Raith keeper MacDonald is content to help team
The stopper’s presence was all that kept Rovers from going several goals behind in the first half as he made a succession of great saves from close-range Queen of the South attacks.
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Hide AdRovers were considerably improved in the second half – while the later stages were also peppered with excellent work by the 35-year-old (inset).
Of his display, MacDonald said: “You're always happy to contribute, especially when you take a point out of the game away from home as well after going 1-0 down. You feel like you have contributed – you could maybe make the saves and still get beaten; it can be all in vain sometimes. “But at least we managed to get a point out of it and it could turn out to be a really good point – it's a difficult place to go. The weather is not an excuse but we didn't really come to terms with the playing conditions early on. We didn’t pick up as well as Queens did and we didn't start the game well. They probably had a lot of their better chances in those first 15 minutes. We slowly started getting in the game and I think it was a much more even game after that.”
The hosts were “excellent”, he added, and their strong start was disquieting. “You're obviously always concerned if you're giving up chances and we did in that first 15 minutes. There were three or four good opportunities for Queens. It was more my day and I managed to get hands on a couple of them. On other days, they can nestle in the back of the net and you're two or three down, then you've got a long way back. It's just the way the game goes. It wasn't as if it was all Queens – in the first 15 minutes it was but we had our chances as well and credit to their 'keeper for a couple of really good stops.”
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Hide AdRaith thought they had largely weathered the storm so it was disappointing to lose a goal so early in the second half, said MacDonald. “One good thing about this team is there is a lot of good character in the squad and when we do concede, a lot of times we usually bounce back from it. We scored a good goal and probably took control of the game for a little while again, maybe until the last 10 minutes. It's a good point in the grand scheme of things it could have been better with an extra two points but we never really lost any ground on anybody, so we just need to take the positives from that.”