Report

Raith Rovers kicked off their 2025/26 Scottish Championship season on Saturday with a 1-1 draw against Queen’s Park in Kirkcaldy.  

It was a game of two penalties on the day, with both sides converting a spot-kick in separate halves.  

Barry Robson reversed the two changes made to the eleven that started in the 5-1 win against Inverness Caley Thistle one week earlier. Lewis Vaughan replaced Jack Hamilton up front, whilst Ross Matthews took the place of Shaun Byrne. Both players joined the remainder of an unchanged bench, which left Raith Rovers to get the league season underway after a fitting pre-match tribute for the late Shaun Dennis.  

A long-range chance for Scott Brown alongside an early Queen’s Park corner made for a lively start to the match, and things only continued to gather pace as the tenth minute approached.  

Queen’s Park recycled a corner by working the ball back into Raith’s area. The Rovers’ defence attempted to clear, but a coming together between Brown and MacGregor led to a Queen’s Park penalty. Michael Ruth went on to rifle the ball into the bottom left corner from twelve yards, giving his side the lead just after the ten-minute mark.  

The home crowd rallied behind The Rovers in spite of such an early setback, and witnessed a catalogue of Raith chances as the half progressed. Despite some promising balls into the box, none of the final efforts on goal found the target. Vaughan came the closest in the half’s one minute of injury time after his perfect-looking header cannoned back off the post and out for a goal kick.  

Neither side made any changes during the interval, which allowed Queen’s Park to restart the match, shooting towards the home support after choosing to swap ends before kick-off.  

In a similar sequence of events, Scott Brown again found himself in a position to shoot from distance around ten minutes into the half. The Raith skipper’s volley on goal looked good, but a last-second header from Matthew Shiels cleared the ball back out and away from danger.  

Bryne and Hamilton came on for Matthews and Jai Rowe right on the hour mark. Byrne did well to craft himself an opportunity for a shot on goal just four minutes later, but his attempt was blocked before it reached the net. For all of Raith’s efforts, they had so far failed to force a save from Queen’s Park shot stopper, Calum Ferrie.  

Raith started to freely pass the ball across the pitch as the half progressed, which led to a headed opportunity at the back post for Callum Fordyce. The centre-half’s effort on goal caught the hand of Charlie Fox. Raith fans and players alike erupted in simultaneous protest – which turned to celebration after the referee pointed to the spot – penalty Rovers. Dylan Easton did what Dylan Easton does as he powered the ball into the left side of the goal from the spot, levelling the match in the 80th minute.  

A number of Raith corners followed, which led to Fordyce’s header being well-saved by Ferrie in the 86th minute. Raith didn’t manage to come any closer to finding a winner in the time that remained, though, with the full-time whistle signalling the end of a season-opening stalemate.  

With the points being shared in four out of the five opening Championship fixtures, Raith join seven other teams who sit with one point in the league.  

Next up, Raith travel to the west coast to take on Ayr United this Saturday.  

One match down, thirty five to go

Written by Hamish Rankine. 

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