The visit of the league leaders saw a second successive Saturday derby defeat. There was one change to the starting line up which drawn in midweek with Partick Thistle with Colin Cameron taking over from Lee Makel.

After a pretty quiet opening ten minutes Rovers started to pose us problems and former Central Parker McBride made ground down the left and it took good work by Hay to ensure his cross did not reach Tade.

Five minutes later however the visitors opened the scoring a cross field pass from Dyer was picked up by the unmarked John Baird and the Rovers top scorer held off a challenge before sending a left foot shot wide of Hay from just inside the box.

Cowden responded with Crawford firing in a 25 yard shot which was held by McNeil.

The visitors went further ahead in 24 minutes when a weak headed clearance was met first time by former Cowden loanee Stephen Simmons and his left foot volley from 20 yards flew low past Hay.

It was all Raith now and they added a third goal on 32 minutes when McBride’s corner was perfect for Mark Campbell to strongly head home.

Minutes later Hay held an Ellis header on the line while at the other end Miller shot just wide of the target as we tried to reduce the deficit.

The second half saw no further scoring however Walker took a Simmons head flick but shot wide from seven yards and on the hour mark Hay came to the rescue when Baird took Tade’s lay off and fired in a low shot.

Ten minutes later the Frenchman worked his way into the Cowden box and his low shot was blocked by Hay.

We were unable to get a meaningful shot on the Rovers goal until four minutes from time when McKenzie sent over a cross to Cameron who fired in a right footed shot which McNeil tipped around the post.