Raith manager Grant Murray declared himself “pleased performance-wise,” after his side concluded their pre-season friendlies with a hard-fought 1-0 defeat to the Scottish Premiership’s ICT.
Murray said: “It was a good workout for us. Inverness certainly worked us hard today, so we got a lot out of it.”
With the Championship side kicking off their campaign in the Petrofac Training Cup next week, Raith had hitherto only managed draws with Edinburgh City and St Johnstone before Tuesday’s 4-0 defeat to York City, so this marked a significant and timely upturn in form.
Rovers enjoyed much of the possession, and looked the more likely to score before Ryan Christie’s hammer-blow in the dying minutes.
With seven of Raith’s starting 11 signed over the summer break, the degree to which they gelled against a team who finished 12 places above them in the Scottish Football League ladder last season was impressive.
Christian Nad crashed one early effort off the crossbar after being teed up by fellow new arrival Martin Stewart.
Nad’s former Hearts teammate Calum Elliot came off the bench and had a gilt-edged chance to give his side a deserved lead but, instead of heading home Rory McKeown’s pinpoint cross, he squared to Nad and the chance went begging.
“(Nad)’s unlucky in the first half. It’s a great ball in and on another day it catches the underside of the crossbar and goes in. Then Calum’s probably a wee bit unselfish knocking it down.
“Somebody else might have been greedy and taken a touch and hit it themselves so Christian’s unlucky there again,” said Murray.
ICT made five changes at the interval, but Raith continued to threaten, and were unlucky not to take the lead when Nad thumped the ball goalward from a tight angle only to see substitute keeper Ryan Esson save acrobatically
Frustration turned to heartbreak for Raith in the last 10 minutes.
Ryan Baptie got forward and crossed for fellow substitute Christie, and the striker forced home the winner at the near post.
But with Ross Perry at centre-back and Jimmy Scott in midfield getting their first full 90 minutes and Raith unlucky not to at least share the spoils, Murray left with more positives than negatives ahead of next week’s Championship opener at local rivals Dunfermline.
“It stands us in good stead for next week’s derby game. Both teams looked to get the ball down.
“Credit to Inverness. They were excellent. They’re a very good Premiership club so it was a great test for us.”