It was a disappointing evening for the travelling Rovers support who watched their team struggle to get going in Sunday’s SPFL Trust Trophy final.
Former Raith Rovers full-back Reghan Tumilty scored the only goal of the game, playing three different positions as Hamilton were depleted by injuries.
Accies were reduced to 10 men after the break but Rovers failed to make their pressure count, with goalkeeper Ryan Fulton robbing Tumilty of the man of the match with two fantastic late saves.
The goal that took the cup to Hamilton 😍
Reghan Tumilty smashing one home 💥@SPFLTrust | @acciesfc pic.twitter.com/QISQL5P6yp
— SPFL (@spfl) March 26, 2023
Courier Sport looks at some of the talking points from the 1-0 defeat at the Falkirk Stadium.
Team selection
There was always going to be one selection issue in attack and Murray opted for the quartet that put six past Cove Rangers the previous week.
That meant a place on the bench for Aidan Connolly.
Sam Stanton started on the right before switching with Lewis Vaughan in the centre midway through the first half.
Murray said that with hindsight he would have done things differently and revealed that Isma Goncalves had played despite a personal issue during the week.
Slow start
The Portuguese striker struggled to get on the ball in the first half, though was involved in Raith’s best moment of the opening 45 minutes.
That came later as the match headed towards the break, but the sluggish start until that point had seen Hamilton take the lead and zapped any momentum Rovers had going into the game.
They ended half better and thoroughly dominated in the second half but they were chasing the game by then.
Striker problems
The Rovers boss has barely, if ever, had a fully settled attack this season, mainly due to injuries.
Jamie Gullan would have been the first choice No 9 but has been in and out of the side through injury.
John Frederiksen didn’t work out and William Akio and Goncalves turned up lacking match practice and have been in and out due to injury and ineligibility.
In the second half on Sunday Raith endlessly got the ball into the box but lacked a presence in there – with the exception of Vaughan late on, who was twice thwarted late by a fantastic save.
Great cup runs
The League Cup group stage was poor, but the squad was a mess – in one match they finished with Sam Stanton and Scott Brown as the centre-back pairing.
Getting to the Scottish Cup quarter-final was an achievement and no one was expecting a win against one of the two tournament favourites at Ibrox.
Defeating Motherwell in the previous round was arguably the moment of the season.
Another contender was the brilliant comeback versus Dundee in the SPFL Trust Trophy semi-final – the highlight of a challenging run.
It was Raith’s first defeat in the competition since 2018.
Back to the league
The league position is lower than is desired but now the full focus turns to the final eight games in the Scottish Champions – with the hope of a few more in the play-offs.
Rovers can safely look up the way given they have 12 points and two games in hand over 11th place and they have the perfect opportunity to put pressure on the teams above them with two home games versus Queen’s Park and Hamilton.
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