Ian Murray said his side must play better than they did in Saturday’s win against Morton – starting versus Premiership Hibs next week.
The Raith Rovers boss said his players were made aware that their performance wasn’t up to scratch after they edged a five-goal thriller at Stark’s Park versus Morton.
Goals from Jack Hamilton, Lewis Vaughan and Callum Smith gave Rovers all three points.
🤩 Our first league game at home ends with three points secured!#COYR 💙 pic.twitter.com/bORB8psr7w
— Raith Rovers Football Club (@RaithRovers) August 12, 2023
They made hard work of it though, throwing away a comfortable two-goal lead to Robbie Muirhead’s header and a Robbie Crawford strike.
Murray was fairly scathing of Rovers’ display despite the victory and said they must improve ahead of their Viaplay Cup last-16 tie next weekend.
Ian Murray says Raith Rovers ‘didn’t play well’
“I’m delighted to get the win, first and foremost, because any game is hard in this league,” said Murray.
“It was good to start our home season off on a win, but I didn’t think we played particularly well in the game. I thought we were really poor, actually.
“The players know that. We need to play better than that – certainly next week at Easter Road.
“What we did do, on the positive side, was show once again that in the face of adversity we can pull through.
“We score another three goals, we should have scored four with the penalty.
“We’ll play a lot better and lose games.”
The Rovers boss was also disappointed his players “got sucked in” to Morton’s gameplan, in a match that saw 13 yellow cards dished out by referee David Munro.
Ian Murray: ‘I didn’t enjoy the game’
“I didn’t really enjoy the game because it just became a bit of a battle, stop-start and a wee bit boring, players playing the game a wee bit,” said Murray.
“The overriding factor is I’m delighted with the three points, but we always have to look a bit deeper and in detail.
“I felt we didn’t get our passing going, we got sucked into Morton’s gameplan a wee bit – which they’re very good at. They’re a really physical team.
“We’re better than that, we’re a better football team than what we showed today.
“They dominated the second half, I was sitting there thinking ‘If we get out of here with a draw, we’re doing alright’.
“Then Callum pops up with a wonderful goal. After that we found our legs and our belief again.
“We made life very hard for ourselves today.”
