Ex-Raith Rovers star Craig Easton on why shocks can be commonplace in English FA Cup

Ex-Dundee United stalwart Easton, 45, now a Fife College lecturer, has first hand experience as he scored one goal and set up another as League One Leyton Orient shocked Premier League Fulham 2-1 in a major FA Cup third round upset at Craven Cottage on January 8, 2006.

When asked why such scorelines apparently regularly make the sporting headlines south of the border, Easton told the Fife Free Press: "In England all the players are full-time, right down to the Conference South. The Conference pays better money than our Premier League teams at times.

"So you're coming up against people that are training every day. Maybe there's a gap in wages and a gap in quality as well, I'm not going to lie about that.

"But I'll tell you what, it's probably not as big as you think.

"On the day, it's the small team's cup final, they have nothing to lose.

"I used to hate it being at Dundee United playing against the smaller teams from League Two or whatever.

"It was just flipped around. You knew you were going to get an absolute battle and that's what it should be.

"It's your day to go try and cause an upset and on the day if you've got that team spirit and you add confidence and belief, anything can happen.”

With blanket live football coverage on TV – highlighted by the English Premier League and the Champions League – on virtually every day of the week nowadays, Easton was asked if the FA Cup had lost a fair percentage of its sparkle and importance amidst the tsunami of other viewing options.

He said: "It's a shame I think. There's so much football nowadays, there's too much. It's almost like you get swallowed up by everything else.

"But I still think when you get an FA Cup game live on BBC or ITV on a Saturday or Sunday, it's great just sitting watching one of those being played at a smaller ground where a big team is visiting. It just feels like real football.

"I think in general terms people don't look upon the FA Cup as being as important as it used to be. But I would say that if you're a manager in the Premier League, you still want to win that FA Cup.

"All my time I played in England it was brilliant, I loved it.”

Easton, whose early playing career at Tannadice saw him make 221 appearances for United between 1996 and 2004, scoring 12 goals, also turned out 22 times for Scotland under-21s between 1998 and 2001, netting twice.

Further playing spells followed at Livingston, Leyton Orient, Swindon Town, Southend United, Dunfermline Athletic and Torquay United.

After hanging up his boots, Easton was appointed head coach of the Raith Rovers development team in July 2016, where he was still registered as a player to fill in where needed in development matches.

He guided Raith under-20s to consecutive SPFL Development League East titles in 2016–17 and 2017–18.

Easton stayed in Fife for his next role, becoming Cowdenbeath assistant manager to gaffer Gary Bollan in August 2019.

An eventful opening campaign saw Cowdenbeath finish fourth in League Two, with that season finished early due to the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2020-’21 season – restricted to 22 games as a result of Covid 19 – saw a regression for the Blue Brazil as they ended in ninth spot after recording just five wins, six draws and 11 defeats under Bollan and Easton.

The next campaign was to prove even worse, as Cowdenbeath – who dismissed Bollan and Easton mid-season - went on to finish bottom of the pile and be relegated to the Scottish Lowland Football League after losing a play-off 4-0 on aggregate to Bonnyrigg Rose.

Despite having left his Central Park role in October 2021 when he and Bollan were axed, Easton retains fond memories of his time there.

"I loved it at Cowdenbeath,” he said. “It was great working with Gary Bollan when he was in there and Donald Findlay the chairman was an absolute gentleman.

"I think really that Covid season killed us, because we were doing really well that season.

"Functioning part-time over that period was really tough for everybody.

"When we came back the season after we just didn't really hit the ground running again and we ultimately ended up getting sacked.

"But it was brilliant. We had a good bunch of lads in there and I enjoyed working with the coaching staff.

"Robert McKinlay is a local legend there, he was the kit man, and I still have a conversation with him every week.

"He's a big NFL fan and so am I. So me and Robert catch up with the American football every week.

"He's down south now.

"It is really tough at part-time level. It was a real eye opener for me.

"And I take my hat off to the guys that are involved at that level of the game because it's not easy.

"We put a lot into it and so did the players. I just wish that we could have finished that Covid season properly and I think we would maybe have got into the play-offs and you never know what could have happened.

"It was a great experience and I had good times at Central Park.”