Ian Murray has urged Raith Rovers to enjoy the challenge of trying to catch Dundee United – rather than wallow in their missed opportunities.
The Stark’s Park outfit would have gone three points clear at the summit of the Championship with a victory over Arbroath on Friday night.
After roaring into a two-goal lead, they collapsed late on and suffered the heartache of a 3-2 defeat.
Their frustration was eased slightly by United only managing a draw the following day against Partick Thistle.
But the Tangerines made up for that with a 1-0 win over Morton on Tuesday night to stretch their advantage over Raith to four points.
Rovers do have a game in hand, next Tuesday away to Thistle, and could claw the gap back to just a single point, depending on results this weekend.
With the division’s top two teams due to face each other again at Tannadice, on March 30, there is plenty of time for things to ebb and flow in the title race.
And, after admitting he had to give himself ‘a shake’ to overcome the annoyance of Friday’s loss at Gayfield, Murray is determined to ensure his players rise to the occasion in the coming weeks.
Murray: ‘We played better’
With a Fife derby against Dunfermline to come this weekend, he said: “It was more frustration on Friday for us.
“At times when you don’t play well and you get beat you kind of accept it and you can see where the problems were.
“I thought on Friday we were really, really good for 70 minutes of the game. It was probably our best performance for a number of weeks, certainly since Christmas.
“We played better at Arbroath for 70 minutes than we did down at Ayr. Then we got sucker punched.
“But we lost the game, that’s the reality.
“Everybody, myself included, for 24, 48 hours, was disappointed. But by Monday morning we were back in and talking about Dunfermline.
“I told the players the fact is we’re within touching distance of the top of the league with just ten games to go.
“If you can’t enjoy this sort of moment as a team then what sort of moment are you going to enjoy?
Message
“So, my message to the players and all the staff and everyone around the club this week is, ‘let’s go and enjoy it’.
“I was as down as anybody over the weekend and had to give myself a bit of a shake and a reality check to realise exactly where we are.”
There have been plenty of times this season when either Raith or United have slipped up and failed to overtake or put pressure on their rivals.
Friday and Saturday were just further examples of those twists and turns that have repeatedly been spoken about in title races.
But Murray admits the mission for Raith in the coming weeks may be to try to be as perfect as possible if they are to overhaul the league leaders’ current advantage.
He added: “We have to, again, be realistic and sensible. I go into every single weekend expecting Dundee United to win their game.
“That’s not being disrespectful to their opponents, that’s just my mindset and expectation.
“But we’re still well in touch and if you look at the last four weeks we’ve made big strides in opening up a 12-point gap on Partick in third.
“That doesn’t take away the disappointment of Friday’s defeat, but it’s certainly not all doom and gloom.”
