‘I couldn’t be prouder!’ beams Allan

Under 20’s co-manager Myles Allan has heaped the praise on his young side despite a narrow loss at Starks Park last night.

“Raith had players in their spine last night with significant first-team experience. Guys like Laurie Ellis, Ryan McCord and Lewis Vaughan. A match like that is probably the perfect illustration as to why performances are more important than results in this league. It’s not to say I don’t enjoy winning, of course I do.

“But our young lads held our our own and to be justified in their own disappointment at not coming away from the game with something shows how good a point it was.

“Peter Unwin said during the game that it’s important to remember the Raith team will train together more in a week than we have in the last six months.

“And yet, the level of performance since New Year has been outstanding. If they maintain that over our last couple of games they should be proud of themselves – I’m already proud of what they’ve achieved so far.”

Allan went on to reveal that he felt the ‘Gers enjoyed success from the flanks last night.

“Charlie was on the bench last week as we generally like to rotate things slightly, but he came in last night and did very well. And that was backed up by Daniel Pattenden on the oppositie flank who played as well as I’ve seen him play.”

The defeat marked Allan’s final game in charge of the Under 20’s this season, and so his focus now turns to next season.

“Neil will now take the last couple of game and we’ll discuss our plans for next season. I think our opinions on the marjority of players are similar. Given the way that the lads have performed this season, I’d like to think that the majority of the group will stay with the club.

“But I’d echo what Neil’s point last weekend. The Summer is a great opportunity for the younger lads to push on. As I keep saying, we have limited coaching time with the boys and so when we get it, the last thing we want to be doing is wasting time getting a player fit.

“That may be a point more about part-time football in general than specific to our group, but the individual has to take the responsibility. For those that do take the initiative, we spend more time on match-related work. So in that respect, any work the guys can do away from the club fitness-wise will benefit them in a number of ways.”