MATCH STATS
Morton boss Dougie Imrie revealed last night that “disrespectful” comments from Raith Rovers had inspired his team to a crucial victory at Starks Park yesterday.
Robbie Muirhead’s second-half winner lifted the Greenock club to sixth place in the Championship.
And now, with just three games left, the victory took them well clear of the relegation zone.
Raith, by contrast, still trail Partick Thistle by six points and look unlikely to force their way into the promotion play-offs.
Yesterday was a huge low after the euphoria of last week’s Challenge Cup triumph, although it wasn’t for lack of effort as Rovers enjoyed almost 60% possession and hit the bar three times.
Other telling statistics show one league victory in 14 since New Year and no home win since 11 December.
Imrie, meanwhile, was relishing the moment after a heated build-up to the game.
“It’s a massive win and I didn’t need to give the players any motivation this week,” said Imrie.
“They know who they are at Raith Rovers, but they’ve made some very disrespectful comments about us.
“Maybe they need to concentrate on their own team instead.
“Raith have had a lot of plaudits as a good team, yet we’ve come here and won.
“We’ve lost 1-0 leads three times recently, but we defended very well today, so there were no concerns this time.
“We had a job when we came in to stay in this league.
“Hopefully we can say that we’re safe after the Hamilton game next week.”
Meanwhile, downcast Rovers manager John Mcglynn tried to stay positive and claimed: “We’ve got to win our last three games and somebody has to do us a favour along the way.
“That’s not impossible, so we’ve got to keep believing we can do it.
“We created plenty of chances today and hit the bar three times, but unfortunately we didn’t put the ball in the back of the net.”