Sat 24th September / 15:00 / 2022-23 / / away
Cove Rangers vs Raith Rovers
Preview
After the excitement of last weekends 3-2 win over Ayr United at Stark's Park, Raith Rovers are on the road this Saturday, as they travel to Aberdeen to face Cove Rangers in the SPFL Trust Trophy.
It's a competition that Raith have an excellent recent record in, winning it last season, when a Matej Poplatnik brace and a goal from Ethan Ross sealed a 3-1 win over Queen of the South in the final at Airdrie.
Indeed, Rovers haven't lost a game in this tournament since September 2018, when they went down to Ross County 5-0, as in the following season they shared the trophy with Inverness as the season was curtailed, and the tournament was mothballed for the 2020/21 season.
They face a tough challenge to keep that record going however, against a team that they've had a poor record against in their limited head-to-head record.
Four times the sides have met, and only once, in their very first match, have Raith come out on top, in a League Cup group stage match in 2016. Despite going a goal down, Rovers eventually edged out the Highland League side 2-1, thanks to goals from Kyle Benedictus and Lewis Vaughan.
There's been far less success against Cove since then however, and Raith lost to them for the third consecutive occasion on the opening league match of the campaign, when two goals from Mitch Megginson secured a deserved 2-0 win at the Balmoral Stadium.
Saturday's referee will be Gavin Duncan.
Head-to-Head Record:
Cove Rangers wins: 3
Raith Rovers wins: 1
Draws: 0
Reports
A 10th minute goal by Connor McBride was enough to see the Rovers progress to the next round of the SPFL Trust Trophy.
Ian Murray made a few changes for the trip to Aberdeen but one particular addition to the line up to bring a smile to the faces of the travelling fans was the welcome return to the bench of Ross Matthews.
Rovers wasted no time in making their intentions known when Kieran Ngwenya charged upfield and played the ball to Quinn Coulson whose low cross into the box was met by Connor McBride who shot home, past McKenzie from 8 yards, although there was a hint of a deflection off Neill.
Cove responded when Cieran Dunne sent a tempting delivery across goal but it came to nothing with none of his team-mates in a position to apply the finishing touch.
Raith had the upperhand by now and almost increased their lead after 26 minutes when Ethan Ross hit the post after a well-worked free kick.
Ethan came close again, just before the break, but his low drive was comfortably held by McKenzie.
After the restart Luis Longstaff, had the ball in the net for Cove but his strike was ruled out for offside.
Rovers had claims for a penalty when Coulson went down in the area after a collision with Dunne but the referee waved play on.
Cove had their chances with Neill having a header cleared off the line before Connor Scully curled a shot over as they pressed for an equaliser.
Rovers continued to threaten with goalkeeper McKenzie called upon to keep out a low drive from Kieran Ngwenya with Kyle Connell firing over from the resulting corner when he really should have scored.
Cove missed a great chance to draw level when a shot by Vigurs flew over the crossbar but Rovers held on for a well deserved victory and a place in the fourth round.
Highlights
Interviews
Ian Murray spoke to RaithTV after the win in the SPFL Trust Trophy against Cove Rangers FC: