Raith Rovers’ former players came back to haunt them as Queen of the South claimed their first away win of the season in Kirkcaldy.
Mark Campbell, Stephen Simmons and Kevin Smith enjoyed a happy return to Stark’s Park with Smith in particular proving a real handful for the Rovers defence.
The 2-0 defeat was particularly disappointing for Raith manager John McGlynn, who had hoped that the victory over Partick Thistle last week would mark the start of good run.
”It’s one step forward and one step back for us at the moment,” he said. ”I’m not sure we deserved much out of the game but I’m disappointed with the goals we lost.
”It’s a free-kick and a corner kick and we should have dealt with both.
”Although we were down 1-0 at half-time we still felt we had a good chance of getting something out of the game.
”But we didn’t really force the issue in the second half and the second goal was a killer for us.”
The visitors took the lead on 19 minutes as Rovers switched off at a free-kick. Simmons played the ball to the back post where Campbell had been left completely unmarked.
The ex-Raith man side-footed across goal and after goalie David McGurn made two unsuccessful attempts to catch the ball amid a crowd it fell kindly to Scott McLaughlin who blasted it into the net.
The Raith keeper was back to his best on 33 minutes with a brilliant block to deny first half sub Tom Brighton, who had replaced the injured Nicky Clarke after 10 minutes earlier.
Rovers came into the match late in the first half and John Baird just failed to equalise with a header from an Allan Walker free-kick.
Baird came close again two minutes from half-time with a brilliant turn and shot that struck the outside of the post.
Rovers hoped to take this momentum into the second half, but they were unable to put the away defence under any sustained pressure.
McGurn was again on top form to push away a McLaughlin diving header on the hour as Queen’s looked for goal number two on the break.
And it arrived 15 minutes from time when Rovers failed to clear a corner and when Simmons header was blocked on the line, Brighton followed up to stab the ball home.