Never a dull moment for Raith Rovers CEO Andrew Barrowman

The 40-year-old Stark’s Park chief executive – part of a consortium which took over the Kirkcaldy outfit from previous owner John Sim in May 2023 – enjoyed a thrilling 2023-24 season which saw the ‘Rovercoaster’ ride of finishing Scottish Championship runners-up under Ian Murray after a series of thrilling victories left them just six points behind champions Dundee United.

But, although this term has seen many off field improvements in stadium infrastructure and player facilities with a new hospitality lounge on the way, pre-season title favourites Rovers are languishing in the bottom half of the league table in a 2024-25 campaign which has seen gaffer Murray swiftly sacked and replaced by Neill Collins, who subsequently resigned after 16 weeks to pursue a manager’s job with Sacramento Republic, making latest incumbent Barry Robson manager number three.

Barrowman told Raith TV: "This business is functioning really well now, it wasn't previously.

"We've increased revenues, we've increased money generators, we've improved the facilities.

"There's still lots of room for improvement and we need to keep going with them.

"But we need to just keep getting the victories, day by day, week by week, month by month and that will get us where we want to be.

"I think we have a good squad. I would write this group off at anyone's peril, they are a strong, talented, resilient group of players and I think there's a determination in that dressing room to right some wrongs and prove a few people wrong from this first half of the season."

When asked how the board can balance improving the club's financial position against ensuring success on the pitch, Barrowman added: "It's difficult because I think we're all caught up in what happens on a Saturday and we have to try and remove ourselves from that.

"It's about looking beyond what happens on the pitch but it's hard.

"It's frustrating when we don't win, we get that. But it's our job to try and take the emotion out of that, remain a little bit separate from that if we can and just push on with what we're doing, keeping making the decisions that we know are right for the long term future. Tempered with, we need to win, we need to have a good team out on that pitch, a hard balancing act.

"I don't want the 'Rovercoaster' to slow down. I think it's great, we all want to be entertained, this is an entertainment business.

"But we have to temper that with a bit of realism. Last season was great but it was all high octane, it was all adrenaline fueled, it's not going to be like that all the time.

"We have to just temper that with a bit of realism. It's hard to win games of football, especially in this division.

"There's a lot of teams that have spent significant amounts of money, maybe more than us, assembling a squad.

"So we've just got to temper that with a bit of realism and just continue to do what we're doing, look at the bigger picture and see what we're trying to achieve."