Partick Thistle 0-1 Raith Rovers: Raith boss Ian Murray delighted as Turner prize for patience is rewarded as he sets up winner

"It’s a fantastic delivery from Kyle,” gaffer Murray told Raith TV. He’s been on dead balls in training the last seven days and he’s been incredible with the way he’s been shooting at goal and also delivering from the wide areas.

"Kyle’s been champing at the bit to get in the team. I’ve had a couple of chats with him over the last week or so just to keep him going and making sure he knows he’s a huge part of what we’re doing, like all the players are.

"I know it’s frustrating for players when they’re not getting on, but I can’t stress enough to them that it’s going to take a massive effort.

"We’ve seen that in particular over the last four to five weeks where we’ve tried to utilise everybody, utilise the squad as well as we can.

"The boys in there have shown great maturity. It helps when you’re winning games and you’re picking up three points.

"But I’ve seen a lot of teams and a lot of people go in the huff when they’re not playing, but these boys aren’t doing that.

"And I think the most pleasing thing for me is that when boys are coming on you can see the energy, the legs, the determination and the hunger to do it for the team, not as individuals.

“It is difficult to pick a team but in a perverted way it’s becoming easier because of the players I’ve got in the changing room in terms of the mentality. They know they’re not going to play every game.

"We try and keep the backline as settled as we can but for the ones in front of that it’s very, very difficult.”

Murray stressed that his selection decisions at Firhill were “forced” as Josh Mullin was injured after picking up a knock against Dunfermline, while Zak Rudden and Lewis Vaughan only made late substitute appearances due to having been ill at the weekend and being rested respectively.

The boss added: “It was very hard fought that’s for sure. Coming here on a Tuesday night’s difficult when you see the weather and the pitch was hard to play on tonight.

"That makes it even more difficult but I thought our players were excellent in terms of their work-rate without the ball, their structure without the ball, the way they complemented each other in terms of working in tandem and trying to get close to each other to make sure we didn't get overloaded in wide areas in particular.

"Partick are a good side. They’ve got good players, they’ve got good wide direct players and Brian Graham is always a handful up front.

"But I felt we limited them to a couple of half chances in the first half, albeit I admit I would have been quite happy to go in level at half-time. But then we get the goal and it gave us something to hang onto.

"Towards the end of the game, the last 20 or 25 minutes that’s exactly what we had to do was hang onto it.

"The 20-odd minutes of the second half before that I felt we actually looked like we were going to score another goal.

"It wasn’t all one way traffic but I’m delighted at this stage of the season to come here and follow up a really good derby victory on the Saturday with another three points.”

With just eight games now left in the title race, leaders United visit Dunfermline Athletic this Friday night before Raith are away to Queen’s Park on Saturday.