Late rally earns point for Raith Rovers at Partick Thistle

Kieran Mitchell, pictured playing for Raith Rovers at Queen's Park in January, scored his first competitive goal for the Fifers to earn them a point at Partick Thistle on Saturday (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group)

There wasn’t too much to separate Raith Rovers and Partick Thistle last season, seven of the potential dozen points on offer from their four Scottish Championship games going the Glaswegians’ way and four to the Fifers, and they carried on where they left off in the current campaign’s opener in Maryhill on Saturday.

At 2-0 up with eight minutes of normal time left to play, the hosts looked to be on course to pick up all three points at Firhill Park, now renamed the Wyre Stadium, but a late rally by the Kirkcaldy club earned them a share of the spoils, replicating the 2-2 scoreline yielded by the sides’ last meeting, at Stark’s Park in May, also Raith’s final game of the 2022/23 campaign.

Thistle had to come behind for that point, secured by a 68th-minute Scott Tiffoney equaliser, and it was the visitors that had to mount a comeback this time round too after a Jack McMillan header from point-blank range unmarked past visiting goalkeeper Kevin Dabrowski put manager Kris Doolan’s hosts in front on five minutes and Aidan Fitzpatrick doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time after a free-kick.

Dylan Easton got one back for Raith on 83 minutes with a deflected shot past home keeper David Mitchell and 80th-minute substitute Kieran Mitchell, brought on for Scott McGill, ensured that wasn’t just a consolation effort with a left-footed strike, his first competitive goal for Raith, with one minute remaining on the clock.

Kieran Mitchell scores equaliser for Raith Rovers at Partick Thistle (Pics by Eddie Doig)

Underlining their parity, the two teams both enjoyed 50% possession and registered 14 shots each, Rovers, with six, managing one more on target.

That was the championship’s only draw at the weekend and it leaves Raith and Thistle level on one point in mid-table ahead of a visit this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm, for the former from Greenock Morton, second in the division after a 3-1 home victory against Ayr United to get their latest campaign off to a winning start.

“We actually started the game really well. In the first five minutes, we had a great opportunity to open the scoring, then we just got a wee bit lethargic at the back,” Rovers manager Ian Murray told Raith TV afterwards.

“I felt we were a wee bit unlucky to be 2-0 down at half-time. It was just moments in the half. The second goal especially knocked the stuffing out of us just before half-time but we had a good chat and regrouped. We said that if we score at any point, we’re in this game, be that in the 46th minute or 89th.

Raith goalscorers Kieran Mitchell and Dylan Easton celebrate

“Were we unfortunate to be 2-0 down? Yes, but we’d contributed hugely to that as well. In the second half, I thought we were the dominant team apart from maybe five or ten minutes.

“With seven or eight minutes to go, we were running out of ideas a little bit and our tempo had dropped a little bit as well, but then we came to life again. Getting that first goal was vital to spur us on and we knew we had time to get another.

“We plugged away at it, we kept going, we showed great resilience at both ends of the park and we got our reward.”

Singling out goal-scorer Mitchell, 20, for praise, the 42-year-old added: “His attitude’s excellent. He’s a very low-maintenance young man, to be fair. He works very, very hard in training and he’s working really hard on his finishing.

“In terms of his workrate and attitude, he’s second to none.”