Ian Murray hits out at Raith sacking that started and ended in 3 minute phonecall

Ian Murray says he didn't see the logic to his abrupt Raith Rovers sacking – and felt he deserved more than a three-minute chat telling him his time was up.

The Kirkcaldy club took the unusual step of sacking Murray after their opening day defeat to Airdrie, a decision caught many off-guard given they punched above their weight last season and gave Dundee United a run for their money at the top of the Championship. CEO Andrew Barrowman said it wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to one defeat, but a measured response to a long-running downturn in form that left them convinced Murray was no longer the man to take them forward.

Questions have since been raised about why Murray was allowed to take the league opener if they felt he was so close to the brink, but they have since appointed Neill Collins - who lost his opening game 2-0 to Fife rivals Dunfermline. Murray has spoken about the decision for the first time to the BBC and admits the news, broken to him in a brief conversation over the phone, caught him off-guard. And while he was never going to 'beg' for his job, he feels the way they handled it 'wasn't right'.

He told the Scottish Football Podcast: "I wasn’t expecting it. It was a less than three-minute phone conversation. I was told they wanted to go in a different direction. They felt that they had regressed in recent months and they were going to terminate my contract. And that was the end of the conversation.

"The first thought for most people was there was something else behind it, which then starts questioning my integrity at times because people like to talk and make some things up that they don’t know about. But there was nothing. I told him that I didn’t agree with the decision, 100 per cent. And I didn’t expect