Raith Rovers’ poor start laid bare as shock stat harks back to Claude Anelka reign

Raith Rovers have slumped to their worst start to a league season in 20 years – going all the way back to the disastrous Claude Anelka regime.

The Stark’s Park side plunged to the bottom of the Championship with Friday night’s 2-0 defeat to Dunfermline at East End Park.

Euan Murray’s red card proved a pivotal moment as the Kirkcaldy outfit suffered their first Fife derby defeat in seven games.

It left them with just one win – and only three points – from their opening five league matches, and in desperate need of a pick-me-up in this weekend’s home clash with Hamilton Accies.

There appear plenty of possible reasons for the poor opening to the campaign, with Ian Murray being sacked after just one game – the 1-0 defeat to Airdrie.

The subsequent protracted search for Murray’s replacement meant that technical director John Potter was in charge on an interim basis for the next three fixtures.

A narrow 1-0 win over Partick Thistle, courtesy of a Dylan Easton penalty, hinted at improvements.

But that has been followed by defeats to Livingston – featuring a Kevin Dabrowski mistake in the 90th minute – and Ayr United, following Shaun Byrne’s first-half red card for giving away a penalty.

Mitigating circumstances

Against Dunfermline, Euan Murray’s 16th-minute dismissal left Raith with a massive mountain to climb in new boss Neill Collins’ league and derby debut.

However, putting aside all those mitigating circumstances, it is two decades since there was a worse start to the season from Rovers.

In 2004/05, with Anelka – the brother of ex-PSG, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea striker Nicolas – briefly at the helm, Rovers lost four and drew one of their first five league games.

In fact, they took just two points from 11 games before picking up their maiden win – a 1-0 victory over St Johnstone after Anelka had been replaced by Gordon Dalziel.

Since then, Raith have won at least two of their first five league matches, apart from in season 2006/07 when one win was accompanied by two draws and two defeats.

It is a completely different club to that of 2004, with the current regime making incredible changes to the infrastructure at Stark’s Park.

And in Collins they have a manager, as shown by his spells with Tampa Bay Rowdies and Barnsley, who is capable of putting together a winning team.

But the statistics prove the challenge that lies ahead for the new boss.