Sam Stanton’s injury-time goal gave Raith Rovers a hard-fought win over Fife rivals Dunfermline.
The Pars had more chances to get ahead on the day but were made to pay for not taking any of their chances in the periods they dominated.
For Rovers, it was yet another way to win a football match on an afternoon when they didn’t fully get going.
The result keeps Raith within four points of Championship leaders Dundee United and leaves Dunfermline on a run of three consecutive defeats.
After much speculation in the build-up regarding player availability, on both sides, Keith Watson again missed out for the home side and Dylan Easton was named on the bench.
For Dunfermline, Rhys Breen recovered from illness to play alongside him in the back three and there were starts for Owen Moffat and Alex Jakubiak, as James McPake made five changes.
The big news was that Pars captain Kyle Benedictus made his first appearance since the start of September.
Dunfermline start well
Benedictus’ first involvement was to find Aaron Comrie on the right, who won a corner. From that, came an early scare for Rovers, as Same Fisher connected at the near post, forcing a low save from Dabrowski.
That set the tone for the early stages and the Polish keeper had to get down low again on eight minutes when Comrie struck from the edge of the box
A couple of minutes later, Euan Murray had to be alert to block an Owen Moffat strike.
It took Raith a while to carve out their first chance but Lewis Vaughan fired over on 25 minutes.
After that, Murray went close with a header from Josh Mullin’s inswinging cross.
Benedictus was replaced at half-time by Chris Hamilton at half-time and appeared on the bench at the start of the second half with icing strapped to his thigh.
Raith win it late on
The visitors were the brighter side at the start of the second half too, with Moffat shooting straight at Dabrowski before a better effort led to a better save from the keeper
That became a double save when he pushed away Comrie’s follow-up.
Raith again edged their way back into it but still couldn’t hit the target. The first came in the 70th minute from Vaughan but Deniz Mehmet easily saved the effort from distance.
Attacking changes on both sides did little to add more threat, though Joe Chalmers’ introduction got the Pars up the pitch a few times. The closest they came was a late diving header from Comrie that was comfortably wide.
Just when it seemed the match was going to peter out, Stanton worked a yard at the edge of the box in the 93rd minute before firing into the far bottom corner beyond a static Mehmet.
It was Stanton’s second goal of the season, the other was also a winner and also against Dunfermline, at East End Park in August.
There was a rammy involving a number of players just before the full-time whistle, which spilled over into the post-match and both benches appeared to get involved.
Line-ups
Raith Rovers (4-2-3-1): Dabrowski; Millen, Brown, Murray, Dick; Byrne, Stanton; Mullin (Easton 76′, Masson 90+’), Vaughan, McGill (Connolly 65′); Smith.
Subs not used: McNeill, Hannah.
Dunfermline (3-4-2-1): Mehmet; Fisher, Benedictus (Hamilton 45′), Breen (Chalmers 80′); Comrie, Allan, Otoo, Edwards; Moffat (O’Halloran 64′), McCann (Wighton 74); Jakubiak.
Subs not used: Sharp, Little, Fenton, Hoggan.
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