RAITH Rovers jumped back to the top of the Second Division courtesy of their 1-0 win at Stirling Albion, their sixth triumph in a row, when first-half substitute Stevie Hislop ran on to a Graham Weir pass in 52 minutes to slot the ball past Scott Christie.
John McGlynn's men now sit in pole position, two points ahead of Ayr United, who lost at Brechin, with only three games to go, and the Stark's Park manager said: "I thought we played really well in the first half and should have been ahead. Stirlin
g Albion have been a bit of a bogey side for us this season so it is good to get our first victory of the season over them."
Albion manager Allan Moore said: "I honestly felt that we were as good as them but did not take our chances in the first half."
Ayr slumped to second place after going down 1-0 to a second-half Rory McAllister goal at Glebe Park. Somerset Park manager Brian Reid was defiant afterwards, saying: "I am disappointed about today's result but we are certainly not going to give anything up. We lost a soft goal and I felt we could have had a penalty of our own before they scored."
Brechin manager Jim Duffy, whose side have now qualified for the play-offs, said: "We have now won three games in a row, not conceded a goal and qualified for the play-offs, which is great when you consider we have only 14 fit players."
Fourth-placed Peterhead moved to within two points of securing their seat at the end-of-season table with a 1-0 win at relegated Stranraer, with Bobby Mann scoring a late penalty given after Konrad Kozminski had been fouled. Balmoor manager Neale Cooper said afterwards: "It was not pretty and we had to battle for the three points."
Relegated Stranraer's manager Keith Knox added: "We thought we would get a draw when 80 minutes had gone, but I have no complaints about the penalty award."
Stevie Crawford's caretaker reign at East Fife got off to a disappointing start when his side were defeated 2-0 by Alloa at New Bayview. Stuart Noble's goal in the last game of his loan spell and Andy Scott's penalty after Brown Ferguson had been tripped on the half-hour mark boosted the Recreation Park side's hopes of avoiding the relegation play-offs. Alloa manager Allan Maitland said: "A clean sheet and three points at this stage of the season were crucial."
Crawford said: "I will keep taking the team on a game-to-game basis as I have been asked. If it is not for me, I will be available as a player."
Arbroath also improved their hopes of achieving safety by winning 1-0 at Hampden over Queen's Park to move four points clear of the Hampden side. Substitute Robbie Ross swept the ball home with nine minutes to go in a tense encounter that left Gayfield manager John McGlashan saying: "I always felt there would only be one goal in this game and I am delighted that we got it."
Spiders' head coach Gardner Speirs lamented: "That was a sore one to take as I felt we deserved a draw without hitting the heights of our recent home performances against Stirling and East Fife."
The full article contains 575 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
