After sacking Barry Robson on Tuesday, Raith Rovers announced that veteran defender Paul Hanlon has been appointed interim player-manager with immediate effect.

Assuming no new permanent gaffer is installed by Raith before the weekend, the 35-year-old former Hibernian stopper Hanlon will take charge of this Saturday’s home league game against Airdrieonians.

Speculation will now be rife among Rovers supporters as to who could be lined up for taking the managerial role on a permanent basis, but the Fife Free Press can reveal that former manager Ian Murray – who admirably led the team to a second-placed Scottish Championship finish in the 2023-2024 campaign before losing the Premiership play-off final 6-1 on aggregate to Ross County – will not be a contender.

Murray told this newspaper on Tuesday that he would not be throwing his hat in the ring for the job.

Paul Hanlon has been named Raith Rovers' interim player-manager (Pic by Mark Scates/SNS Group)

placeholder image — Paul Hanlon has been named Raith Rovers' interim player-manager (Pic by Mark Scates/SNS Group)

Despite his fine overall job with Raith between 2022 and 2024, Murray was controversially sacked by the Kirkcaldy club after just one league game of the 2024-2025 campaign, a 1-0 loss at his former club Airdrieonians.

Murray later revealed that he was dismissed in a three-minute phonecall from then Raith chief executive Andrew Barrowman, who in February 2025 was also dismissed by Raith when his role was made redundant.

Due to the ‘credit he had in the bank’ at Raith, former manager Murray said dismissing him over the phone ‘wasn’t right’ after a season in which he’d led Raith to 20 wins from 36 league fixtures and finished only six points behind champions Dundee United.

He told the BBC: “Again I think it goes back to when people get a wee sniff of success they maybe feel a wee bit entitled to go and do it again.

Ian Murray pictured after his last match in charge of Raith Rovers, a 1-0 defeat at Airdrieonians on August 3, 2024 (Pic by Paul Devlin/SNS Group)

"Expectancy rises, which is dangerous. And I try to tell everybody that in the pre-season because this league is so difficult.

"I’m very proud of what we achieved. We did so much in such a short time, albeit we never got to the pinnacle where we wanted to be but I did feel it was going to get there eventually.”