Stirling Albion FC vs Raith Rovers FC | Raith Rovers Football Club

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The first match of our 2024/25 season saw Raith Rovers travel to Forthbank in Stirling for our first Premier Sports Cup group stage match.

From the kick-off, Rovers pressed well, instantly piling on the pressure onto Stirling’s back line.

The left hand side of the pitch was the busiest, with debutant Lewis Stevenson, Dylan Easton and Sam Stanton all linking up well down the channel and producing some lovely link-ups and passages of play.

That left wing is where our first goal came from, with Stevenson bombing into the box to get to the ball, firing across goal and picking out Aidan Connolly in the box, who comfortably found the back of the net after 17 minutes.

Rovers continued to look the more dominant side, and after 25 minutes, Aidan Connolly found himself alone yet again on the edge of the six-yard box, waiting to pounce on Callum Smith’s pass and making it two before the close of the first half.

As we started the second, there was a short delay due to a hole in the pitch.

Play restarted and it was once again Rovers who were on top, with brace-scorer Connolly over the ball at 66 minutes, lining up a left-footed free-kick.

As he has done so many times before, Connolly wrapped his boot around the ball and curled it straight into the top right corner of the net past to become the hat-trick hero of the day.

Three goals, a fourth clean sheet in a row and three points to start our Premier Sports Cup campaign.