Raith Rovers boss Ian Murray urging players to get tough to stop losing run in league stretching to four games

That was their second 2-0 defeat at Ayr on the trot, after another by the same scoreline on Boxing Day last year, and it followed losses last month to Queen’s Park by 5-2 at home and Dundee by 2-0 away.

Raith have three games in a row coming up at home at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy, however, and Murray is seeing that as an ideal opportunity to get back to winning ways.

Two of those matches are against fourth-placed Greenock Morton – in the SPFL Trust Trophy’s fourth round this coming Saturday at 3pm and in the league on Friday, December 23, at 7.45pm – and the other is versus second-bottom Arbroath in the league on Saturday, December 17, at 3pm.

Rovers go into that run of home fixtures – followed by a trip to Hamilton Academical to kick off 2023 on Monday, January 2, at 3pm – sitting seventh in the table, with 22 points from 17 games.

“I know we’ve got good players in our changing room, but we need to toughen up as individuals and we need to toughen up as a group, in terms of handling physical contact, being able to take hits during games and not panicking,” Murray told Raith TV after his side’s defeat in South Ayrshire, extending their table-topping hosts’ unbeaten run in the championship to seven games, thanks to Josh Mullin goals on 31 minutes and 70.

“When the chips are down or you’re at 1-0 searching for a goal, can we be brave enough to keep going forward without making mistakes?

“This league is so unforgiving. We made one mistake in the second half in midfield and were punished and it was 2-0, and at that point the game’s very difficult to retrieve.

“A wee bit of luck would help us, but you make your own luck in football, and we now have to work extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.

“We’ve got three home games on the bounce now – three more than winnable home games – but we need to go and do it.”

Looking back over Saturday’s loss at Somerset Park, Murray added: “Within the game, I thought we did all right. It was a very close game, box to box again, but in both boxes we weren’t good enough – it’s as simple as that.

“We can dress it up however we want but we didn’t defend well enough. The first goal was really poor and the second goal was really poor too and we didn’t work their goalkeeper enough. If you don’t do those two things well, then it’s very hard to win games. In this league, you get punished, it’s as simple as that.

“We were in control of the game, we were creating little half-chances but they then got one and it was a goal.

“People can go on all day about possession or about midfield winning you games, but midfield only helps you control games. It doesn’t generally win you games because you have to put the ball in the back of the net.

“Our players, as ever, gave absolutely everything and tried their best, but ultimately we fell short.”