'I've had to learn calmness' - Raith Rovers boss Ian Murray admits he's mellowed as a manager since his early days in the pressure cooker environment a decade ago

Murray, 41, served as Sons gaffer between 2012 and 2015, before a brief stint at St Mirren and four years in charge at Airdrieonians, whom he left before joining Raith on a two-year contract this summer.

"I would say I was pretty fiery in my early days as a manager,” Murray told the Fife Free Press. "Because you are fresh into the changing room, you are in a new job, you’re desperate to do well, you’re dealing with different situtions that you’ve never dealt with before.

"You don’t know how you’re going to react.

"For me it’s been a huge learning curve and maybe being assistant manager in Norway helped that (he also worked at Scandanavian outfit Asker between 2017 and 2018), having to do a different role as well.

"When I look round all the leagues now, the older guys have got lines where things are drawn and it’s very unusual to see these managers lose the rag. But the younger guys do because they’re impulsive.

"I can understand it but I think the players now respond to calmness rather than kneejerk reactions.

“I think as you get older like everyone else, with more experience you learn to deal with situations in a different way.

“I think I’ve had to learn calmness. I’ve certainly calmed down a lot from 10 years ago, that’s for certain.

"Don’t get me wrong, you still get frustrated and annoyed at times like everyone but you learn to deal with it in a better way.

"So I think I’m fairly calm now. I don’t get involved with referees and stuff which I used to do and I don’t take things too personally either with players. It’s a different approach I guess.”

When asked if he had a favourite manager during his playing days, Murray – who served Hibs, Rangers and Norwich City among others – remained open minded.

"I was quite fortunate that I had a lot of good managers,” he said. “I try to take bits from all of them and I can’t think of any who weren’t quite understanding about what it felt like to be on the pitch and make mistakes or do well.

"But I think the first really calm manager I had was probably Tony Mowbray (Murray’s gaffer at Hibs in the 2004-2005 season).

"He came from a different background down south and didn’t really know much about us as young players, but he taught us really well.

"I don’t remember him flying off the handle too much and obviously he went on to good things.”

One manager Murray served under twice was Alex McLeish, who bossed the former utility player at both Hibs and Rangers.

"I really enjoyed working with Alex,” Murray said. “He was really good to me, I tried to give him that back.

"I did see a difference in Alex from when he was at Hibs to when he was at Rangers because he was dealing with different players and different characters.

"Hibs was one of Alex’s first jobs and he had to make that transition over to Rangers quickly. It doesn’t happen very often that the Hibs manager becomes the Rangers manager as they tend to look further afield now.

"It was a huge change for him and he had to change because – no disrespect to Hibs – he was dealing with better players.

"He had to maybe tone down a little bit and listen to the players a little bit more but he still maintained that steeliness where he had a line that you don’t cross or he would let you know about it.”

Raith return to Championship action at Greenock Morton this Saturday with kick-off at 3pm.

For the visitors, Ryan Dolan is a fitness doubt, with Lewis Vaughan and Thomas Laing both still out.

Murray said: “It will be a tough game. They’re on a good run with two good wins in a row against Queen’s Park and Hamilton, with seven goals scored.

"They’re very solid at the back.

"We have to trust ourselves to go and pass the ball on a really good grass pitch.

"Both teams play slighty different styles but that doesn’t mean to say one’s right and one’s wrong, it’s about getting results.

"We know from the first game (a 2-1 Raith league win over Morton on August 13) that it was a very close game, a very hard fought game.

"They have got really good experience so I expect a really tough game down there on Saturday, but also a game where we can go down there and win.”

Murray acknowledged that giant striker John Frederiksen, who made his debut from the bench in last Saturday’s 3-0 home league win over Cove Rangers, looks like being an asset at both ends of the pitch with his height.

“Firstly he’s a striker so we brought him in hopefully to score goals,” the boss added.

"But he did give us a presence, a bigger height advantage, on most teams now.

"He was brought in primarily because he is a decent player with decent pedigree needed to boost our forward play and firing line.

"But there’s no doubt he will be an asset at both ends of the park.”