'I could have played in goals for Airdrie' - Ian Murray rages at Raith Rovers' showing in Championship opener

AIRDRIE, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 03: Raith Rovers' manager Ian Murray during a William Hill Championship match between Airdrieonians and Raith Rovers at the Albert Bartlett Stadium, on August 03, 2024, in Airdrie, Scotland. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

Raging Raith Rovers boss Ian Murray branded his side one ‘devoid of any quality and fitness’ after they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Airdrie on the opening day of the Scottish Championship campaign.

The Stark’s Park side, who finished as second tier runners up last term, have failed to win in three outings after a subpar showing in North Lanarkshire, with only one shot on target to show for their efforts on Saturday.

And former Hibs and Rangers midfielder Murray admitted to Raith TV that “he could have played in goals for Airdrie” due to the Kirkcaldy’s team’s lack of creativity and attacking flair.

"It was frantic but it wasn’t a good game,” he said. “We were poor, both teams were actually poor.

AIRDRIE, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 03: Airdrie's Dylan MacDonald scores to make it 1-0 during a William Hill Championship match between Airdrieonians and Raith Rovers at the Albert Bartlett Stadium, on August 03, 2024, in Airdrie, Scotland. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

“The first game of the season is about winning and we didn’t do that. We probably didn’t deserve to lose the game on the balance of play.

“The quality is not there. We didn’t give our forward players enough ammunition.

“We have really good players but we are crossing from wide areas into the goalkeeper’s hands, shooting well over the bar and not showing confidence one v one to go up against centre-halves.

"We aren’t getting to the areas on the pitch we need to get to at the moment.

AIRDRIE, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 03: Raith Rovers' Jack Hamilton is down injured during a William Hill Championship match between Airdrieonians and Raith Rovers at the Albert Bartlett Stadium, on August 03, 2024, in Airdrie, Scotland. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

“I could have played in goals for Airdrie today and kept a clean sheet because we didn’t put them under any pressure."

The boss, 43, also took a swipe at the match fitness of his players, admitting that his coaching team will need to take a deep dive into what is going wrong so far this season.

Having competed in the Premiership play-off final back in late May, the Raith Rovers’ playing squad have had a shorter summer off than usual, but Murray wasn’t up for excuses.

He added: “I am a wee bit concerned about our fitness and very concerned about our sharpness.

“The hunger is attitude is there and the players are giving everything – we just don’t have any quality.

“We will have to fix it very quickly. Last season counts for nothing.

"Maybe we are too comfortable. We have to change that quickly. We need reinforcements.

“My gut feeling is that something isn’t right – we need to weed that out. It is going to be a tough 24/48 hours.”

The theme of frustration continued on what was a abject afternoon in Airdrie with striker Jack Hamilton adding to the Stark’s Park injury-list when he came off just a minute after coming on as a second-half substitute.

And that forced the visitors to finish the match with ten men after Murray had already used up all of his substitution windows.

On the club’s injury woes, he said: "Euan Murray was struggling at the end so that was on my mind in terms of what substitutions to make while it was 0-0.

"Callum Fordyce came off with his ankle and it was ballooned up massively.

“We had five boys in their (the changing room) with ice on them.

"Jack (Hamilton) came through last weekend fine and didn’t show any issues before today.

"Scott Brown and Paul Hanlon are short-term. But set-backs happen,”