CLASS WARS
McCall blasts conduct of Rovers as title rivals draw
Ian McCall fired a bitter broadside at Raith’s lack of class in a fight to the death for top spot.
Rovers lost their 100 per cent home record but protected their one-point lead at the summit with a second-half rally.
Lawrence Shankland’s 18th of the season gave injury-ravaged Ayr hope of retaking the pole position they’d blown with three defeats in four. But Greig Spence’s seventh in eight games two minutes into a great end-to- end second half earned Raith the draw.
In a game of six Ayr bookings McCall said: “The disappointing thing was there are one or two of their players very much not in their manager’s image, how they conduct themselves.
“Barry Smith was a magnificent professional and one or two others aren’t like that I’m afraid.”
He refused to expand on the dig but added: “We deserved to win but with six out injured we’d have taken a point before it. We were dominant first half and denied a clear penalty.”
Ayr craf ted a lovely opener on the half hour. Michael Moffat’s ball over the top for Shankland was a beauty and the striker clipped a perfectly-timed lob over Graeme Smith.
Rovers almost hit back within three minutes, Scotland Under-21 keeper Jack Ruddy – debuting on loan from Wolves – denying an Iain Davidson shot with a stunning stop. But they were lucky to survive a big pena l t y shout when Shankland went down under a Davidson tackle.
Rovers, with a vibrant Bobby Barr off the bench, found their missing gears after the break.
It took less than two minutes to show. Spence got across his man to clip Lewis Vaughan’s delivery in off the back post.
Ayr had a couple of decent late looks through Alan Forrest, with Declan McDaid hitting the top of the bar, but Raith held out.
Smith said: “They’re a good side and it’ll be battle between the two of us. A draw seemed fair.”