It was a draw that felt like a defeat on Saturday, but Raith Rovers manager Grant Murray maintains his players should be proud of how they performed at the weekend.
Partick Thistle’s smash-and-grab job in the dying minutes at Stark’s Park snatched a 1-1 draw which kept Jackie McNamara’s men at the top of the First Division and denied Rovers a notable victory.
But Raith’s boss insists his side should be given great credit for pushing a high-flying Partick side all the way at the weekend.
”The players were sitting in the dressing room as if they had lost the game,” said Murray.
”When you lose a goal so late in the game there’s no way of getting it back, there’s no recovery, but as I said to the players afterwards we’ve got to take the positives from that.
”We went ahead against the league leaders who are unbeaten, we ran them right to the end, and we felt we truly deserved our lead.
”A lot of people will say a point is a good result against Partick, the form they were in going into the game, but we could have had a second goal so we were disappointed in that respect.
”But I thought it was another great team performance from us.
”We limited Partick, they didn’t cut us open and it was a good competitive game.
”There wasn’t much in it and I think that bodes well for us.”
Murray was happy with the way his players competed throughout and was again contented by the contribution of his midfield and two wide players, David Smith and Grant Anderson.
Striker Greig Spence is also growing in confidence, according to the Rovers boss, and Murray was delighted to see him add to his goal tally at the weekend.
With Pat Clarke expected to be back from injury this week, Murray told Courier Sport he has a selection headache on his hands.
”It’s a great headache to have, three strikers who are hitting form,” he said.
”Take nothing away from Pat, when he was playing before he picked up his injury his performances were fantastic.”