Raith Rovers' Aiden Marsh reveals how previous loans 'toughened him up'
Raith Rovers’ January transfer window signing Aiden Marsh has been explaining how he thinks his previous loan experiences in English football’s fifth tier, at Scunthorpe United and York City in 2022 and 2023 respectively, have prepared him well for the often frantic William Hill Championship.
Striker Marsh, 21, who is on loan at Stark’s Park from Barnsley until the end of the season, told Raith TV: “I think those moves were to try and get me used to the physical aspects of football.
"I think when you go to the English National League you get roughed up by big defenders and I got my first loan cut short because somebody stamped on my foot and I got a fractured foot. So I only played a couple of games there.
"And then at York I was played a little bit out of position and it was tough.
"But you have to take everything from it. You have to go there and learn and I've learned a lot from that.
"I've learned the physical side of the game, which I've built into my game as well as the technical and tactical side.
"I don't shy away from a challenge. Some strikers want to jump out of the way, I'm not fussed, I will get stuck right into them.
"I like to get in people's faces, I've got an eye for a goal, I like to get in the box and sniff chances out.
"I don't mind a tap in. Everybody wants to score a long range screamer but I'll take ten tap ins over two long range screamers.
"I like to run in behind as well. I'm not so much a come to feet, hold up type of guy, I like to put defenders under stress in behind and run and run and run.
"Hopefully the creative midfielders can feed balls through.”
Marsh, who reckons the Scottish second tier is ‘a good standard’, has also made 11 league appearances for his parent club.
He added: "I've played a fair few games in the English League One and a couple of games in the English Championship so I've had a decent bit of experience.
"I haven't played in League Two (in England) yet so hopefully I'll do that and the English Premier League one day to complete the set, that would be nice.
“I haven't come here to half heart it, I've come here to take on the challenge and really give it something. Hopefully I can show what I'm all about, get onside and we can have a really good run of games until the end of the season and really try and do something special here.
"It's a really good opportunity for me to move out of my comfort zone because obviously I'm from Barnsley so I only know that close knit, tight community. So to bring myself out of my comfort zone I think can only bring positives."