PETER GRANT felt his players "had to take a sore one for the team" after they let a lead slip in last night's Fife derby.

Brad Spencer's goal three minutes from time cancelled out Dom Thomas' spectacular opener for the Pars, who are still waiting for a first Championship win this season.

With 11 matches played, Grant's outfit remain bottom of the table, and head to third-top Arbroath on Saturday after a sixth draw in seven outings.

Grant admitted he didn't know whether to feel angry, frustrated or sad afterwards, but was disappointed his players didn't do enough to stop Spencer shooting from around 20 yards having "put some much into the game".

"Dom has shown a bit of magic to get the goal obviously and I felt comfortable, even though Raith are a good side and I know that they can ask questions of you," he said.

"But I felt that our good players were playing well, they were picking up a lot of the ball and getting into good areas of the pitch.

"Yet again we have lost a goal to things that you do every day about clearing your box. When the ball is at the edge of your box and you don’t get up and stay in your goal, there is no room for error. You have to go, close the ball and press the ball. We have to take a sore one for the team as they say. Those moments are the ones that cost you.

"I am really disappointed because I thought they put so much in, so much effort and I know that they are so desperate to win. You can see I am trying to get them forward and they are wanting to drop because it is late in the game. It is human nature to do that.

"It is the one thing that I speak about all the time - clear the box, it gives everyone an opportunity to get out to block the ball quicker and it makes it a bigger area that the keeper can see. We didn’t do that at a vital time and it cost us dearly."

When asked if he thought tension in trying to see out a win was partly to do with that, Grant replied: "Probably, I don't know.

"I still think that I have good enough players that know that they have to go out and they will get hurt at moments like that. That is the thing that gets you three points, taking one on the chin, the face or the belly, wherever. You have to have those guts to succeed.

"ootball is not pretty all the time, you have to show the dirty side and that is why I am frustrated because I thought that they put so much in, they had worked so hard to get the three points, it was snatched away from them.

"I am going to take it down to our own fault because I just felt at that vital moment we didn’t do what we talk about every day."

Rovers boss, John McGlynn, felt the match was a typical derby game, and praised Thomas' goal for the Pars.

"It was a typical derby game; a lot of effort, a lot of commitment," he said.

"We were never really at our flowing best, but I think you can see the conditions didn't help. The pitch was very good, so I've no complaints with the pitch, but it was very slick, so your passing had to be really good. If your touch was off, you were losing posession, and you weren't quite sure where the ball was going to land, so we never really got a real flow moving.

"Dunfermline did very well to press us, close us down and try and win the ball back high, and on odd ocassions we managed to play through that.

"It was a great goal from their point of view, for the goalkeeper to throw the ball out. For us, it's not great they've managed to run about 60, 70 yards with the ball, and then you can't give Dom Thomas that amount of time because he's lethal. It's a typical kind of finish from Dom Thomas.

"It was a great finish, it's in the top bin, and a goalkeeper if Jamie MacDonald's quality couldn't even get to it, but we should've been out. The defender's backed off and you can't back off there. We had to come out but, great credit to Dom Thomas for his finish, and likewise for Brad. I think the fans who came here tonight saw two great goals.

"Brad's is a great finish; it's a long way out. I think it went by a number of players, just missing them to end up bending in the corner, so at 1-0 down our guys had to show a lot of spirit, a lot of character, a lot of personality. They could've crumbled; obviously Dunfermline have got their tails up then, they've got their fans are behind them, but they rallied round."