Raith Rovers clocked up an 11th clean sheet of the season in Saturday’s goalless draw with Morton.
It was their third in a row as they see out the Championship campaign and prepare for the play-offs.
But, at the same time, the Stark’s Park outfit appear to have lost some of their scoring touch in attack.
Courier Sport has taken a look at the facts and figures behind the recent sequence of shut-outs.
With Dundee United officially crowned champions on Friday night, and with second place already sewn up, Raith had little tangible to play for against Morton the following day.
But the stalemate at Cappielow at least proves they are determined to battle right to the end of the regular season against Arbroath on Friday.
The defensive record marks a shift in approach that dates back to February.
Since their 0-0 draw at home to Morton two months ago, the Stark’s Park outfit have registered seven clean sheets in 11 games.
In the previous 24 Championship matches, they had managed just four.
Solid foundation
Raith needed a change of tack as they sought answers to a run of five straight defeats early in 2024.
The solution they have found is a more solid foundation.
It was not enough to maintain their challenge to United at the top of the table.
But the hope is it can still be the bedrock of a promotion push via the play-offs.
“Defensively, we were really, really good,” said manager Ian Murray of Saturday’s draw with Morton. “It’s fantastic to get another clean sheet for the defence, and also for Kevin [Dabrowski, the goalkeeper].
“That’s three in a row and going into these play-off games that’s really important.
“I’m really, really happy with the solid back-line, more than anything at the moment.
“Play-off games are tight, play-off games are very, very difficult. But the Partick, Inverness and Morton games have set us up nicely going into those.”
The test for Raith, however, will be to see if they can find a happy balance.
In the clean sheets in the last three games, they have managed just one goal – in the 1-0 victory over Inverness Caley Thistle.
Goals-per-game ratio
In fact, in their last 11 games, they have scored only nine times – exactly the same number they have conceded.
That contrasts with their previous 24 outings, in which they netted 44 goals, and let in 33.
The Kirkcaldy men have gone from a goals-per-game ratio of 1.8 for and and 1.4 against to 0.82, both for and against.
There is now work to be done to match the defensive resolve with the early-season flair in attack.
“We know we have players with the ability to score goals, we know we have players with good movement,” Murray added to Raith TV.
“That’ll come, we’ll work on that now. That’ll be our main focus going into the Arbroath game.”
