Goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald earns point for Raith Rovers with penalty save on 500th career appearance

The West Lothian-born 36-year-old kept out a 50th-minute spot kick by Ben Dempsey, awarded for a foul on the visitors’ Mark McKenzie, to keep the scoreline at 0-0 and that’s how it stayed come the final whistle on Friday.

That result leaves the Kirkcaldy side sixth in the Scottish Championship ahead of today’s fixture card, on 35 points from 26 matches.

Rovers manager Ian Murray was full of praise for the veteran stopper, at Stark’s Park since July 2020 following stints at the likes of Heart of Midlothian and Kilmarnock, telling Raith TV: “Jamie, I think, is the best goalkeeper in the league.

“He’s got bags of experience. He’s a calming influence on the players around him but he puts huge demands on his defenders as well.

“I’m delighted for Jamie on having made 500 appearances. It’s a fantastic achievement, and I think it’s fitting that he saved a penalty in his 500th game. He earned us a point, which could be very valuable at the end of the season.”

Raith should have been awarded a penalty themselves, according to Murray, for an apparent handball by Ayr's Nick McAllister 15 minutes in but it wasn’t given.

“The referee was wrong,” said the 41-year-old. “It was a handball. I think it was very evident.

“I knew at the time it was a handball. It was a stonewall penalty kick. It was a penalty all day long in any league on any night in any situation.”

Reviewing the match as a whole, he added: “It was a really difficult game, which we expected.

“It was blood and thunder from the first minute to the last.

“There wasn’t a lot in the game. Ayr came here and put in a really strong away performance.

“We tried to unlock them and we had decent opportunities in the final third to get into the goal but we didn’t have the quality and the nous to unlock a defence sitting really deep and really tight.

“Of course, I’m frustrated that we didn’t win the game and never worked their goalkeeper enough, but over the piece the boys once again put 100% into that game. Their work-rate was second to none.

“Our unbeaten run keeps going and we now go to Partick Thistle and we hope to end this quarter unbeaten.”

MacDonald hitting the 500 mark wasn’t the only milestone marked on Friday as the match was also Aidan Connolly’s 100th competitive appearance for Raith since arriving from Falkirk in 2021.

“Aidan’s work-rate is through the roof, it really is,” said Murray.

“I’ve been delighted with Aidan this season. He’s a really, really hard-worker, a fantastic professional and great to have round the place.

“We’ve just got to keep him going now and get him back amongst the goals and kick him on.”

Raith’s next match is a trip to Maryhill in Glasgow to take on fifth-placed Partick Thistle next Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm.