Raith Rovers succumbed to a fourth consecutive defeat with Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Inverness Caley Thistle.
A stunning display of clinical forward play from on-loan Alex Samuel earned the Inverness striker a sensational hat-trick in the space of just nine first-half minutes.
Jack Hamilton had actually given Rovers a 25th-minute lead with a towering header from Josh Mullin’s magnificent curling corner.
But, after Samuel’s scoring burst, Lewis Vaughan’s second-half counter failed to spark a comeback and the Stark’s Park men are now a point behind Dundee United at the top of the Championship.
Time for a reset?
Statistics never tell the whole story, but there is no doubting they do lay bare the fact Raith are currently suffering a concerning slump.
Four straight defeats is not something Rovers are used to.
They had only lost one game in the league all season until three weeks ago against Airdrie.
But January, kicked off with a Fife derby victory over Dunfermline, has been a horrible month for the Stark’s Park side.
You have to go back almost nine years to 2014-15 to find the last time they lost four in a row.
Granted, one of the current sequence was a narrow and unfortunate loss to Premiership Livingston in the Scottish Cup. But they can now only boast of one win in their last seven games.
Manager Ian Murray has tinkered with his line-up and formation as he has sought a solution to the ‘sticky patch’.
Again, for the second week running, he deployed a three-man defence in the loss to Inverness.
Like against Livingston, that may have been because the opponents lined up similarly.
Or it could have been due to the personnel available.
But – now without a league game for three weeks, and with players returning from injury – it would seem the perfect opportunity for Rovers to dig deep and remember on what their previous success was built.
It didn’t work in the Scottish Cup, but the SPFL Trust Trophy meeting with bogey team Airdrie on Friday could be a welcome distraction.
And then there is a fortnight away from the action to reset and try to spark their season back to life.
The desperate need for a clean sheet
Defensive frailties continue to cost Raith.
For all their attacking intent and endeavours, there is increasingly pressure being placed on the forwards to rescue matches.
The late comebacks of earlier in the season have failed to transpire of late. And assistant-manager Colin Cameron admitted after the game there was a sense that things were ‘levelling out’ on that front.
But, yet again, Rovers were left chasing the game after conceding avoidable goals.
And, once more, what proved to be the winner came from a cross into the box.
Only seven times in 32 games this term – and only once in the last three months in the league – have the Stark’s Park side earned a clean sheet.
In their last five home matches, they have conceded an incredible 14 goals.
It is not the kind of defensive solidity on which title challenges are built.
The attitude of ‘we’ll score one more than you’ is an exciting one. Most people like to see attacking football and goals aplenty.
And for all Dundee United’s heralded defensive solidity they are only one point ahead at the top of the Championship
Yet, surely Raith, from front to back, have to do more to be harder to score against?
If they can do that then they will not have to score three and four times just to eke out a draw.
And, if not, they can kiss goodbye to any title challenge.
Zak Rudden
Signed just 24 hours before, there was no real surprise to see Rudden start on the bench.
However, 3-1 adrift at the break, everything seemed set up for the on-loan Dundee striker when he was given the nod for the second-half.
It’s not that Raith’s attack had been poor in the first period.
But, with Samuel showing them how to be more clinical, Rovers were in need of a little bit of oomph.
With an injection of energy and willingness, Rudden gave them that immediately.
He won a few aerial battles, ran in behind at one point before being snuffed out just as he got to the box, and provided an assist for Lewis Vaughan’s goal.
A neat flick sent his new strike partner scampering clear to finish and give the Kirkcaldy men hope of another comeback.
He may have helped earn just that had referee Dan McFarlane punished Morgan Boyes for a blatant pull of his jersey in trying to reach a Dylan Easton cross late on.
By his own admission afterwards, Rudden’s performance was a bit of a rollercoaster, which could be expected so soon after meeting his new team-mates.
A greater understanding will come.
But there was enough promise in his 45-minute showing to indicate he could add something different to the Stark’s Park attack.
Crucial few days
Kyle Turner has arrived on loan from Ross County and now Rudden from Dundee, followed by Jamie Gullan’s departure for Dundalk.
The glaring issue in Raith’s January recruitment still appears to be the failure, so far, to bring in another defender.
Of course, the return of Keith Watson, who was on the bench at the weekend, could feel like a new signing, given he has not played since September.
And if he and Euan Murray can stay fit for the remainder of the campaign then Rovers have an experienced central defence.
But the inability to convince Dan O’Reilly to stay on at Stark’s Park has seemed in recent weeks to be a costly one.
Too many times, Ian Murray has had to chop and change his rearguard because of a lack of personnel.
It is certainly an area the club is targeting before the window shuts – and has been since O’Reilly’s exit in favour of a longer deal at Partick Thistle.
However, given the defensive frailties exposed by every single club in the Championship this season, the transfer dealings in coming days could prove pivotal in the remainder of the campaign.
