IN the end recovering from a winter of discontent proved too tall an order for Raith Rovers. Despite taking the lead and, for a time allowing themselves to believe, they’ll spend another year in Scotland’s second tier, their faint hopes of clawing back Partick Thistle disappearing into the Fife sky with the flick of Oli Shaw’s right foot.
The reality is the damage had long since been done before tonight. With an 11-game, three month winless run the nadir, it was a minor miracle they’d managed to take it to the final day. But they’ll be doing the same as most of us; watching the Premiership play-offs on the TV.
“I thought it was a brilliant game and a great advert for Championship football, a lot of good played by both teams," said Raith's John McGlynn. “We should have been three or four up at half time and that could have made it really interesting.
“We didn’t make the play-offs but we gave it a right good go.”
On his future, McGlynn added: “We’re still negotiating and that’s still to be resolved and hopefully in the next two or three days that will be the case.”
For Raith, the agony will be that a season which promised so much was so often unravelled by their own hands.
At least in front of a raucous travelling support there was an intensity to their play at the start which suggested they held onto that sliver of hope. How much that was down to the slumbering Kilmarnock team and how much to a genuine belief in their chances is another matter.
Dario Zanatta, as is so often his wont, set off Killie alarm bells whenever he scampered off down the left and his tricky feet threatened to blow the visitors’ house down with the game’s first effort, only for Zach Hemming to deny him.
That was only the eighth minute but already the game was being stopped for a second time as a result of the Killie fans’ celebrations. First it was flares, then it was beach balls. You couldn’t blame them but it was hardly the bitty affair Raith needed.
To their credit, they brushed this off and were soon back in the groove. Matej Poplatnik was a constant threat. There he was stretching McArthur out of his comfort zone one minute, then latching onto a loose ball inside the box the next, only a fine Hemming reaction denying him.
By this point Ayr United were holding up their end of the bargain and soon Raith were doing the same. Pretty, conventional football it was not, but Aaron Connolly wasn’t caring, his deflected cross looping over Hemming and into the net.
Given the forward should have made it two before the break, instead wasting Sam Stanton’s inviting cutback, there was no doubt Stark’s Park was tentatively allowing itself to believe. They couldn’t … could they?
In the end, they couldn’t quite and the loss of Poplatnik soon after Connolly’s opener felt like the final nail in the coffin. If it had been left ever so slightly ajar, Derek McInnes was soon on the scene with his mallet and nails to put that right; those being in the form of half-time introductions Kyle Lafferty and Chris Stokes.
Giving Killie a foothold and focus, Lafferty was integral to their equaliser, toying with his defender before slipping the ball into the path of Shaw, who chipped it over Jamie MacDonald without so much as a care in the world.
“We didn’t play with any edge in the first-half," said McInnes. "Raith were the polar opposite and they played as if there was something there for them.
“Half time came at a good time, we made a few changes and there was more familiarity about the team in the second-half.
“We put in a proper Kilmarnock performance like we have seen over the last wee while. It was important we demonstrated that and we scored a very good goal.
“We were the better team. We still had a good night. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked but I enjoyed the celebrations and the connection with the fans at the end."
