Murray aiming to finish Thistle tie off and reach playoff final

Raith Rovers manager Ian Murray is aiming to finish off their tie with Partick Thistle and reach the playoff final.

The Kirkcaldy side are 2-1 up from the first-leg following a win in Maryhill on Tuesday night as they look to gain promotion to the Premiership next season.

If they get through Friday night’s second leg then it will only be either St Johnstone or Ross County standing between them and a place in the top-flight.

The former Hibs, Rangers and Scotland midfielder knows they still have a long way to go against the Jags but is confident they can progress if they reproduce their performance

He said: “It’s playoff football now, it’s as simple as that. The first leg is always a wee bit different bit teams now know what they have to do to reach the final.

“We were very happy to come away with a win from Firhill, I think we deserved to win the game over the 90 minutes but Thistle made it difficult for us.

“On Tuesday we started like a train, the midfield was biting after everybody, looking to get the ball back and create something going forward.

“It’s the first time in a good while that Raith have had the opportunity to get into the playoff final, we are now one game away from it so we will go out on Friday and try to finish the tie off.

“We will try to play how we did in the first-half of the first-leg, because if we can reach that level again then I think we are very hard to beat.

“It’s been a long season, 37 games now in terms of in the league and now the playoff, so it has been a long old season for us if you add in the three cup competitions as well, it does seem a long time ago now since the season started but we have enjoyed every minute of it.

“There’s been loads of highs in there and a few lows as can be expected but we have bounced back from those.

“We really want to get to the final and if we get there we want to enjoy the occasion and play without fear but we have a really big hurdle to overcome first before we get there.”