Draw against old club Morton a fair result, reckons Raith Rovers gaffer Dougie Imrie
Raith Rovers manager Dougie Imrie rates the Fifers’ sixth draw in their last nine games against Greenock Morton as an opportunity missed but admits his side didn’t do enough on the road in Inverclyde on Saturday to merit any more than a point.
The 42-year-old was in the opposition dugout for the preceding eight of those games but this time round his seat there at Cappielow Park was taken by recent Raith gaffer Ian Murray.
It seems unlikely that either will look back on this reunion with their old clubs in front of a crowd of 1,798 with particular fondness, however, as a point apiece does neither team much good in pursuit of one of the William Hill Championship’s play-off places.
With 33 points left to play for this football season and the top four only three points away, the sixth-placed Kirkcaldy club remain in contention to at least extend their campaign, but the same goes for Fife rivals Dunfermline Athletic above them and all four teams below them, including Morton.
On 29 points from 25 fixtures, Raith are almost three times closer to basement side Ross County, on 22 from 24, than they are to top dogs St Johnstone, on 49 from 24, but the bottom end of the Saints’ chasing pack are still within reach, third-placed Arbroath being on 37 from 24 and fourth-placed Ayr United on 32 from 23.
A visit to Stark’s Park for the table-toppers is next for Raith to test their top-four credentials this coming Friday, with kick-off at 7.45pm, but the Perth side have only lost three matches this term to the ten defeats inflicted on Rovers, so Imrie is all too aware that his team will need to be at the top of their game to defy the form-book, not having beaten the Saints since 2004, with eight defeats and two draws following.
“It was a bit huff and puff at times,” Imrie told Raith TV afterwards. “I thought both teams probably cancelled each other out.
“There was a lot of play in the middle of the pitch, but if you look at both boxes, there wasn’t enough action.
“All in all, a draw’s probably a fair result.
“A point doesn’t help anyone, I don’t think. You want to be winning games.
“Our clean-sheet record is very good but we’ve not been so great at scoring goals away from home thi season.
“We got into some great areas but we wanted to take another touch, we wanted to be clever, instead of just getting a shot away.
“There’s a lot of frustration because some of our play was good in terms of passages of play, but that final bit at the top end of the pitch when it counts just wasn’t there.
“From my point of view, it’s another opportunity lost to try to close that gap to the top four.
“We don’t have enough games for that. We’ve only got 11 games left, so we can’t keep giving teams options.
“We’ve got to try and close that gap. Every time you don’t, you allow teams to sneak away from you and you also allow teams below you to get closer.”
Looking ahead, Imrie, manager of Morton from 2021 to November last year and a winger there for the 2013-14 season, added: “We need to be braver at the top end of the pitch to get bodies beyond people, to want to run.”