Dev Lge: Raith Rovers 1 – 0 Forfar Athletic

Match Report

Starks Park, Tuesday 14th February 2017

Young Rovers leapfrog Forfar to go into second place in the league on goal difference. They finally got  the better of our visitors after two prior defeats by the young Loons inflicted earlier in the season.

New manager John Hughes watched from the stand where he had his first chance to catch our development squad over a competitive 90 minutes.

Forfar started brightly with Penker and Devine testing the Trialist keeper from distance, minutes later Valentine laid off to Coustrain whose shot was blocked.

Rovers had a couple of efforts from corners the latter from Court being headed wide, from the kick out Thorsen played onto Court who flicked on to Osei whose shot was blocked by a diving defender.

Rovers were enjoying a spell of pressure with Berry coming close with a 20 yarder and Thorsen heading into the arms of King.

Within seconds of the kick out Yaw Osei stole the ball and danced into the box and fired the ball across the keeper and in at the back post 1-0

The rest of the half saw the Rovers pressing with some nice overlapping and the ball being passes about on the deck, however Yaw Osei who was involved in many of the moves was subbed due to injury just before the break to be replaced by Jack Smith.

The second half took a while to warm up, much like the spectators, when Kennedy slipped past Syme but his snatched shot flew wide of the target.

Confusion reigned moments later as a Rovers move was interrupted with a flag, after discussion with the referee the railway official indicated that the keeper had handled outside the box and was duly yellow carded, there the drama ended as Stevenson skied the free kick over the assembly in front of goal and the ball drifted out of play.

With the exception of a 40 yard dipping shot from Samson the remainder of the attacking moves fell to the Rovers, Smith had a brace of headers go narrowly wide and Stevenson with his normal quota of free kicks coming close and Court contributing with a glancing header from a cross which went agonisingly close.

Coustrain and Thorsen contributed well with a power of running from midfield and wide positions the latter recovering well from being flattened by overage Forfar defender Malcolm.

This was the lowest scoring game of the campaign but the three points were more important leaving the team in second place, two points behind Berwick with whom we still have two away games to play.

Credit where it’s due to all of the squad and to Craig Easton who has marshalled the lads into an attractive team to watch.

Remember, RRFC Season Ticket holders get free entry to all Development League games. View the Development League (East) Fixture list & Table here.

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