Eze does it as Queen’s Park end ten-match losing streak against Raith Rovers

A 59th-minute header by Nigerian international Stephen Eze from a Dom Thomas corner was all that separated the two teams, giving the itinerant Glaswegian outfit their first victory against the Fifers since a win by the same scoreline back in March 2008.

Rovers’ best chances, in front of an 862-strong crowd, were a Sam Stanton shot early on denied by the woodwork and a Quinn Coulson header cleared off the line in added-on time and a Connor O’Riordan follow-up header from the rebound against the crossbar.

That result lifts Queen’s Park up to second place in the Scottish Championship, just a point behind table-toppers Partick Thistle, with Rovers remaining sixth, on nine points from eight games.

“Obviously we’re disappointed with the scoreline,” Murray told Raith TV afterwards.

“Within the game, like most weeks, win or lose, there was not a lot in it, and I think we saw that today more than ever.

“How Sam’s shot didn’t go in in the first five minutes I’ll never know because, for me, it looked in all the way. Even when it hit the post, I thought it was in.

“They hit the woodwork as well in the second half and we hit one against the woodwork at the end, but ultimately we lost the game 1-0 to a set-play.

“I know it’s the same reel that managers and coaches come out with every week but it is down to fine lines, especially in that game. That was probably the closest game that we’ve been involved in this season.

“I felt we started the game incredibly well and dominated the first 15 to 20 minutes. After that, Queen’s came into the game, as you would expect, hitting us on the counter more than anything else because we had full control of the game at that point but were just lacking that sharpness and decisive moment in front of goal. That was the biggest frustration for me, our decision-making goinng forward, because we did have good opportunities.

“It’s all ifs, buts and maybes. We’ll never know how the game would have gone if our chances had gone in, but it would have given us a platform in the game.

“We played all roght. We played decent enough, but to be a good team, you have to be better than that, and to put a run together, you need to do better than that.

“We need to demand more from our forward players because I felt our forward play wasn’t good enough today. I felt we allowed Queen’s at time to dictate their defensive line, and we need to be better. We need to get players’ knowledge of how to play against teams like Queen’s much better.

“We have got good experience in certain areas of the park, but we haven’t got good experience in other areas, so we have to kind of bear with that a little bit, but it is frustrating.”

Especially frustrating for Murray was seeing the Coulson and O’Riordan headers that almost earned the Kirkcaldy side a point kept out right at the death.

“We have to give credit to Queen’s defence for getting a head on it because it looked a goal all the way,” he said. “It would have been a great time to score and it would have been a decent point away from home. We tried to go for it, we had to. There was no point in sitting in. We had to keep our attacking players on the park regardless of their levels of performance because that’s the way we try and do it.”

Murray is now calling on his players to keep on believing in themselves and try to bounce back against Aberdeen’s Cove Rangers, 2-0 victors against Arbroath at the weekend, at home at Stark’s Park this coming Saturday, kick-off being at 3pm.

“It is frustrating, and I can understand other people’s frustrations – players as well and staff and supporters, of course, because they turn out in good numbers every single week – but I can’t fault the players’ attitude towards the game or their work-rate,” he said. “They worked incredibly hard.

“They’re not getting that little bit of luck at the moment, and we’re not getting it as a group, but if we keep working hard and we keep believing in ourselves and we keep trusting each other, then we will get it.

“It takes time, and it sometimes takes a long time, but we’ll get there.

“The demands are now becoming higher and higher within the dressing room because we’ve got pressure on players to perform well.

“We have to remain positive and we have to take this week to improve and learn and be ready for the visit next week of Cove Rangers because it’s an opportunity for us, but that’s all it is. There are absolutely no guarantees in this league of how games are going to go.

“Cove Rangers have picked up a fantastic win today and they’ll come to us full of confidence.

“If we’re not on it and we think we can go out there and be entitled to win football games, then we’re on the wrong road completely.”