Improved performance leaves smile on face of Rovers boss Murray

IAN Murray said he was much happier with his side’s efforts after Raith Rovers played out a 1-1 draw with Kelty Hearts.

Results are not to be taken too seriously at this stage but, in terms of performance, it was much improved on Wednesday night’s 2-1 home defeat to Queen of the South.

Jamie Gullan opened the scoring – his third goal of pre-season so far after he scored twice versus Dunbar United – before Alfredo Agyeman equalised in the second half.

It was a much-changed side, with Scott Brown lining up at centre-half alongside captain-for-theday Liam Dick.

Murray said: “The defence were great. They had a lot of the ball today and moved it really well.

“I don’t think we gave away too many chances, I think they had one shot on target.

“It was a good finish from the boy, but if we’re looking at the bits we can get better at, we can’t let players come inside the box and get shots off.

“We’ll need to work on that, but overall, compared to Wednesday night, I felt it was a far better performance from us, in lots of ways.”

Raith dominated the opening period before Kelty emerged the better team in the second half.

Despite this, the best chance of it fell to the away side when Ross Millen met a cross from the left, but fired over the bar.

“We’d like to create more at the other end,” said Murray.

“We had a couple of good chances, (trialist) Kareem (Isiaka) had one first half and Ross Millen had one second half.

“The positive side is our right-back getting in the box at the back post.

“Overall I’m much happier today than I was on Wednesday.”

Ian Murray was pleased his Raith team’s efforts.