Gary's been Locke-d out: A look at the Championship so far - Part 7: Raith Rovers

Ray McKinnon's replacement, Gary Locke was appointed in July. His summer appointment was met with both positive and negative messages from the Stark's Park faithful. Despite this and a poor League Cup campaign as well as the loss of Lewis Toshney to Dundee United, the Kirkcaldy club have placed themselves in fourth place in the league.


Their success can be in part put down to the squad that Locke has inherited from McKinnon with to quality players such as Ross Callachan, Kyle Bennidictus and Mark Stewart. The ex-Hearts boss has bolstered the Raith playing squad with the additions of Kevin McHattie from Kilmarnock, Rudi Skacel and the loan signing of Declan McManus from Fleetwood Town.


Raith have been involved in some high scoring encounters this season. With three wins from their four home matches, it's easy to see why the San Starko is becoming a hard place to come for teams to pick up points.

Like most sides in the Championship, Raith seem to lack a traditional number 9 goalscorer but goals have came from a multitude of places this season. Midfielder Ross Callachan has been on target three times and is currently the league's 5th highest scorer. The club, overall, are the tied second in goals scores in league matches this season.

In defence it's been a different story, Raith have looked very poor. Eleven conceded in eight matches, does not sound like the type of defence that is going to win the league. For example, finding themselves 2-0 down, after half an hour of the match against Dundee United gives Raith a mountain to climb. Despite Raith earning a point at Tannadice in that match, the principle remains; if Locke cannot sort out that defence, they will not maintain fourth place in the league table until May.

Raith's next five fixtures:

• Hibernian (H) - Sat 15th Oct - Championship
• Falkirk (A) - Sat 22nd Oct - Championship
• Queen of the South (H) - Sat 29th Oct - Championship - Live on BBC ALBA
• Dunfermline Athletic (A) - Sat 5th Nov - Championship
• Dumbarton (A) - Sat 19th Nov - Championship

In fairness to Gary Locke, he has recruited wisely and built upon a solid foundation that was left by Ray McKinnon. However, like at Hearts and Kilmarnock the frailty of the defence has been his club's biggest problem. Without fixing the problems at the back, all I can say for Raith is that there fans will see a lot of goals and a lot of high scoring matches but not all in favour of the Rovers. My prediction is for Raith to finish in fifth place, just outside the play-off spots.