Raith v Annan: Match Preview

Raith Rovers V Annan Athletic Ramsdens Cup Semi-Final Sunday 13th October 2013 Kick off: 4.05pm

Admission Prices

Adults – £10

Concessions* – £5

Disabled – Half Price

*Concessions are Under 16s, Over 65s, Jobseekers and Students. Both Jobseekers and Students must purchase their ticket from the main ticket office. Students must produce a valid 2013/14 matriculation card and Jobseekers must produce the jobseekers book, appointment card and photographic I.D

Match Preview:

Raith Rovers and Annan Athletic come together for their first ever competitive fixture this Sunday, as the sides compete for a place in the Ramsdens Cup final.

Both clubs are performing well in their respective divisions, with Raith sitting second in the Championship table, while Jim Chapman’s Annan team are fourth in League Two. The two sides go into the game on the back of high-scoring away wins last weekend. While Rovers were winning 4-2 against Dumbarton, Annan were going one better, seeing off Queens Park 5-2 at Hampden.

Like Raith, Annan have looked particularly dangerous away from home this season, and Rovers will need to be wary of a team that’s won two and drawn one of their four away fixtures this term, scoring 11 goals in the process.

Annan have made something of a habit of doing well in this competition, and their record in the tournament is the equal of Raith’s, despite the Galabankies only joining the Scottish Football League in 2008. This is the third time that both teams have competed in the semi-finals, with Annan losing to Dundee in 2009, and Falkirk in 2011, both by the same 3-0 scoreline.

Rovers on the other hand last reached this stage in 2003, when they were convincingly beaten 4-0 at Stark’s Park by an Inverness team who would eventually go on to win the First Division. Raith’s other semi-final appearance came in the 1991-92 season, when they lost 2-1, away to Hamilton Academical.

Sunday’s match referee will be Kevin Clancy.

What The Manager Said:

It was another good away performance from Raith Rovers last weekend, but while the result brought three points, the 4-2 scoreline only told half the story. From 3-0 up with minutes to go, the game entered stoppage time with the score at 3-2, and Grant Murray admitted that Dumbarton’s gung-ho approach at the end, had Raith on the back foot,

“Right up until Dumbarton scored their first goal, I thought we were well in control, and that the performance was fantastic, especially with it being away from home. Then, with a couple of minutes to go, we had a lapse of concentration, and then right from the restart, we gave away a penalty. Going into injury time they had nothing to lose and were committing a lot of bodies forward, and when teams do that it can be hard to handle at times, and that’s with eleven men, but by that point, we were down to ten.”

“When you’re facing a team that’s piling everyone forward, it can affect your ability to keep your shape, but I thought we showed some good resilience at the end, to catch them on the counter, and kill the game off. It was tighter than it should have been, but I thought we were worthy 4-2 winners.”

Despite the fact that we’re only a few months into the season, Raith have already had more names on the scoresheet than they managed in the whole of last season. Dougie Hill became the tenth player to find the net on Saturday, but Murray wasn’t too surprised to see him so involved at the other end of the park,

“Set-pieces can be vital in this league, and Dougie is always a threat up there for us. He ended up with a goal and two assists on Saturday which is great to see, and its especially pleasing that we seem to have goals throughout this team. As long as someone is sticking the ball in the net for us, I’ll be a happy man though.”

Not only are this weekends opponents Annan Athletic performing well in League Two, they also have an excellent recent record in the Ramsdens Cup, a fact that could make the semi-final even harder,

“Annan have reached the last four of this tournament three times in the last four years, which is an exceptional record, but that will make them even more determined to go that one step further this time around.”

“Jim Chapman’s got them playing some good football, and they’re coming off the back of a great result last week at Hampden, so they’ll be on a high. They’ve already put out one Championship team in Morton, so we know we’re in for a tough test.”

While the tie is at Stark’s Park, the one-off nature of the fixture means that it may not be as much of an advantage as you would expect,

“It’s a semi-final of a national cup competition, so as you can imagine, everyone in our dressing room is going to be up for it on Sunday, but lets face it, the Annan boys will be up for it just as much as us. We may be at home, but both sets of players know that they’re just one game away from a final, so they’ll be giving it their all. Games like these don’t come around as often as we’d like, so it’s vital that we make the most of Sunday’s opportunity.”

Route To The Final:

Raith Rovers

1st Round: Raith Rovers 2 Stirling Albion 1

2nd Round: Dunfermline Athletic 0 Raith Rovers 2

Quarter-Finals: Raith Rovers 1 Falkirk 0

Annan Athletic

1st Round: Annan Athletic 1 Morton 0

2nd Round: Stranraer 2 Annan Athletic 3

Quarter-Finals: Annan Athletic 4 Formartine United 0

Leading Goalscorers In All Competitions:

Raith Rovers: Greig Spence 7 | Joe Cardle 5 | Calum Elliot 4

Annan Athletic: David Hopkirk 6 | Kenneth McKay 6 | Ally Love 4

Match Odds:

Raith Rovers: 1/3 | Annan Athletic: 6/1 | Draw: 10/3

Shaughan McGuigan

Back to News