Raith Rovers host East Fife at Stark’s Park tomorrow with boss Barry Smith looking for his men to return to doing the simple things well.
A four-game run which has seen two draws followed by defeats to title challengers Ayr United and Forfar has dented their hopes of winning the league, however Smith believes that his side are not far away from turning things around.
He said: “It has been a disappointing few days where we experienced a couple of disappointing results. It is easy to be negative when you have had a couple of setbacks but we have to focus on the positives that we have.
“If we get back to doing what we have been doing well for most of the season then results will come our way again. Our defence has been good all season but for some reason we have given away soft goals recently. We need to get back to keeping things simple and if do that then we will be fine.
“We need to mark our men better, particularly at corners and free-kicks. We need to stop crosses coming into our box and if they do get in they we need to clear our lines. It is all parts of the game that we can do and I am sure that we will get back to doing.”
Smith added: “We know what we set out to do at the start of the season and that was to get promoted. We can still do that.
“Every game should be treated the same and the points available are the same. However, if this game being a derby brings a bit of extra motivation then we will take it, especially if it leads to win.”
East Fife manager Darren Young has predicted Raith will bounce back from losing top spot in League One but intends to make them wait a week until their title push gets back on track.
Young’s side have won their last three games to give them hope they can still make the play-offs and the Bayview boss said: “Raith are having one of those spells where things do not look to be going their way.
“I am sure they will recover, however we will look to keep that from happening until next week
“We are simply looking after ourselves and three wins in a row has everyone feeling good. We still have a lot to do to get into the top four.
Young added: “We will treat this game like a cup final. We have played Raith three times and not picked up a point yet. In the first game they blew us away but in the other two we have been much closer.
“It would be great to get our first win against them.”
Craig Watson and Mark Docherty are out, while Rovers’ Scott Robertson and John Herron are sidelined for Rovers.
