Dylan Easton: Why Raith Rovers are better equipped to seal promotion this time

Raith winger Dylan Easton takes on Inverness ace Luis Longstaff during last weekend's friendly in Kirkcaldy (Pic by Paul Devlin/SNS Group)Raith winger Dylan Easton takes on Inverness ace Luis Longstaff during last weekend's friendly in Kirkcaldy (Pic by Paul Devlin/SNS Group)
Raith winger Dylan Easton takes on Inverness ace Luis Longstaff during last weekend's friendly in Kirkcaldy (Pic by Paul Devlin/SNS Group)
Raith Rovers winger Dylan Easton has admitted there was “a little bit of a gulf” between his team and last season’s Scottish Premiership play-off final conquerors Ross County, but the 30-year-old fans’ favourite is confident Rovers’ newly strengthened squad could cope better against top flight opposition at the end of the 2024-25 campaign if required.

With the heavy 6-1 aggregate loss to County highlighting the need for defensive reinforcements, Rovers have renewed optimism about their prospects for the season ahead after adding seven summer signings including the marquee pair of legendary Hibernian stoppers Lewis Stevenson and Paul Hanlon, who have joined on two and three-year contracts respectively.

"Whoever it was going to be in the play-off final, we knew it was going to be a really difficult game,” Easton told the Fife Free Press.

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"When we played Ross County you could just see that there was a little bit of a gulf between the Championship and the Premiership and we just fell short.

"County are a Premiership team for a reason and fair play to them, they've managed to get over the line and keep themselves in the Premiership.

"People from the outside were probably all looking and saying: 'If you had got St Johnstone instead of Ross County in the play-off final you’d have had a better chance'.

"But I've been at St Johnstone and you've seen over the years how well they seem to do, they always find a way.

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"Ross County’s goal threat and attacking threat was substantial. And probably something that we lacked a wee bit last season was keeping regular clean sheets.

"I think towards the end of the season we started getting a really good structure to our team.

"Obviously we were absolutely devastated to lose. We were gutted because we believed that we were good enough to go and get the job done.

"But the manager (Ian Murray) and everyone were really, really good. It was a case of them saying: 'It's done now, we can't change it. Let's dust ourselves down, enjoy the break and go again'.

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"That was the case during the season as well if we lost games. It wasn't the case that we dwelled on it, it was a case of: 'It's done, let's get back on the training pitch and improve and always come back'.

"And we did that last season. That will be the same again this year.

"If we did get into the play-offs again this year, I definitely think we would have a right good chance of winning.”

Such fighting talk would seem justified, with Stevenson and Hanlon being joined at Stark’s Park by fellow new signings Kieran Freeman, Shaun Byrne, Callum Fordyce, Lewis Gibson and Kai Montagu.

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Easton said: "It's a credit to the backroom staff, the board, Pottsy (Raith technical director John Potter), everyone that's put in all the hard work to try and get these players.

"Last season we had a really good season but just fell short. It's just been a case of building again and trying to strengthen.

"Our aim is to go and challenge for the league and there's always areas to improve.

"The players that have been brought in are definitely going to improve the team so hopefully we can go one better and try and win the league. That would be the target.”

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