Raith Rovers: 2022-2023 season - a rollercoaster of highs and lows on and off the pitch

After several months of speculation, Raith are finally under new ownership, with outgoing supremo John Sim having accepted an offer from a Fife consortium after previously rejecting the advances of Silverbear Capital and their controversial mouthpiece Mike Dellios.

On the pitch, Rovers were in play-off contention for much of the Scottish Championship season before being derailed as an injury crisis resulted in a seventh-place finish with a final tally of 43 points after 11 wins, 10 draws and 15 defeats.

Rovers went 14 games unbeaten in league and cups between December and March, including winning 4-3 on penalties at Dundee following a 2-2 draw in an SPFL Trust Trophy quarter-final and then beating top-flight Motherwell 3-1 at home to reach the Scottish Cup’s last eight.

But there was also the major disappointment of losing 1-0 to Hamilton Accies in the SPFL Trust Trophy final at Falkirk Stadium at the end of March.

Raith boss Ian Murray told the Fife Free Press: “I’m really happy with how we’ve done in terms of getting to the SPFL Trust Trophy final, the Scottish Cup quarter-finals and going 14 games undefeated.

“Put it against what we’ve had to deal with and there are some good achievements. Of course we’re disappointed we’ve not finished higher up the league, but in reality we weren’t that far away.

“There were too many draws and not enough goals in there, but for me the positives outweigh the negatives.

“Probably our biggest high was that week when we beat Arbroath away, went up to Dens Park and beat Dundee on penalties and then beat Motherwell – three really, really good wins.

“Obviously we went to Ibrox in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals and got beat 3-0, which was disappointing, but I would say the cup final was more disappointing than anything else because we went there hoping to retain the trophy.

“It was a chance for myself and the players to win a cup and we didn’t do it. Performance-wise in that game, the first 25 or 30 minutes were really poor from us.

“After that, I thought we were very good, but on the day it just wasn’t to be, so we use that now for next season.

“We just try to polish up a bit on our play and turn those draws into wins, because, like I say, I firmly believe that the boys were so close to having a really, really fantastic season instead of where we are.

“We’re always looking to get better and we’ll look to improve on this season next year, but with the way the club were this time last season and where they could possibly be this time next year, I think we’re all fairly happy with the small steps in terms of rebuilding the club.

“Of course we want to be higher up the league – we want to be in the play-off positions – but when we look at the top four teams this season and the teams who were chasing them, we have to say those are the teams people probably would have picked at the start of the season.”