Raith Rovers: Boss Ian Murray gives his thoughts on why Stark's Park side failed to reach play-offs

Rovers’ target throughout the 2022-2023 campaign – that of gaining a spot in the top four – has been missed after a poor recent run in the Scottish Championship which saw them come away with three defeats and a draw.

Rivals Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s 2-1 win at Hamilton Accies on Tuesday night officially made it impossible for Raith to break into the top four positions, meaning Murray’s men will spend a fourth straight season in Scotland's second tier next season.

“There’s obviously reasons for us missing the play-offs, some games we’ve not been good enough, injuries, maybe too many games over a short space of time with the depth that we had,” Murray told the Fife Free Press.

"I think the two teams that have pushed themselves into the play-offs in the past five or six weeks are Inverness and Partick.

"Look at Inverness. They had very big problems towards the start of the season with injuries and now they’re motoring because they’ve got everyone back.

"Partick had a massive dip when they didn’t have players but once they’ve got players back, just after the Scottish Cup game against Rangers, they’ve motored into that fourth position.

"You need a big squad in this league and we’re disappointed not to be there. But when we look at who’s in these positions, it’s probably no surprise.”

What hasn’t helped Rovers this term has been the horrendously high number of goals – 19 – that they have lost from setpieces in league and cup fixtures.

"The act is the free-kick or the corner but we’ve also got to try to work out how teams are getting in these positions,” Murray said.

"Is it poor defending? Is it laziness, is it poor positioning? And then after that we have to go and defend free-kicks.

"To concede 19 goals from setplays – that’s including penalties and teams have to win the penalty – is absolutely scandalous.

"And it’s been a bug bear because it’s not one player. If it’s one player you can change it, you can sort it.

"It’s two, three or four players sometimes. It’s really, really disappointing.

"It’s something we’re going to have to get good at or at least get better at because that number, you’ve got absolutely no chance when you concede that number.”

Rovers' prospective new owners from this summer have told current majority shareholder John Sim that they would like to focus on signing young players and Murray gave his reaction to this.

"I think to be fair, in our initial early talks, we’re looking at any age to be quite frank because you need a good mixture,” he said.

"Of course we want to have the young players. There are so many positives in young players, you can improve them, you can try and sell them and stuff like that.

"But ultimately you need a bit of experience round about you. When you look at this league in particular, experience in the Championship is vital.”