Ayr United made to pay penalty as Raith Rovers rack up third 2-1 win of seasonagainst them

A curling Dylan Easton shot past visiting goalkeeper Joshua Clarke in first-half stoppage time, from an Aidan Connolly assist, and a 65th-minute Jack Hamilton penalty, awarded for a foul by Mark McKenzie, sandwiching a 55th-minute equaliser from Logan Chalmers, earned all three points for the Fifers at their Stark’s Park home ground in front of a crowd of 3,579.

That was the same scoreline as those yielded by Raith’s away-days in Ayr in February and September, the odd result out this campaign being their 4-4 draw in Kirkcaldy just before Christmas.

Midfielder Easton’s goal was his third against Ayr this season following two netted by the 29-year-old birthday boy at Somerset Park in September.

Manager Ian Murray was delighted to see his side edge out opposite number Scott Brown’s visitors with their only two shots on target, telling Raith TV afterwards: “It was a really, really tough afternoon for both sets of players.

“Conditions weren’t ideal, that’s for sure.

“It was a really close game again. That’s the fourth time we’ve played Ayr United now and all those games have been really, really close, as the scoreline suggests, so I’m delighted to come out on the right side of it.

“We had to work extremely hard for it, though.

“I felt in the first half we were the dominant side. We were really, really good actually. That’s the best we’ve played for a while in terms of getting the ball down and in the middle of the pitch, getting out wide and getting our attacking wide players on the ball and creating opportunities.

“The second half was a bit scrappy, a bit bitty. We limited Ayr to a few chances and we didn’t have many ourselves.

“I was delighted with the boys. I thought they dug in incredibly well.

“They showed good quality at times. They showed a fantastic mental attitude towards the game as well.

“In terms of workrate, commitment, attitude, I can’t fault or players in any way.”

Murray was also pleased to see Hamilton, 23, get back on the scoresheet, saying: “It was very hard job that we asked him to do against two really big centre-halves.

“I thought Jack played really, really well and took his penalty fantastically well.

“Jack’s goal-to-game ratio is really high. I think that was his 11th goal this season from 21 starts, so that’s pretty good going.”

Raith Rovers: Kevin Dabrowski, James Brown, Liam Dick, Keith Watson, Scott Brown, Aidan Connolly, Ross Matthews, Sam Stanton, Shaun Byrne, Dylan Easton, Jack Hamilton. Substitutes: Lewis Vaughan, Callum Smith, Andrew McNeil, Josh Mullin, Dylan Corr, Kyle Turner, Scott McGill, Zak Rudden.

Ayr United: Joshua Clarke, Nicholas McAllister, Sean McGinty, George Stanger, Jack Sanders, Ben Dempsey, Jamie Murphy, Harry McHugh, Fraser Bryden, Anton Dowds, Mark McKenzie. Substitutes: Charlie Albinson, Kurt Willoughby, Aiden McGeady, Logan Chalmers, Francis Amartey, Paul Smith, Scott Tomlinson, Max Guthrie, Lucas McRoberts