbroath – Maroon
Luncarty FC 0-0 St James WF
Oriam 0-3 Raith Rovers

And on next to Linlithgow Rose, for some reason a bit of a bogey team for us. The game started well with an early pass from Ryan to Darren in a good position but the ball got caught under his feet and the chance was gone. In 5 minutes Linlithgow had the ball in the net but it was disallowed for the ball being in the keeper’s box when it was struck. However a minute later a through ball puts a Linlithgow player one-on-one with Moog in goals and he nets for a lead. 0-1 Three minutes later it’s a penalty to Linlithgow as John appears in the keeper’s box. He was clearly pushed but somehow the ref misses this and awards the penalty. Moog guesses right and gets a hand down to push the ball onto the post and justice is served. Raith push for the equaliser but despite the pressure and a shot from John that hit’s the post it’s all to no avail.

Forfar Athletic 2-0 Arbroath – Maroon
Hibernian CF 2-3 St James WF
Luncarty 3-1 Oriam
Linlithgow Rose CFC 1-0 Raith Rovers

And so to league leaders Forfar. A disastrous start sees us 3-0 down in the first three minutes with two goals that looked to be predicated with runs and a penalty for alleged contact in the penalty area. Three minutes later Forfar score again to put us 4-0 down and effectively out of the game. The team then seems to wake up and it’s almost one way traffic with Forfar no longer creating anything but holding onto the ball and managing the game when they can. Shots from John, Kev and Darren rain on the Forfar goal but either hit the woodwork or are well saved by the Forfar keeper. We get a breakthrough in 10 minutes when Darren beats the keeper. 4-1 Another opportunity goes begging in the 14th minute when a Forfar defender wanders into the box. With Ally off the pitch Darren steps up to take the penalty but only manages to hit the post to round off what has been a nightmare of a game. 4-1

Dundee East CSC 2-4 St James WF
Forfar Athletic 4-1 Raith Rovers
Hibernian CF 2-2 Oriam
Linlithgow Rose 3-1 Luncarty FC

Arbroath – Maroon 0-5 Dundee East CSC
Forfar Athletic 5-1 Hibernian CF

Reflections: We end the day one place lower than we started. It was always going to be a harder round than the first with us playing two of the top four teams at the start of the day. Team selection and the timing of changes might have been our downfall but it’s something we’ll learn for and will come back stronger for the second half of the season. Third place at the half way point is a far better position than last year so we now have a good platform to push on from.