Raith Rovers boss Ian Murray: Paul Hanlon can bring us goals as well as clean sheets

Raith's Paul Hanlon (centre) scores only goal against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Stark's Park on Saturday (Pic by Paul Devlin/SNS Group)Raith's Paul Hanlon (centre) scores only goal against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Stark's Park on Saturday (Pic by Paul Devlin/SNS Group)
Raith's Paul Hanlon (centre) scores only goal against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Stark's Park on Saturday (Pic by Paul Devlin/SNS Group)
Raith Rovers gaffer Ian Murray believes new signing Paul Hanlon can chip in with more goals as well as shoring up the Kirkcaldy side’s defence.

Centre-back Hanlon, 34, who scored 28 times for Hibernian in 563 appearances from 2008 before joining Raith on a three-year contract this summer, netted the only goal as Murray’s team won 1-0 at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a home friendly on Saturday.

“Paul’s done it throughout his career,” Murray told Raith TV. “He always chips in with goals throughout the season, four, five, six, whatever it may be.

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"So I’m delighted for him. It was a good ball back across from Callum Smith, but we want to be better in both boxes.

"We have the guys that can do that. It’s going to be hard because it doesn’t happen overnight. But so far in the three games that we’ve played I’ve been really happy with everything.

"We know we’ll make decent runs, we know we’ll have aggressive players attacking the ball, but the ball needs to be on the money a wee bit more than we have been the last couple of seasons.

"It’s something that we really want to try to be better at, is our delivery from the setplays.

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"Albeit we scored a couple last season, we want more, because they can make a big difference.

"When you look at the play-off games, in the final I think we conceded three or four from effectively setplay situations, so it shows you how huge it is.

Murray said the only negative from the Caley match was midfielder Shaun Byrne sustaining an ankle injury, but it was “nothing serious”.

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