Nostalgia: When Raith Rovers were record-breaking league champions

From the 7-0 drubbing of pre-season promotion favourites St Mirren on the opening day to the comfortable 2-0 triumph over Dumbarton to secure the title, Rovers only lost four league games as they ran off with the flag by a clear 11 points over second placed Kilmarnock.

They also kept up their undefeated home record which stretched back to March 1992 and weren’t beaten at all on league business until December.

Even then, when all the detractors thought their bubble had burst, the team came storming back to stay on the rails.

Everyone connected with the club had their own favourite memories of a truly spectacular season and player/manager Jimmy Nicholl was no exception.

“St Mirren were everyone’s favourites to go back up, along with Dunfermline. So it was nice to beat them so well,” he said.

“The team always believed in themselves but that gave them an extra spur. Having said that, we didn’t exactly set the heather alight in the following games.”

True, draws with Stirling Albion and Kilmarnock – who weren’t yet showing their potential form – didn’t exactly get the blood racing among the Stark’s Park faithful.

But you can always count on an exciting Fife derby to provide some sparks when life is getting dull.

Raith took seven points out of a possible eight from Dunfermline, starting with a 1-0 win at East End Park in August which gave Rovers a two-point lead at the head of the table which grew and grew as the season progressed.

With most of the west coast media men alternatively patronising and predicting impending doom for Rovers, the first defeat of the season a 3-0 skelping away to Clydebank was pounced on by many as the end of the dream.

Nicholl knew different and the following week’s five-goal thrashing of Meadowbank sent a defiant message to all Raith’s detractors.

“The most pleasing thing about the whole season was the way we came back after that defeat,” said Nicholl.

“Everyone was saying we were finished but I asked the players to prove their real worth by bouncing back and they did it brilliantly.”

For atmosphere there was no better day than the New Year’s derby at East End Park, with travelling fans making up around half of the astonishing 10,000 crowd.

And throughout the season there was always great football on show.

The manager added: ”There have been some spectacular goals and a lot of nice play, but there has also been the hard work. You can’t have success without combining both sides of the game.”

A solid defence and bustling midfield provided the platform for the fine performances but teams don’t win games without scoring goals. Enter Gordon Dalziel.

In his testimonial year ’Dazza’ notched up an incredible 33 goals, breaking Willie Penman’s club record in the progress. He and striking partner Craig Brewster contributed an amazing 55 of Raith’s 85 league strikes.

Cup competitions were treated as a distraction by many Raith fans glimpsing their first chance of league success in years.

Premier League Hibernian knocked Rovers out of the Skol Cup with relative ease at Easter Road, while an injury to goalkeeper Tom Carson early in the Scottish Cup tie with Kilmarnock was almost solely responsible for the flattering 5-0 scoreline in favour of the Ayrshire men.

Tommy Burns’ Killie also hammered Rovers 3-0 on league business at Rugby Park a few weeks later and began talking about catching Raith to go up as champions.

The crunch really came for Nicholl’s squad in March and April, starting with a crucial midweek tie away to St Mirren. The team demonstrated a real will to succeed in the tight 1-1 draw and this set them up for what many were billing as the title decider at home to Killie.

Nicholl explained: “The victory over Kilmarnock was so important because it was right in the middle of four or five really difficult games.

”Killie were talking about catching us and if they had won at Stark’s Park they could have. But it was really great to see the team respond well and put on a performance.”

The final derby with Dunfermline followed before draws at Ayr and Hamilton made promotion all but mathematically certain.

And when the celebrations-did arrive at Stark’s Park, courtesy of a late goal for Clydebank against second placed Dunfermline, they carried on long into the night.