Raith take the credit but only a point

DOUGLAS CAMPBELL

21 Mar 1994

CORRECT me if I'm wrong, but is it not suckers who are supposed to be given anything but an even break?

Thought so, but it's not true, or was not at Stark's Park on Saturday when there could have been few complaints from the audience had Hearts been sent packing with a flea in their ear by Raith Rovers.

Out-played, out-thought, out...well, just about everything except out-scored.

And even Hearts' chairman, Wallace Mercer, said that Craig Levein's equaliser got his men "out of jail."

Indeed, it was an understatement when he added that his employees had just displayed how to "play badly and move up the table."

League position, yes, that is what made it all the more irksome for Raith.

Although supplying just about all the entertainment, the point that went back to Edinburgh could be vital as the season trundles ever on.

Of course, most of the other results at the weekend concerning basement dwellers normally would have brought a smile to the face of Raith manager Jimmy Nicholl, but although pleased with most of his men's work, he was aware that the extra point his team deserved would have taken them to within touching distance of St Johnstone three from the bottom.

And where do Raith visit on Saturday? You guessed it, Perth.

So Nicholl's plan to wriggle out of the dreaded bottom three went slightly off course on Saturday, but it is not the end of the world, well not yet.

"We just have to reverse the form table now," said the manager.

"We had to win our home games, dropped a point today, so we now have to win at St Johnstone next week."

Come to think of it, those at McDiarmid Park must be a little twitchy.

Stuffed at Ibrox, meeting Partick Thistle tomorrow evening, a side that has already planted seven goals past Saints this season, and now Raith fancy their chances against them.

Who said that life at the wrong end of the division is boring?

But no matter how the relegation situation is concluded, little can be taken away from what Nicholl has achieved at Kirkcaldy.

He has moulded individuals, many of whom may have surprised even themselves at the standard of play attained, into an attractive side that no club relishes playing, especially on Raith's home patch.

Hearts had a fair sprinkling of internationalists in their ranks, while Raith almost had as many players who came to their club on YTS schemes, and it was one of those guys, Colin Cameron, who put them in front, adding to goals from Hearts' John Colquhoun and John McStay, of Raith.

But then, with the Raith support not only sensing blood but telling Hearts' lot where they would be going at the end of the season and with whom they would be going down, the referee gave a free kick for an infringement that he, alone, spotted.

John Robertson popped the ball on to Levein's skull, and it was 2-2.

A fair result it was not, but it seems that when you're down, even fate is keen to kick you where it hurts most.

Taken from the Herald