The recent resurgence in form shown by Raith Rovers had reignited the Kirkcaldy club’s ambitions of participating in the end of season promotion play-offs.
However, such hopes were largely extinguished following a defeat by Falkirk which has left them 10 points adrift of Saturday’s fourth-placed opponents with just five games remaining.
While the towel has not yet been thrown into the ring, the post-match despondency of striker Mark Stewart told its own story.
“That was a hard one to take” said Stewart, “especially with Queen of the South winning, and it looks like it’s killed off our chances. Its a case of taking it game by game now and picking up as many points as we can. Anything can happen, but today’s defeat was very deflating.”
Two pivotal first-half incidents had a major bearing on the outcome before Will Vaulks’ 63rd minute winner for the Bairns.
The first occurred early on when Stewart ran on to a beautifully weighted through ball from strike partner Lewis Vaughan only to see Falkirk keeper Jamie MacDonald produce an outstanding save.
The second took place seconds before the interval when Rovers’ midfielder Liam Fox was shown a straight red card by referee Don Robertson following a reckless lunge at Falkirk defender Luke Leahy.
“I had a great chance to put us ahead,” Stewart said.
“But I was caught in two minds when I only had their keeper to beat.
“Maybe I should have gone near post but he gave me the bait to shoot across him and, if I’m honest, maybe I sclaffed it a bit.
“The sending off looked like a 50/50 challenge to me. It was controversial and it swung the game in their favour, although we regrouped at half time and caused them a lot of problems after we went down to 10 men.
“If they hadn’t got the goal from the set piece then I don’t think they would have scored at all.”
Falkirk had dominated possession during the first half and, following the dismissal of Fox, a comfortable victory for the home side looked the obvious outcome.
But Raith almost took the lead shortly after the restart when MacDonald saved well from substitute Martin Scott before Ryan Conroy’s follow-up effort rattled the crossbar.
The Bairns eventually wore down the visitors’ resistance, however, and edged in front midway through the second half when Vaulks flicked home a free kick from Blair Alston for what proved to be the winning goal.
“The timing of the sending-off didn’t help” said Rovers boss Grant Murray afterwards.
“But we’ve beaten teams with 10 men before and we did cause them some problems.
“Credit to Falkirk, though its all about winning games at this stage of the season.
“It’s a sore one for us but we just have to move on.”