Ian Murray has hopes the penalty-shootout defeat in the Premier Sports Cup group stage to Stirling Albion serves as a “wake-up call” to his side.
The Raith Rovers boss added that new signings are needed ahead of their Championship bid.
Aidan Connolly opened the scoring for Raith before Kieran Moore equalised for the visitors.
Stirling went on to win 6-5 on penalties for the bonus point.
With few options in reserve, and Scott Brown and Sam Stanton finishing the game in defence, it was a makeshift side that ended the game.
Disruption due to covid
Murray revealed that a signing was close earlier in the week before covid scuppered his plans.
“We’ll work on that tonight straight away and see what the situation is,” he added.
“We need players. We’re not the only team in that boat.
“We’re putting square pegs in round holes at the moment.
“The league opener is not too far away for us now and we need to get an established starting XI.
“We know the areas we are weak in, which is the defence and the strikers.”
The Raith boss conceded his side “huffed and puffed a wee bit” versus Stirling and that a draw was a fair outcome.
‘Far too deep’
Youngsters Kieran Mitchell, Quinn Coulson, Luke Mahady and Aaron Arnott all came on as second-half substitutes.
One of those replaced Christophe Berra, the only established centre-half at the club.
It worked in giving Raith a higher defensive line, leading to more chances – but ultimately Blair Currie in the Stirling goal had little to do.
There were a few factors within the game,” continued Murray.
“Our individual players who are very good at going forward didn’t get on the ball.
“We didn’t handle the physical contact well and we were far too deep as a backline – starting the game too deep, taking too long on the ball.
“That gives teams opportunities to be nice and compact against you.
“The knock-on effect to the midfielders and the strikers is so big that you need to progress if you want to play high.
“We were at least 15 yards deeper than we were on Wednesday night and it caused us problems.”
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