Raith Rovers 2-2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle: Rovers boss Ian Murray vows to repair defensive frailties after draw

Lewis Vaughan’s brilliant long range volley had Rovers 1-0 up on 29 minutes, but Billy Dodds’ Caley levelled four minutes after the restart when Jay Henderson shot home from a tight angle.

Although Aidan Connolly’s left-footed curler on 61 minutes put the hosts back in front, Inverness snatched a point via a header by Billy McKay – whose run wasn’t matched by a single defender - following an inswinging Sean Welsh free-kick with just seven minutes remaining.

The draw has Raith seventh in the table, three points shy of the play-off positions, with 30 points from 23 games.

“Missing out on the three points is the biggest frustration today,” Murray told Raith TV post match. "Because we were ahead in the game twice.

“The boys are disappointed, I’m disappointed and the supporters will be disappointed because we probably deserved the three points.”

Referring to Raith’s second equaliser by Mckay which made it 2-2, Murray added: “Sometimes you get undone by really good football and good movement, but Billy Mckay’s movement was so basic at the free-kick.

"As a collective we have to be much better. We have to be better as players and we have to be better as staff on that side of it.

"So we’ll go away and look at that on our side, the players will obviously look at that on their side, we’ll come together and have to make a decision on what we do because stats don’t tend to lie too much in football and we’re conceding too many from those sort of wider areas.

"It’s a collective thing. It’s not pinpointing one person or one group, it's all of us.”

A major positive for Raith was the quality of their two goals, with Murray saying: “Two excellent goals, they’ve shown their quality again.

"I thought the first-half performance was up there as maybe the best of the season.

"We were full of energy, quality, work-rate, desire to get the ball back. We had Inverness penned in for pretty much the whole half apart from the last two or three minutes.

"For us to miss out on three points after working so hard and playing so well at times, it’s sore.”

Newly arrived South Sudanese striker William Akio, who has joined Rovers on loan from Ross County until the end of the season, made his debut as a substitute on 71 minutes.

Murray added: “William only joined up with us this morning. He met the guys at 1 o’clock. It was a hard day for him to come on but we felt it was good getting him on as soon as we can, get him up to speed training with us this week, getting used to the league and Scottish football.

"Albeit he’s been training a lot at Ross County, he’s not had a lot of game time so it’s going to take him time. But he has a little bit more pace than what we’re used to, he’s an out and out striker so he’ll play at the top end of the park and he’s fairly direct.

"We’ll try and make him a better footballer, send him back to Ross County and if he can do us a turn and we can help him then great.”

Raith Rovers: MacDonald, Millen, Lang, Nolan, Dick, Brown, Spencer, Connolly, Vaughan (McBride 87), Easton (Stanton 77), Gullan (Akio 71).

Inverness: Ridgers, Carson, Devine, Duffy, Delaney (Harper 81), Henderson (Nicolson 87), Hyde (Allardice 66), Welsh, Mackay (Shaw 66), Doran (Boyd 81), Mckay.

Referee: Scott Lambie

Crowd: 2065