This weekend, Raith Rovers host Dunfermline at Stark’s Park for the second time this season.
Dunfermline earned the bragging rights with a penalty shootout victory back in July at before Rovers took all three points in the first Championship Fife derby of the campaign.
Courier Sport looks back at those two matches ahead of the third meeting between the Kingdom’s rivals.
Raith 1-1 Dunfermline (2-4 on pens)
Viaplay Cup, July 15
This game has to be taken in the context of it being the first competitive football the sides played this season.
With Rovers’ Ross Millen missing, Sean McGill filled in at right-back and was given a difficult afternoon by Lewis McCann, who opened the scoring for the Pars.
McGill has since bounced back, most recently starring in Raith’s win over Cliftonville.
Since then, the Rovers backline has been improved by the addition of Euan Murray and Millen should be available.
While a draw in 90 minutes was a fair result back in July, Rovers edged it on the day without creating too many clear-cut chances.
Their bench was pretty thin though and has been in a similar state in recent weeks due to injuries.
The same could be said about the Pars, who have lost a number of key players since the Championship season kicked off.
With this weekend’s Fife derby also at Stark’s Park, will we see Dunfermline take a similar approach by trying to keep it tight, first and foremost, especially after consecutive defeats?
What they said
Afterwards, the Dunfermline manager said that “neither side deserved to win” and that his players had higher levels they could reach.
“They had spells, we had spells on transition where we looked dangerous,” said McPake.
“We should’ve been more free, more confident on the ball and, for me, it was the simple things that let us down.”
Ahead of the next Fife derby, Raith manager Ian Murray said he was looking forward to a less unusual meeting with Dunfermline.
“I thought we probably shaded it, but it was really hard. Dunfermline are a really well-drilled team,” he said.
“Defensively they’re very good, they have played their formation for a long time now. They’re accustomed to it and robust with it.”
Dunfermline 0-1 Raith
Scottish Championship, August 26
The phrases ‘a different Raith Rovers’ and ‘wouldn’t have won that game last year’ have been uttered a lot around Kirkcaldy recently.
The league win at East End Park in August, their first in 10 years, is the prime example.
In the second half of August’s league clash, Raith showed improvements to the defensive side of their game.
It left the Dunfermline players and management staff wondering how they didn’t manage to breach the Rovers goal in a second half they thoroughly dominated.
In the end, Raith came closest to a second half goal through Sam Stanton who had earlier nodded the away side ahead.
Dunfermline were yet to add Owen Moffat and Alex Jakubiak to their side and McPake could well turn to them for this weekend after both started on the bench in the defeat to Ayr.
Their problem certainly wasn’t in dominating the ball or creating, more in their inability to convert and, as the game wore on, creating anything clear-cut.
What they said
Raith full-back Ross Millen was keeping his glass “half-empty” after the win, but Rovers have lost just once since.
Pars boss James McPake said afterwards that his side “were nowhere near it” in the first half.
“A goal in the second half, with this crowd behind us, we could have went on and got all three points,” he added.
Conclusions
Saturday’s line-ups will be determined, in no small part, by who is declared available on match day.
Kyle Benedictus could be in line for a return, more on that will be learned at Thursday’s press conferences.
After two consecutive defeats, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a tight approach from Dunfermline but will we also see a switch to a back four?
McPake is no stranger to the shape but hasn’t started a match with a four-man defence in quite some time.
Exactly who forms the front four or five for Raith is anyone’s guess, especially with recent injuries.
Whoever does, expect Raith to try to fly out the traps as they did in the Viaplay Cup match.
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