Sam Stanton feared his derby-day heroics would run dry for Raith Rovers, but was thrilled to continue his remarkable scoring streak against Dunfermline on Saturday.
The midfielder has become synonymous with Stark’s Park success in clashes with the Pars this season.
His latest strike, the opening goal against the run of play seven minutes before the break, was his fourth in his last four meetings with Raith’s rivals.
Twice, he has been the match-winner and, twice more, he has been a key contributor.
On this occasion, the 29-year-old’s header helped Raith create history with a record-breaking fifth consecutive victory in the Fife fixture.
And, right on cue, there was his trademark celebration with the love-heart tribute to his family that has been a prominent feature of Rovers’ triumphs against their bitter rivals.
“I think I was kind of telling myself that there’s no way I could do it again,” said Stanton.
“But obviously it did, it happened again. It’s just one of these things, sometimes these things happen.
“It just happens to be me that it’s falling for at the moment, so great.
Fife derby heroics
“It seems to be that way this season. I’m obviously delighted to score at any time.
“But obviously it’s seems to keep happening this season against Dunfermline, which is great for me and great for the team, obviously.
“There’s a couple of 1-0s in there. That’s [the last] four games this season I’ve played in and four goals. It’s been really good.”
Raith needed Stanton to be at his clinical best in a first-half largely dominated by Dunfermline.
Kevin Dabrowski had pushed away a Josh Edwards free-kick and held onto a Chris Hamilton header, but the end of the first-half was to belong to Rovers.
Lewis Vaughan’s free-kick was batted away awkwardly by Deniz Mehmet in the Dunfermline goal and Stanton pounced to loop in his header from the loose ball.
The Pars, again, started the second-half in determined fashion and only a stunning fingertip save from Dabrowski prevented a Ewan Otoo thunderbolt from finding the roof of the net.
And then the hosts created the crucial second with some speedy thinking and the kind of incisive play their visitors could not find.
Vaughan took a free-kick quickly and Aidan Connolly shuffled the ball onto Dylan Easton, who expertly swept his shot beyond Mehmet.
“I don’t think we played our best football but we defended well,” Stanton added.
Happy with history
“I don’t think they threatened us overly. There was one great save from Kev.
“But, apart from that, it felt quite comfortable even though we didn’t play as well as we’d have liked to.
“We took our chances again when they came.
“I wasn’t aware of the five wins making history but I’ve heard about it now, obviously.
“It’s great for the supporters and great for the team, it’s a really good achievement to have. We’re very happy with that.”
With league leaders Dundee United batting aside Arbroath, it was also vitally important for Raith’s title ambitions that they emerged victorious.
The Lichties had put a spanner in the works with a remarkable comeback to beat Rovers eight days previously, but Ian Murray’s side responded in the perfect fashion.
They now know they can haul themselves back to within a point of United with another victory over Partick Thistle on Tuesday night.
“At this stage of the season, getting another three points on the board is all that matters and getting as many points until the finish,” said Stanton.
“Friday night was obviously really disappointing. We had the two days to kind of calm down from it on the Saturday and Sunday.
Stanton: ‘Important response’
“It was obviously a sickener for everyone.
“But you need to move on and you probably couldn’t have got a better game for us to try to bounce back in.
“It was a really important response from us. We needed to win after our last game and to keep putting pressure on Dundee United. It was really important.
“It’s a huge week ahead, it’s a tough game on Tuesday.
“Tough games keep coming in this league, there’s never any easy games. So, we need to get as many points as we can and see what happens.”
