Colin Cameron is confident Raith Rovers will ‘come out the other side’ of their slump after admitting they were left to rue another ‘missed chance’ at the top of the Championship.
The Stark’s Park side succumbed to a fourth straight defeat – three in the league – with the 3-2 loss at home to Inverness Caley Thistle.
A sensational first-half hat-trick in the space of just nine minutes from Alex Samuel put Rovers to the sword after Jack Hamilton’s 25th-minute opener.
Lewis Vaughan pulled one back after the break but, with referee Dan McFarlane waving away a late penalty appeal, Raith could not stage a last-gasp comeback.
With Dundee United being held to a goalless draw at home to Dunfermline Athletic, the Kirkcaldy men fell a point behind the Tangerines at the top of the league.
Cameron said: “The gaffer has said when things were going well that in this league it’s impossible to go through a whole season and not have a period like this.
“And we’re having it just now.
“We try not to look at other results because, at the end of the day, it’s about what we do.
“But, again, people will look at it and say it’s a chance missed because United have drawn and [Partick] Thistle have drawn.
‘Making it harder’
“It keeps us still in touch, but we’re making it harder for ourselves.
“This week in training the boys have worked really hard and I keep saying if they continue to do that and take that onto the pitch then we’ll come out the other side.
“It’s never nice when you lose a game of football.
“And it’s another game where we’ve got ourselves in the lead. But we couldn’t get that second goal.
“And then we were sitting there. and looking and saying, ‘3-1 at half-time, how has that happened?’.
He added: “I thought we were controlling the game in the first 30 minutes without really creating too many chances. But we definitely had the lion’s share of possession.
“But again it’s another game where we’ve conceded three goals at home. You’re not going to win many games doing that.
“But the way you sort that out is you come in and train really hard during the week.
“And stay together, which the boys have done.
“And we’ll come through the other side.”
‘It’s a penalty’
Cameron is hopeful Hamilton’s shoulder injury that forced him off early in the second-half is a minor one.
And he is adamant Raith deserved a late penalty when debutant Zak Rudden appeared to be pulled back going for a high ball in the six-yard box.
The on-loan Dundee striker started on the bench but came on at half-time and claimed an assist for Vaughan’s second-half strike.
Cameron added: “We’ve looked at it again and I think it’s a penalty.
“The defender’s got caught the wrong side of him and he’s got his hands around him.
“There’s been a lot of games where we’ve turned it around late so, over the course of the season, things are going to level themselves out.
“The second-half was definitely better.
“But, again, we never really created loads of chances.
“If we had got the penalty we would have come away with a point, which I think in the second-half we maybe deserved.”
