Header by old boy Frankie Musonda leaves Raith Rovers empty-handed at Ayr

Saturday gone’s 1-0 defeat at Ayr United lifted their hosts up into fourth place, overtaking Inverness Caledonian Thistle, setting up the Somerset Park side’s trip to Caley this coming Friday as a head-to-head shootout for a top-four place.

Rovers’ final match of the season, at home to third-placed Partick Thistle this Friday, with kick-off at 7.45pm, looks to be a dead rubber, though, their visitors’ one-point advantage over Caley and Ayr and goal difference of plus-20 having seemingly secured them third or fourth spot no matter what happens at Kirkcaldy’s Stark’s Park.

Raith manager Ian Murray says his team won’t be treating it that way, however, as they’ll look to go out on a high note.

Rovers will end up seventh irrespective of this week’s result as, with 42 points from 35 fixtures, they can’t catch up with sixth-placed Greenock Morton, on 54, or be overtaken by eighth-placed Arbroath, on 33.

“Once the game starts, we’re all competitors,” Murray told Raith TV.

“We’ve got personal pride. We want to do it for ourselves and the football club. That’s never in question.

“Our players have given everything since day one of pre-season and they’ll give everything until the last whistle goes on Friday night.

“We’re really looking forward to next Friday night, a game at home against a good Partick Thistle side.

“It’s our last game of the season, we’ve got nothing to lose and we’ll go out there and try to win.”

Saturday’s game was decided by a 55th-minute header by former Raith centre-back Frankie Musonda past visiting goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald and Murray conceded it had been a worthy winner.

“We’re obviously disappointed with the scoreline,” he said. “We wanted to come here and get something. Even if it was only a point, it would have been a good point for us but we wanted to try and win the game.

“It was a really good header, I have to say. Sometimes you look at it defensively and it’s a cheap one but it’s a really good header from quite far out, and to beat a goalie of Jamie’s standard from that distance it had to be.

“We’re disappointed with it because it was just after half-time and if we’d come out and got a decent foothold in the game in the second half, the longer the game goes on at 0-0 the tetchier the crowd would get, but they got a goal at a great time.

“After that, they had a couple of opportunities to hit us on the break just because of the way we were trying to force the game. On another day, they could have capitalised, but then we had a fantastic opportunity from a corner cleared off the line. It was very unfortunate. We could be sitting here with a point.”

Raith were only able to name two substitutes due to injuries and suspensions, goalkeeper Robbie Thomson and defender Greig Young, the latter being brought on as a 70th-minute replacement for Scott McGill.