Raith Rovers boss Ian Murray admits he is ‘clutching at straws’ to draw any positive from Friday night’s loss against Airdrie.
But he insists Keith Watson’s comeback was one bright spot in the SPFL Trust Trophy semi-final setback.
The 1-0 defeat – a third in four games against Airdrie this season – lengthened the Stark’s Park side’s current slump ahead of the visit of Dundee United a week on Friday.
The Kirkcaldy men have now suffered five consecutive losses and have only tasted victory once in their last eight matches.
They have also not won any of their last five matches at home as they prepare to host league leaders United.
There appear to be more questions than answers to the run Rovers find themselves in.
But the return of Watson following more than four months on the sidelines for the experienced defender was a step in the right direction following recent defensive problems.
Murray said: “I thought Keith was probably our best player, considering it was his first game for a number of weeks.
“And it was a really hard game to come into as well, against a couple of decent strikers on quite a big occasion.
“That’s our only positive and, even then, we’re clutching at straws a little bit.”
Raith now have the best part of a fortnight to stew over another defeat.
Lay-off plans
With no Scottish Cup involvement, it is a long time to ponder a worrying slump and the failure to reach a cup final.
However, Murray is eager to use the lay-off productively as he mulls over just what has gone wrong since the high of that 1–0 win over United in mid-December.
He added: “I don’t really like too much time off, but we have got a really busy schedule coming up in February.
“We’ve got games to catch up on. We’ve got a midweek game against Morton and we’ve got another one against Thistle to rearrange.
“And we’ll have another one now because the weekend of the SPFL Trust Trophy final we’re supposed to be playing Airdrie.
“We’re going to have a few busy midweeks now.
“So, it’s probably not a bad time to just give the guys a wee bit of a rest and a recharge and then it will be all systems go.
“It’s a long week when you don’t have a game at the end of it and it’s sometimes quite hard mentally for players to get going and constantly have that bit between their teeth.
“But we’ll try to keep them bubbling along and see if we can get a wee bounce game in there as well.
“We’ll get minutes in the legs and then we’re back on the Friday night against United.
“The break has come at a good time for us, because we’ve not played well now for a few weeks and we need to try to rectify it as quickly as we can.”
Good time
Meanwhile, Murray is hopeful a packed Stark’s Park can spur his team on to success.
It would be the perfect time for a return to winning ways, given United stretched their lead at the top of the Championship to four points at the weekend.
Another defeat for Raith would give the Tangerines a sizeable seven-point advantage, but a Rovers victory cuts the gap to just one point.
Murray said: “It is going to be another really good occasion. It’s going to be another really big crowd.
“I’m sure there’ll be a big travelling support from United and we’ll have a good support as well.
“And we’ll do all we can to try to win.”
