Raith Rovers boss Ian Murray insists his side haven't recently cracked under pressure of trying to beat Dundee United to Scottish Championship title

Murray, whose second-placed team trail leaders Dundee United by six points with three games remaining, starting with tommorow's (Friday's) trip to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, told the Fife Free Press: "I don't think so. I think it's a really, really hard league.

"I always think this league becomes harder as it goes on in terms of when you're doing really well, because teams that haven't done so well can kind of regroup a little bit, reset, go a little bit more defensive, sit in a little bit more.

"They don't really have that much to lose in terms of trying something different.

"And then you become a target. We've said it all along.

"People can look at four games, five games, 10 games, whatever it may be.

"I look at the 33 games that we've played so far and for us to be where we are, I think we're 21 points ahead of the total for the whole of last season with three games left, sitting second with a guaranteed semi-final play-off position, we've had a really, really good season.

"But there's no doubt as the season has gone on it's become harder and harder because other teams become better, they change managers, change formations, become a bit more defensive and it's tough."

When asked if it is harder to motivate his players for the final free fixtures as a play-off finish looks inevitable, Murray added: "The players will still be at it hammer and tongs.

"I think it would be different if we were maybe sitting mid-table, sixth. I mean that in terms of training, players can sometimes take it a bit easier because they're not getting pushed and there's maybe not a lot of big squad depth.

"We've still got a lot to play for ao we want to win as many games as we can. We want to try and get to that 20-mark in terms of game wins. We want to finish with as many points as we possibly can regardless of what position we're in.

"We want to be ready for the play-offs if they come around and the players have certainly not shown any indications to me in training that they're happy with where they are.

"They are not giving any less, training numbers are high, they're still coming in every day to work so I can't really speak highly enough of them.

"It would be very, very easy for them to be thinking about play-off semi-finals but the boys are still just trying to win as many games as we can and we'll see what happens."