Raith Rovers suffered their first defeat in five at Dens Park last weekend.
It brought to an end a run that saw Ian Murray’s side carve sides open with some great goals.
Rovers have conceded 16 Scottish Championship goals in 15 matches, only Morton have conceded fewer with 15.
They drew a blank in that defeat to Dundee and were undone by two issues: one that was evident earlier in the season and another – less within their control – that has flared up recently.
Paying the penalty
Three of the goals Raith have let in have come via the penalty spot.
There was no debating the one awarded to Inverness at the start of September.
The one conceded against Morton was dubious at best and Saturday’s comes amid mass confusion about the handball rule.
Morton’s penalty award:
Rovers have conceded the same amount of penalties as Cove Rangers and one fewer than Hamilton – with those two sides conceding 55 league goals between them so far.
That means Rovers have let in 13 non-penalty goals. Five of those have been from set-pieces.
Though Zach Robinson’s second for Dundee on Saturday was the first goal they have conceded from a set-play since Stephen Eze’s winning header for Queen’s Park at the start of October.
Eze’s goal:
Before that the there were the two goals on the opening day versus Cove Rangers and Cameron Blues’ near-post header in the win over Morton.
Cutting out early goals
Billy McKay’s goal for Inverness came in injury-time when Rovers were chasing the game and had barely any recognised defenders on the pitch.
The is no discernible pattern from the other goals conceded and we are still working with a small sample size at this stage.
Two things are clear though: Raith are not conceding a lot and most of what they have conceded is from set-pieces – something identified and clearly acted on.
Another area that seems to have been addressed is going behind early in matches.
In their last 10 Championship matches Raith have conceded two from 12 goals in the first half of matches – both equalisers, to Inverness and Hamilton.
In their opening five matches before that they conceded in the opening 45 minutes in three of them – defeats to Cove, Dundee and Partick Thistle
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