Ian Murray struggles to sum up Raith Rovers defeat and has his say on Lewis Vaughan’s first start in over a year

Ian Murray struggled to sum up a bizarre 90 minutes which saw his side lose 5-2 to Queen’s Park in the Scottish Championship.

Aidan Connolly opened the scoring and added a consolation late on for Raith but in between those the visitors scored with each of their five shots on target.

Simon Murray and Dom Thomas scored a double each and midfielder Jack Thomson got the other.

Rovers had around 20 efforts at goal, 13 of them on target but they were wasteful, especially towards the end.

At one point Queen’s cleared the ball off the line three times in the same Rovers attack, leaving the home bench at a loss as to what else they could do.

Balancing act

“It’s a very tough balancing act because we have to look at the negatives and try and take some positives,” said Murray.

“The negative is you lose five goals, how you lose them to some people is immaterial – because if you lose five at home you aren’t going win, you aren’t going to get anything out the game normally.

“But we have to also recognise how they got to those positions on the park and get shots off.

“Then you have to look at it from our side: 21 shots, two goals – we need to be better.

“I felt we went into out shell when they scored their second and they scored their third.

“We actually came alive when they scored their fourth because at that point you’ve got literally nothing to lose.”

Vaughan starts

One of the positives was the return to the starting line-up for Lewis Vaughan.

The forward led the line in his first start since July last year.

“He lasted the game and he was really, really good,” said Murray.

“He was very unfortunate not to score at least one goal.

“He’s come through it and that’s a huge plus for us all.

“But he’s part of a team that’s lost the game today.

“So that’s his main disappointment at the moment. We all have to try and take some positives.”

“It’s easy for people to look at the scoreline and think it was a hiding.

“The scoreline, yeah, but on play it wasn’t. But we need to be a bit better.”

The Raith manager said Dylan Easton missed the match after feeling discomfort earlier in the days before and will be monitored over the next couple of weeks.

Queen’s Park manager Owen Coyle said his side were “ruthless” in the game.

“We know when we’re at our best we can stand toe to toe with the best teams in the division,” he added.