Raith Rovers manager Dougie Imrie left frustrated as Fifers held to draw v Stenhousemuir
Raith Rovers were unable to make almost 60% of possession and 14 shots to visitors Stenhousemuir’s three count as they began their latest William Hill Championship campaign on Saturday.
Five of those shots were on target to championship newcomers Stenny’s two but the most important statistic, the afternoon’s final scoreline, saw the Kirkcaldy club end up on level terms with their opposition, tied at 1-1.
Paul McMullan put manager Dougie Imrie’s hosts ahead in front of a crowd of 2,239 at Kirkcaldy’s Stark’s Park on 19 minutes, but the Fifers only managed to hold onto that lead for 11 minutes prior to on-loan St Mirren midfielder Lewis Hodgkiss coming up with an equaliser.
Raith’s second match-day of the new championship season this coming Saturday is away to Queen’s Park, with kick-off at 3pm, and they’ll be looking to extend a three-match winning run against the Glaswegians, beaten 2-0 at Livingston at the weekend.
Imrie, 42, was put out at seeing his side failing to make more of their opportunities against opposite number Marvin Bartley’s visitors, telling Raith TV: “I’m disappointed not to have won the game with the chances we created.
“We got off to the perfect start, with Paul McMullan coming up with a great finish for his first goal at Stark’s Park for Raith, but that can be an Achilles heel. When you go 1-0 up, you need to get a second to try to kill the game off and it was frustrating that we didn’t do that.
“They didn’t have a shot on target all game apart from a deflection that, unfortunately for us, finished up in the net.
“Over the piece, I thought defensively we were very good. We limited them to very little, although they probably could have had a second goal in the first half with that header from Dale Carrick that just went wide. In the second half, for large parts we were very good in terms of our build-up, but again it was our play in the final third that let us down.
“For the amount of quality we have at the top end, we need to get better. It comes down to decision-making. We get into great areas but we make the wrong decisions on whether it’s a cross, a shot or a cut-back.
“That will come because we’ve got a talented front-line and players to come back that will make us stronger, but my overall feeling today is frustration because it was an opportunity.
“No disrespect to Stenhousemuir but that was a game we should have won.
“Over the 90 minutes, we probably deserved to win the game but you’ve got to give lot of credit to Marvin and Neil Hastings. They set their team up really well, really stuffy, really compact and made it difficult for us, but it’s on us to come up with the answers to combat that and we didn’t do that enough.”
Going forward, Imrie wants to see his side make more of their chances up front to enable them to collect three points at a time rather than one, adding: “We want more of the same apart from making better decisions in the final third.
“I thought from our defensive third to the forward line, we were good and got into some really good areas – it was just that final ball that let us down. The hardest part of the game is putting the ball in the net.