Raith Rovers manager Gary Locke has defended goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert after the experienced shot stopper had a rare off day in the defeat to Falkirk on Saturday.
Rovers have not won a league match since the clocks went back at the end of October, and their traditional winter slump hit a new low as they conceded four to Peter Houston’s men at Stark’s Park.
Cuthbert has been in excellent form recently with several man of the match performances, including a penalty save in a recent draw with Dundee United, but he appeared at fault for two goals.
Boss Locke said: “I’m not going to be too critical because Kevin has been outstanding for us.
“It was one of those days for him. We’ve all had them. It’s important the rest of the players rally round and pull him out of the mess.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, and the fourth goal summed up our day.
“It was a shot at goal, Beni gets in the way, deflects it, and it goes in.
“It’s a bad day at the office but we’ve just got to make sure we respond next week.”
In a double blow for Raith, new signing Ryan Stevenson was taken to hospital with suspected concussion after a heavy collision with Falkirk goalkeeper Danny Rogers in the early stages.
“He’s away to hospital so we’ll have to wait 24 hours before we see how he is,” Locke said. “He was saying he couldn’t see.
“That was a blow for us because I felt he started the game well and was causing them one or two problems, but we’ve certainly got to respond better when he came off.
“You’re not going to win games if you lose the goals that we lost today. Some of them were pretty poor but we can’t dwell on it too much because we’ve defended really well all season.”
After scoring only two goals in seven games, Raith started with a new-look attack as Locke handed first starts to new signings Stevenson and Ryan Hardie.
Things seemed to be going to plan for the home side when Stevenson set up Chris Johnston for the opening goal after nine minutes, the winger latching on to his through pass to clip a finish over the advancing Rogers.
However, the Bairns levelled just seven minutes later as Myles Hippolyte curled home an exquisite free-kick from 22 yards after Ross Callachan had fouled John Baird on the edge of the area.
Cuthbert and his defence then seemed to lose concentration as Bob McHugh was allowed space to lash an effort past him at his near post to put Falkirk in front on 27 minutes.
A pivotal moment arrived eight minutes before the break when Raith were denied an equaliser by a stunning save from Rogers, who somehow clawed away a close-range header from sub Declan McManus.
Then 60 seconds later Cuthbert allowed a long-range shot from Craig Sibbald to squirm through his legs as Falkirk went 3-1 up.
The game was put beyond Raith four minutes after the restart when Sibbald’s 18-yard effort was deflected past Cuthbert by defender Kyle Benedictus, to render the second half a non-event.
Locke added: “No doubt about it – the heads went down second half.
“But one thing about this group, they are all honest lads and give everything they’ve got.
“When you’re going through a bad spell like we were today, you’ve just got to dig in and try get yourself out.
“It’s a bad day at the office, but we don’t just become a bad team.
“We’ve just got to knuckle down and go again.”
