Sat 13th August / 15:00 / 2022-23 / / home
Raith Rovers vs Morton
Preview
Raith Rovers will be hoping it's third time lucky this weekend, as they go searching for their first points of their Championship campaign, with a home match against Dougie Imrie's Greenock Morton side.
Last weekend's 1-0 loss to Dundee left Raith propping up the second tier table, and while they matched the Championship title favourites for large swathes of Saturday's match, an inability to put away their chances for the second week in succession meant Rovers again ended up empty handed.
In contrast, Saturday's opponents have enjoyed an unbeaten start to their campaign, with four points from six, following up an opening day draw with Hamilton Accies, with a 1-0 win over Cove Rangers, thanks to a brilliant strike from Jai Quitongo.
The win moved Morton up to third in the table, level on points with Ayr United and Partick Thistle, who lead the way on goals scored.
Rovers had a decent record against Morton last season, winning the first two meetings by a single goal, and drawing the third after the two shared four goals in an entertaining Friday evening fixture that was played out in treacherous conditions.
However, Morton won the last time the two sides met, when a fine goal from Robbie Muirhead was enough to give Morton the win at Stark's Park back in April.
Head-to-Head Record:
Raith Rovers Wins: 55
Greenock Morton Wins: 65
Draws: 36
Reports
First League Victory For Rovers
After a slow, and sometimes boring, first half Rovers finally got their first points of the league season on the board with an improved second half performance and a 2-1 victory against Morton.
Raith created the best chance of the first half with Jamie Gullan’s left footed volley being well blocked with only 16 minutes on the clock, and they continued to put Greenock Morton under the cosh with a few long range shots going wide of the visitor’s goal.
Midway through the first half the teams had a water break, which has become standard practise in recent weeks due to the hot weather even though Saturday’s conditions could hardly be regarded as a heatwave.
The break seemed to give Raith Rovers more energy, as they began to turn the screw but Morton managed to survive the added pressure of the first half and the score remained 0-0 at the break.
Rovers started the second half in the best possible fashion with an early well worked team goal finishing with a cross from the right by Aidan Connolly finding the head of man of the match Liam Dick who sent a fantastic header past Schwake in the Morton goal.
The opening goal, and something to celebrate, was just what the fans had been waiting for, and they were on their feet and singing, and they wanted more.
The second goal duly came in the 66th minute, when Jamie Gullan sent a lovely ball across the 18-yard box for the inrushing Aidan Connolly to fire the ball first time into the goal keeper’s top right corner.
The game was becoming a bit scrappy, with the referee dishing out multiple bookings for both sides, and after another water break, which seemed to re-energise Morton, the men from Greenock got themselves back into the game when a pinpoint cross from a free kick was met by the head of number 8, Cameron Blues who flicked the ball over Jamie MacDonald and into the Rovers net.
The Rovers back line defended excellently for the remainder of the match, and Ian Murray's men came away with their first league win under the new manager.
Raith Rovers’ next match is against Hamilton at the Superseal Stadium on the 20th of August.
Photos
A first win of the season for Rovers and the goals can be seen in Tony and Jim's pictures from the match against Morton, and if you were at the game you might just find you've been caught on Cameron's Camera.
Pictures © Tony Fimister, Jim Foy and Cameron Goodsir-McGuire.
Highlights
Interviews
Ian Murray spoke to RaithTV after the win v Morton: