Raith Rovers: manager Ian Murray hits out at players over goals conceded due to set-play slip-ups

Captain Scott Brown put the Fifers ahead at Kirkcaldy’s Stark’s Park with three minutes on the clock but a Thomas O’Brien header shortly after half-time levelled things up and that’s the way the scoreline stayed come the final whistle.

That result leaves Raith seventh in the Scottish Championship table on 42 points from 33 fixtures, nine points better off than their visitors but looking to be all but out of the running for a play-off place.

“It was a game of two set-plays,” Murray told Raith TV afterwards. “We did work on that one during the week so we were delighted to get one for us, but we let one in and that’s not good enough, it’s as simple as that.

“We didn’t defend the free-kick and we give away far too many free-kicks around our box and that, for me, comes down to being tentative in your tackling, not believing in yourself that you’re going to win the ball, backing off players and being a wee bit lazy as well, so we have to rectify that very quicky.

“About 48 or 49% of the goals we’ve conceded have been from set-plays – 19 goals against – which is absolutely scandalous.

“You can stand on the sidelines, you can practise them in training and you can show them videos but it’s you against your man.

“We’re not the biggest team, we know that, and we know other teams have been exploiting that, but there are ways of doing it. We’re being a bit naive at times.

“It comes down fundamentally to giving away free-kicks. Why do we do that so often? Is it it positional or is it just that we’re not sharp enough? Probably a mixture of both actually.

“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot with set-plays because 19 goals conceded is an incredible amount. Nine’s too many. You should be talking four or five a season if you’re a really good side, but 19 is unbelievable. It’s literally unbelievable.

“We need to toughen up and be harder to beat. If that takes away from our fluent, positive football, so be it because we want results. We want to win games.”

Rovers now have three games to go to wrap up this season unless they’re able to defy the odds and given a helping hand by results elsewhere as even a maximum haul of nine points from those fixtures would only put them level on 51 points with fourth-placed Ayr and fifth-placed Inverness Caledonian Thistle and the former’s goal difference is 17 better.

That run-in starts with a visit to sixth-placced Greenock Morton this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm, and victory there would take them to within a win of their hosts’ tally of 48 points.

So far this league season, Raith and Morton have beaten each once apiece and drawn once, Murray’s men winning by 2-1 at home in August but losing 1-0 at Cappielow Park in October and tying 2-2 in Kirkcaldy just before Christmas, though the Fifers also knocked the Ton out of the SPFL Trust Trophy on penalties earlier in December at home after drawing 1-1 in open play.