Raith Rovers boss Ian Murray: 3-0 defeat at Partick Thistle was no more than we deserved

How emphatically the Fifers’ unbeaten streak was ended by new boss Kris Doolan’s resurgent hosts at Maryhill’s Firhill Stadium came as a shock to Murray nevertheless.

“Our performance as a team and our performance as a group, including myself and all the staff, was not befitting of Raith Rovers,” he told Raith TV afterwards.

“That’s not what we do and it’s not what we expect, and I certainly didn’t expect to see that this afternoon.”

Murray conceded that the Kirkcaldy side had been nowhere near good enough and their 3-0 loss in Glasgow – thanks to goals by Scott Tiffoney on 19 minutes and 63, sandwiching a Brian Graham effort on 53 – was no more than they deserved.

“I thought we got what we deserved out of that game,” said the 41-year-old.

“I felt our energy was low, I felt our decision-making was poor, I felt our belief in the game was poor and I felt our aggression was non-existent, and there’s not been a lot of times this season I could level that at our players, but we have to be honest about it and we have to realise it’s not good enough.

“The bottom line is you’ve got 11 players on the park against 11 players and you have to go and match up.

“You have to show some physicality. The least that supporters expect is a bit of physicality in the game and a little bit of hurt, and I didn’t see that today from the players. Again, it’s very unlike them and it’s not many times this season that I’ve said that.

“You have to be ruthless, you have to have a mentality of taking charge and responsibility and leadership and we didn’t have that.

“Quality wasn’t there today. We took too many touches, we didn’t match runners from midfield, and we know Partick are very, very good at that, and they deservedly won the game.”

Winning that play-off place six-pointer has boosted Thistle’s hopes of vying for promotion as much as it’s left Raith’s hanging in the balance, the former being up to third in the Scottish Championship table with 43 points from 27 fixtures and the latter down to seventh on 35 points from the same number of games played.

Murray has vowed to learn lessons from the way his side surrendered their 14-game unbeaten status ahead of their return to Glasgow this coming Sunday for a Scottish Cup quarter-final against Scottish Premiership title challengers Rangers at Ibrox Stadium, with kick-off at 1pm.

“You have to assess it because if you don’t, the rot will continue,” he said.

“If you want to hide under a blanket and not face up to issues raised by the game, be that as a player or staff, then you’re not going to progress in any way.

“We’ll also look at the big picture. Today’s sore and it hurts us but we have to look at it as one defeat in 15 games now, though that doesn’t make today any easier for us.”

Saturday’s scoreline was the same as Raith inflicted on Partick at Stark’s Park in October, though Thistle have the upper hand for the season so far, having previously beaten Rovers 2-1 at home in August.