Craig Easton: Creative play was key during success laden spell as Raith Rovers under-20 head coach

Easton, 45, now a lecturer at Fife College – venue for the next ceremony on March 13, 2025 - landed his awards prize on the back of leading Raith Rovers under-20s to consecutive SPFL Development League East titles in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

“It was a great bunch of lads,” said the ex-head coach. “The whole programme kind of started from scratch and I had a lot of good support from the board. Tom Phillips in particular was excellent in trying to get the under-20 team going.

"When I went in there at first it was Gary Locke and Darren Jackson – then Raith first team manager and assistant manager respectively – who were brilliant in letting the guys develop and supporting me.

"That group of lads was one of the best groups I’ve ever worked with. They were focused, fun to work with and really enthusiastic.

"In the games it was brilliant to see that what they were doing in training was working and they were improving in the games.

"We had an Australian goalkeeper – Rory Brian – who was brilliant, and a Danish guy called Andreas Thorsen who was a great kid. And then we had James Berry who played a few games for the Rovers first team and is still playing at Stenhousemuir.

"Like James, Jamie Watson was a local lad who ended up playing for the Raith first team as well for a bit. He then did a scholarship over in Halifax, Canada, did really well over there, came back and he’s now playing for a team in the League of Ireland.

"Dave McKay and Yaw Osei also became Raith first team players and we had Kyle Bell, Fionn McLeod Kay and Ryan Stevenson who were brilliant too.

"You were allowed to play three over age players. So we had a few guys from the reserves and I pulled the strip on a few times too as I was registered as a player.”

Easton went on to describe his philosophy for playing football during his time as Raith Rovers’ under-20 youth coach, adding: "My philosophy at the time was that I wanted the team to play attacking football and be creative without being silly.

"I was trying to prepare them for real football, full-time football for the first team.

"So we were trying to play in a way that was similar to the first team but also allowed those guys to express themselves and enjoy their football.

"We weren’t just going to be playing out from the back for no reason. We gave them good basics so they would be really good at the fundamentals, but also be creative.

“Everybody bought into it and supported what we were trying to do. We also wanted to connect to the community.

"Davie Hancock at Raith TV was unbelievable in helping out with that, as was Niall Russell in the commercial and media department. Those guys were great at promoting us.”

Easton – whose one previous coaching experience had come at the Torquay United academy – said of receiving his 2017 Sports Personality prize: “I don’t know how I won. I think my mum must have voted about 100 times!”

The Kirkcaldy and Central Fife Sports Council Awards are at Fife College’s St Brycedale Campus in Kirkcaldy on March 13, 2025, with categories for juniors, youths and seniors - teams and individuals – disabled sport and coaches, plus an unsung hero award. Nominate at www.kcfsportscouncil.co.uk/annualawards/ by January 12.