Gary Locke may be stepping up his striker search after watching his Raith Rovers side draw a blank in a pre-season friendly defeat away to League Two Forfar Athletic.
Goals from David Cox and Kerr Hay sealed a 2-0 victory for the hosts, who are looking a good bet to bounce back from last season’s relegation on this evidence.
More concerning than the result for Raith were the injuries picked up by Mark Stewart and Kevin McHattie, particularly left-back McHattie who had to be carried from the pitch in the 68th minute after appearing to twist his knee in an awkward challenge with Hay.
Forfar also had an injury concern of their own with goalscorer Cox limping off late in the game.
It was apparent that both teams were playing their first fixture of preseason in a first half low on quality.
Forfar took the lead on 35 minutes when Cox was first to react to a knockdown from a trialist centre-half to stab the ball beyond Kevin Cuthbert from six yards.
A more positive Rovers emerged after the break with four efforts on goal in quick succession, the best of which saw new signing Bobby Barr clip the outside of the post with an angled drive.
Court also forced new Forfar keeper Grant Adam to tip over from a dipping strike from the edge of the area as Raith kept up the pressure.
Forfar doubled the lead against the run of play when Danny Denholm breezed past Jason Thomson to tee up substitute Kerr Hay to curl an effort beyond replacement Raith keeper Aaron Lennox.
Rovers struck the post for a second time late on as Ross Callachan’s header bounced back off the upright, but the failure to score puts further emphasis on Locke’s pursuit of strikers.