Raith Rovers boss Barry Robson on title bid next season and summer transfer strategy

Despite ending their 2024-’25 William Hill Championship campaign with a resounding 5-1 victory over Queen’s Park at Hampden Park on Friday evening, Raith suffered the heartache of ending up fifth on 53 points – one point behind Partick Thistle in the final premiership play-off berth – because rivals Thistle grabbed a 1-0 away win against second-placed Livingston.

“I thought my players were outstanding,” Robson told Raith TV post match in Mount Florida. “Especially in the first half, some of the football was really exciting, fast aggressive, passed it about, counter pressing.

"Just everything I want in my team. They just looked really, really at it and they’ve done that quite a lot since I’ve been in here.

"Listen, I was really proud of my players tonight and I’m sure the fans were as well.

"That’s 10 games unbeaten and we still fell a bit short.

"We ran out of games. I think when I came in we were five points ahead of Dunfermline and I think we’re 18 points ahead of them now.

"That’s a hell of a turnaround we’ve been on. In the last four months in terms of points we are up there in the top two or three in the league.

"We need to take that momentum into next season and that’s what I said to the players.

"We’re here to win and that’s what I wanted to say to them. We are here to achieve something, that’s what football’s about is winning and achieving something.

"And they just fell a wee bit short tonight. But when we come back after the summer that’s what we want to do.”

Robson, who praised his players’ character and also lauded Raith fans for turning out in excellent numbers at the national stadium, added: “I think the fans believe. They are with their team and that’s a massive thing.

"And that’s what we need next year. We need the players to be performing the same and we need the fans to be bringing them along.

"Let’s go and have a crack at next season and make sure we perform the same way we have done over the last three months. We had nearly 4,000 at the last home game, the fans are there.

“We’ve got to bring them in, that’s our job. And we’ve brought them in by playing some good football, but hard working football, fast, aggressive.

"The fans will come with you and they help you so much. I was really proud of our support today.

"I’m an ambitious person, the club’s ambitious and the supporters and players will be ambitious next season.

"I want my players and the fans to have aspirations next season. That’s what life’s about, we’ve all got to strive to be better and get better.

"I’m not saying you will always get to where you want to get to. But if you’re ambitious and you bring that work-rate and you work hard you’ve got a chance at it.

"We will never have the biggest budget in the league. There will be teams throwing money at it next year, but what we will have are players who are going to work hard and a fanbase that’s going to back us.

“We’re going to do all the fine details as well as we can, we’re going to have a good culture at the club and we’re going to try and fight all the way and see where it can take us.”

On player ins and outs this summer, Robson added: “We’ve been speaking to some players, we’ve got to speak to a few more. There are not going to be mass changes at the football club.

“We’ve still got a lot of players under contract, we’ve still got a lot of players under contract that have performed very well.

"We will be freshening the team up, taking players to help the current squad that’s here.

"We’ve got to be smart and clever. We won’t be dismantling this team because there’s a lot of quality in this team.

"But what we will do is try and help it.”