Raith in deep relegation trouble says Thomson

RAITH Rovers captain Jason Thomson admitted that the Kirkcaldy side are deeper in relegation trouble after the 1-1 draw with Queen of the South on Saturday.

The sides traded goals in the opening 25 minutes as Ryan Hardie’s early opener was cancelled out by Stephen Dobbie’s controversial free-kick leveller.

Thereafter, the game descended into a low-quality battle with neither side able to string passes together in a poor advert for Scottish Championship.

The result kept Queens three points ahead of Raith, while Ayr United’s victory over Dumbarton means the Kirkcaldy side are now just two points ahead of the relegation zone.

Reflecting on the disappointing result Thomson said: “It was a battle and if there’s any positive to take, it’s maybe that a month ago would have lost that. But even that isn’t good enough.

“We’re fighting for our lives now, and Ayr got a win so we’re back to where we were before the United game again.”

Thomson admitted that Raith will need to show more courage on the ball in the remaining games to drag themselves out of trouble.

“It takes somebody just to bring that ball down and be a bit braver,” he said.

“It sounds a bit silly to say a footballer should be brave to take the ball but it wasn’t happening. It just turned into a battle.

“The manager has touched on it. We haven’t been playing good football so we need to be the best in the league with the foundations — first and second balls — but we weren’t even great at that, which is a worry.”

Jamie Robson with the cup.