Raith Rovers: Manager Ian Murray reveals why giant striker John Frederiksen has been released after less than four months at club

The 6ft 8’ forward, nicknamed The Helicopter, has been ousted after scoring one goal in 11 appearances – only three of which were starts – for Rovers since joining on October 7.

Murray, speaking exclusively to the Fife Free Press,was asked if the player’s departure was linked to Frederiksen ignoring protocol by shooting weakly at goal from 40 yards in the final minute of a league game Rovers led 2-1 at Cove Rangers on January 14, rather than running the ball into the corner to see out the win. Cove then went down the other end to score and nick a 2-2 draw to frustrate Murray and deny Raith two vital points in the race for the play-offs.

"Not really,” the gaffer replied. “Players make mistakes. If we got rid of players who made a mistake we would be in trouble.

"It wasn’t to do with that. It was more the best thing for John and the best thing for Raith because he wasn’t getting enough game time.

"He’s come over from a foreign land, we’ve brought in another striker (William Akio on loan from Ross County). All those things pointed to John leaving and us trying to balance the squad up, trying to balance the books up.

"John obviously leaves with our best wishes and on good terms. We had a wee chat on Tuesday just before he left and I’ve been in these situations myself.

"People will always allude that there has been a big rift but it’s far from that. We just sat down and he was really positive about his experience.

"Although he was obviously disappointed with how it’s worked out, as I was.

"But you try and take the positives and use it as an experience for moving forward.”

Although running the ball into the corner in the final minute if your team is winning is a commonly-used tactic in professional football, Murray does have some sympathy for what Frederiksen – who previously served clubs in the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Finland and Austria – did at Cove instead.

Murray, who has experience of coaching in Scandanavia having been assistant manager of Norwegian side Asker between 2017 and 2018, added: “I try and look at both sides. To install that mentality into players is really, really difficult.

"Especially when they’ve not been playing much. Especially when they come off the bench and also when you had one (a 40-yard effort against Queen’s Park which was tipped over by the keeper) in the previous game that was not far away.

"But unfortunately in our game the top quality players understand things very quickly and understand how to win games. That was an opportunity for us to do that.

"He didn’t react in any bad way (to Murray later pointing out his mistake in shooting at Cove). He’s a very laid back, mellow, humble guy.

"So it wasn’t a case of him being a fiery character and to be honest I wasn’t fiery with him but we all knew what should have happened and unfortunately it didn’t.

"I’ve seen flashes of what John can do. We didn’t see it enough quite frankly, I think John would be the first to admit that as well.”

"He would need to get up to pace a little bit with the aggression. When I went to Norway I was absolutely bamboozled by the amount of free-kicks the referee would give for someone breathing on you, I just wasn’t used to it.

"I wasn’t actually playing the game but it still seemed frustrating. So it’s a different style, it’s a different social climate and way of doing things but in terms of his attitude, professionalism and the way he was around the stadium, I can’t compliment John highly enough for that.

"He was absolutely no bother.”