Barry Robson changes Hearts loanee's position and it reaps major rewards as star shines in Raith Rovers win

Barry Robson has changed up the position his Hearts loanee is playing for Raith Rovers - to great effect.

Finlay Pollock is spending the season on loan at the Championship side and has featured 17 times so far. He has scored three goals in as many games as the attacking midfielder is moved into an out and out striker role, scoring twice in Saturday’s 3-0 win against Partick Thistle.

His first came when he crashed a loose ball in the box beyond the goalkeeper before turning in a Dylan Easton cross near the half-hour mark. Pollock is deputising up front for now due to injuries suffered by Lewis Vaughan, Jack Hamilton and Callum Smith.

Rovers boss Robson believes the star is now beginning to take heed of the lessons he is being taught behind the scenes. The ex-Aberdeen manager said: “When you're a striker, I always believe when you start to work with one, they've got to run.

“They've got to put defenders under pressure, they've got to run in the right areas. A lot of times the strikers won't do that or they don't know how to do that.

“Once you give them that advice and you show them on the pitch, this is how you press, this is how you run, this is how we want you to run, this is the speed we want you to run at, all of a sudden things start to happen for them.

“Gaps start to open, they start to tie opposition centre-backs. He's getting into good areas. So we're really pleased for Finlay. He's got a lot of hard work to do, just like the other ones. All of them have a lot to learn, but they are willing kids who want to do well.

“I think the first half was outstanding. I thought the way we transitioned, the way we passed the ball through them quickly, the speed we played at, the counter-pressure. It was a lot harder to deal with. You could see a real identity to us, how aggressive we wanted to be.

“I thought we were really, really pleasing in the first half. In the second half, I thought we controlled the game well. The pitch was a wee bit difficult today as well. I think we couldn't really pass it. It was a bit from the ice maybe last night. It felt a bit difficult.

But in the second half, we controlled it. We kept it at a minimum and kept a clean sheet. So we were pretty much in control in the second half as well.