Opportunity knocks for Raith Rovers but two-goal lead against Greenock Morton thrown away

The Kirkcaldy side were 2-0 up with only a quarter of the game played, thanks to a 19th-minute own goal by Livingston loan goalkeeper Brian Schwake and an Aidan Connolly shot two minures later, his 13th goal of the current campaign, but they let their visitors catch them up, Jack Baird putting one past ex-Berwick Rangers stopper Andrew McNeil on 24 minutes and Robbie Muirhead equalising just ahead of half-time.

That point apiece does Morton more favours than Raith, keeping them ahead of Partick Thistle, 5-1 victors against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Friday, in fourth place on goal difference, with 30 points from 18 games.

Rovers have edged ahead of Caley into sixth place, on 24 points from 19 matches, but they’re six points adrift of the top half of the table after extending their current winless streak to five games.

Next up for them is a trip to basement side Hamilton Academical on Monday, January 2, with kick-off at 3pm, but Murray is miffed not to be going into 2023 with two more points on the board.

“We went 2-0 up without playing particularly great at that point of the game,” he told Raith TV.

“We scored two decent goals that were handed to us and we let in an extremely poor couple of goals as well.

“The first goal was a goalkeeper mistake, it’s as simple as that. It was a real bow to us at that point as we’d just scored to go to 2-0. It changed the momentum of the game, it changed the mood of the players, because that’s a natural reaction.

“For the second one, it was a poor set-up from the corner kick. I don’t quite understand why we allowed our defender to be on the outside of their striker when we were trying to protect our goal. Maybe that’s down to a little bit of inexperience between the sticks at the moment, but it’s a learning curve for everybody.”

“The two goals we let in were really, really poor from two corner kicks that we should really have defended properly.

“It’s two points dropped for us. It’s an opportunity missed.”

Looking for plus points from Friday’s stalemate, Murray, 41, added: “We’ll remain positive, of course, because Morton have picked up a lot of plaudits this season and we’re sitting six points behind them so we can’t be that bad all of a sudden.

“It’s very easy for people to throw stones at us, which happens in football. You’re king of the castle when you win a game and you’re a zero when you lose a game or draw. We’re used to that. It’s understandable. Once we reflect on this, we’ll see it as an opportunity missed and that’s all it is.

“We now go forward and we have a great opportunity in our next game away to Hamilton to try to pick up three points and it’s always our aim to do that.”

Defender Tom Lang’s return after injury for his first game since February was another positive for Murray.

“I thought he was excellent,” he said. “He did really, really well and was deservedly man of the match.”