Raith Rovers face Airdrie in SPFL Trust Trophy’s last four

Airdrie won a penalty shootout away to Greenock Morton by 6-5 on Saturday after their quarter-final ended goalless to set up a last-four visit to Kirkcaldy’s Stark’s Park at the start of February.

That’s the fourth time on the trot that the Fifers have made it to the last four of the challenge cup as they bid to make it to their third consecutive final and reclaim a trophy they last won, for the second time outright and third time overall, in 2022.

Airdrie are the only team to have beaten Raith in the Scottish Championship so far this season, by 1-0 away in September, and Murray’s men have gone eight matches in all competitions unbeaten since then, including a 1-1 draw at home to the Diamonds at the start of this month.

February’s quarter-final will be their fourth meeting of this season as Raith return to the North Lanarkshire side’s Excelsior Stadium on Saturday, January 6, in the interim, with their final fixture of the campaign following in Kirkcaldy in March.

Raith, beaten 1-0 by Hamilton Academical in this year’s challenge cup final in March, are looking forward to getting the chance to continue their current cup run after seeing off Accies by 4-1 away in their quarter-final on Friday, according to Murray.

“It doesn’t matter who we play and what competition it is, we try to win games,” he said. “We try to get as far as we can in every single competition.

“We know that last year we fell short in the final, which was disappointing for all of us involved in that. It doesn’t play a huge part in our progression this season. You can only beat what’s in front of you and we’ve now got a home tie against Airdrie in February to get into another final.”

Falkirk and Shropshire’s the New Saints are next year’s other semi-finalists after knocking out Dundee United and Arbroath respectively.

Murray was gaffer at Airdrie from 2018 to 2022.