Ian Murray insists he is ‘fully behind’ his Raith Rovers players after admitting they are currently going through a ‘sticky patch’.
And he has challenged them not to let their ‘hard work’ from the opening half of the campaign ‘go out the window’ in the coming weeks.
The Stark’s Park side have lost back-to-back games for the first time this season with a shock 2-1 home defeat to Queen’s Park.
It comes just a week on from a 1-0 reverse at Airdrie that brought a 16-game unbeaten run crashing to an end.
The have now won just once in their last five matches and have lost top spot in the Championship to Dundee United, who still have a game in hand.
Murray is adamant Raith deserved more against Queen’s Park after taking the lead just two minutes in with Jack Hamilton’s header.
But he is convinced his side can bounce back from the disappointment of their last two outings.
He said: “It is a challenge and I’ve said that to the players: ‘How do we handle this?’.
“Back-to-back defeats for the first time, it’s never a nice feeling – no matter where you are in the league or how you’ve done previously.
‘Sore one’
“Last week, we were poor [against Airdrie] and didn’t deserve much out of the game.
“This week was different. We gave everything, we really did, and sometimes that’s all you can do.
“So, it’s a sore one, it’s disappointing.
“But, look, perspective is everything. I’ve said to the players, ‘it’s only disappointing at the moment because of how well you’ve done previously’.
“What we can’t do now is let all our hard work from the summer until Christmas go out of the window over January and February.
“That is the challenge now.
“We dust ourselves down and move forward to the Scottish Cup [against Livingston] next week, and we look forward to it.”
He added: “In football, when a certain player is doing well, everyone expects.
‘Everyone expects’
“And that happens with good teams – everyone expects.
“But I’ve said it all along, this league is so hard.
“Games are defined on moments normally, in both boxes. I just felt we could have been better defensively for both goals and we could have been more ruthless in the attacking box as well.
“But, look, like I said to the players, I’m firmly behind them, there’s no question about that.
“They’re going through a wee sticky patch, that’s all it is, so we get on with it.”
Hamilton dithered over another opportunity and was denied by a brilliant save from Calum Ferrie, who also kept out free-kicks from Aidan Connolly and Lewis Vaughan.
And Jamie Gullan came within a whisker of a last-gasp equaliser deep into injury-time when his free-kick crashed back off the bar.
Murray, who handed on-loan midfielder Kyle Turner his debut, added: “I don’t think we deserved to lose the game. We put a lot of effort into it.
“But we ended up on the wrong side of a frustrating afternoon.
“Over the piece, I thought the players gave everything.”
