Late winner denies Raith Rovers a point away to Ross County

The Kirkcaldy club haven’t beaten the Highlanders for 12 years and haven’t taken so much as a point off them since 2016 but a 51st-minute Callum Smith header, from a Lewis Stevenson assist, after a Jordan White header approaching the half-hour mark had put their hosts ahead looked set to help make amends for their 4-0 Scottish Premiership play-off defeat at the same ground in May until George Harmon came up with a winner with three minutes of normal time left to play and a further seven minutes of added-on time to follow.

Raith manager Ian Murray reckons a point would have been no more than his side deserved and that they could have even claimed all three had an 80th-minute Dylan Easton shot managed to find the target.

That was one of 14 shots fired by the Fifers at home goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw’s net, six of them on target, but it was the Staggies’ ten shots that proved decisive as two of the handful on target got past visting No 1 Kevin Dabrowski to take manager Don Cowie’s hosts level with Raith in their cup pool on six points in front of a crowd of 1,228.

“It was a really hard game, as we expected,” Murray told Raith TV afterwards.

“It was really good game. It was pretty much end to end from the opening minutes.

“We took five or six minutes to settle into into the game but when we did, we were really threatening.

“We worked out that the quicker we got the ball forward, in terms of creating one-v-ones and three-v-threes, the better we’d do.

“I felt we were worth at least a point, though obviously that’s an argument that people will have different opinions on.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t pick up seomething from the game but we know what we have to do now next Saturday.”

“I just felt the way we played, in particular the chances we were creating and our counter-attack play, was of high quality.

“We had a couple of wee bits at the edge of the box and Dylan Easton was incredibly unlucky when he plucked that ball out of the air and lashed it just wide.

“That would have made it 2-1 to us with just ten minutes to go and that would have made the game really, really interesting.

“Overall, I was pleased with the players, their effort, their commitment their hunger, their attitude and their quality. The only disappointment was the result.”

Murray was impressed by how defender Stevenson and lone forward Smith linked up for the visitors’ equaliser, saying; “It was a really simple but great goal.

“It came from really quick passing into midfield out wide and a great ball in from Lewis Stevenson and a fantastic header from Callum Smoth.

“At that point, we probably deserved to be level.”

Raith’s league cup campaign continues with a visit from new Scottish Championship rivals Hamilton Academical to Stark’s Park this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm.