Raith Rovers in dull draw with Ayr United

Both goals came in the second half – Raith opened the scoring through a header from captain Kyle Benedictus before Aaron Muirhead equalised for the Honest Men.

Raith boss John McGlynn made four changes from Tuesday night’s home loss to Inverness.

Frankie Musonda replaced the suspended Iain Davidson, whilst Brad Spencer, Kai Kennedy and Gozie Ugwu dropped to the bench to make way for Lewis Vaughan, Jamie Gullan and Manny Duku.

The first 45 minutes were frankly dismal from both sides ,with almost nothing in the way of quality on display. The ball spending as much time on the air as it did on the deck.

The only moment worth reporting was a fluffed header from Ayr’s Mark McKenzie on 10 minutes that he should have at least got on target.

Literally, that was it in a shocker of a first half and it looked highly likely as if we were about to witness the third 0-0 between the two sides this season.

However, the second half did improve – marginally.

On 52 minutes Rovers should have taken the lead. Musonda headed over unchallenged from close in from an excellent corner from Vaughan.

Rovers set pieces were causing the home defence problems and four minutes later they made another one count.

This time it was Armstrong from the right and captain Kyle Benedictus outmuscled his marker to get to the ball first and head Raith into the lead.

The visitors had the majority of the ball after taking the lead but it was the home side who scored next.

A free kick was played into the box on 70 minutes. It was only partially cleared and fell to Aaron Muirhead who rifled home the equaliser.

In a game of few chances there was only one more created in the final 20 minutes.

Ayr’s Michael Moffat was put through at a slight angle but with only Jamie MacDonald to beat his shot was weak and the Rovers number one saved easily.

It finished 1-1 and is a decent away point for Raith in a game where they were far from their best.