Raith Rovers manager Ian Murray has hailed midfielders Scott Brown and Ross Matthews for being part of a depleted Rovers rearguard which still kept a clean sheet in Saturday’s 0-0 Scottish Championship draw against Queen’s Park at Hampden….
Scott Brown was excellent at center-half again at Hampden, while Matthews was a more than capable right-back substitute. Loan center-back Lee Ashcroft, who suffered a long-term hamstring injury just 43 minutes into his Raith debut at Ayr United, is back at parent club Dundee. Keith Watson is benched while he recovers from a groyne issue. James Brown is sidelined for the short term after he picked up a strain at Partick Thistle.
With seven games left, Boss Murray’s second-placed team has tied leaders Dundee United on points. Following the game, he spoke with RaithTV, saying, “We came here, got a clean sheet, and we have two midfielders playing in defensive positions just because that’s what we had in terms of team selection.”
Thus, I’m quite thrilled. We’re doing a great job of defending both our box and our objective. It’s really good because we’re providing Kevin (Dabrowski) the opportunity to maintain as many clean sheets as possible.
Murray, who believes James Brown will be ready for Rovers’ upcoming league match on Saturday, March 30, against Dundee United, expressed his satisfaction at having Watson back in the lineup going ahead. The seasoned goalie was hurt during the team’s most recent 3-2 loss at Arbroath.
Raith’s return to league action will see them play three crucial home games in a week, starting with Lewis Vaughan’s Stark’s Park testimonial against Hibernian this Wednesday (kick-off at 7.45 p.m.). The games are against Ayr United on Saturday, April 6, Airdrieonians on Wednesday, April 9, and Partick Thistle on Saturday, April 13.
“The boys have an extremely demanding schedule,” Murray remarked. “They’re subjecting themselves to mental strain in addition to physical pressure.”That was demonstrated at East End Park, where Dundee United’s Friday 3-1 loss to Dunfermline Athletic occurred. It’s challenging enough to win games when there isn’t much at stake. Attempting to win a league title completely alters the structure and dimensions of your decision-making process.
“However, I believe we’re making wise choices at the park; we seem really, really strong. It’s quite tough to win leagues unless you’re solid.
Murray continued, “There are a lot of tough, tough games coming up for both sets of teams.” Murray was speaking about the respective league run-ins against Rovers and championship rivals United.
We still need to travel to places like Cappielow, just like Dundee United, and we need to go to Tannadice, but we have a great chance of winning these matches.
We were always aware that we would need to win games at this point in the season.
“Where you win them really doesn’t matter, but we need to go out and win them nonetheless.
“It’s been good so far; we’ve closed a four-point deficit that existed at this time last week.”
