BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport
ROSS MATTHEWS reckons he was always destined to turn in a dazzling display against Morton – because his dad was sponsoring the match.
The Raith Rovers midfielder lashed home just his second ever career goal to put the clash at Stark’s Park to bed, adding to Craig Barr’s first-half opener to secure a vital 2-0 win for the Fifers.
While goals have been hard to come by for the Rovers academy product, he had a feeling he would ripple the net on Saturday, given his entire extended family were in attendance to toast the birthdays of his parents, Phil and Karen.
Matthews smiled: “It’s only my second goal for the club and I could not have picked a better day for it.
“My whole family were at the game. For the people who noticed I got man of the match – that was my dad who awarded that!
“His company was sponsoring the match as a wee celebration. It was his birthday on Saturday and my mum’s on Sunday so there were about 20 of them in there and I could hear them screaming.
“I did say to my dad that I had a feeling I would score, I told him ‘I hope you’ve got some money on me today!’ They’ll be buzzing with that, so it was a brilliant day.”
More importantly for Matthews, however, his industrious, tenacious performance on the right flank helped Raith surge out of the drop-zone to the comparatively heady heights of seventh in the Championship.
He added: “It was such an important three points. Everyone was saying in the dressing room beforehand that it didn’t matter how we played, even if it was a case of grinding something out.
“We just needed to get that win – because we know what a poor position we have found ourselves in.”
