Craigen crushes Morton’s play-off hopes
MORTON boss Jim Duffy admitted that his side are now out of the running for the promotion play-offs after James Craigen’s goal secured a crucial victory for Raith at Cappielow.
The result effectively clinched fourth spot for the visitors, with Morton now trailing them by 13 points with just five games remaining.
‘Raith have got fourth spot sewn up now and fair play to them because they are a good team,’ Duffy admitted.
‘There’s no chance we will catch them after this result.
‘It’s a sore one to take because I think we deserved something from the game, but Raith are a great team at knowing how to see games out and get the job done.
‘They’ve done it to us all season and good luck to them in the play-offs because I think they have every chance of doing well.’
Raith were dominant in the first half, the pace of Mark Stewart and Aidan Connolly forcing the Morton defence to continually play on the back foot. But the Fifers were blunt in the final third and failed to convert their dominance into shots on Derek Gaston’s goal.
Despite being pinned back for long spells, it was Morton who had the best chance of the opening 45 minutes. Michael Miller’s shot from the right-hand corner of the box took a wicked deflection off Lewis Toshney and forced Kevin Cuthbert into a smart reflex save.
Craigen found the breakthrough for Raith on 53 minutes. Ross Callachan’s delicate through ball unnerved the Morton defence. Gaston made a horrible mess of his clearance, totally missing the ball, and afforded Craigen the luxury of an open goal to slot home his eighth goal of the season.
Morton huffed and puffed to find their way back into the match, but never seriously threatened Cuthbert.
Craigen’s goal proved to be the match-winner and Raith boss Ray McKinnon was delighted to effectively eliminate a play-off rival.
He said: ‘The most important thing was to get the three points. We know we are not quite mathematical certainties for the play-offs, because Queen of the South still have a game in hand, but I think this result probably takes Morton out of the equation.
‘Cappielow isn’t an easy place to come to. But we set up really well. We were solid, got our goal and continue on a really good run of form.’