Raith Rovers boss Dougie Imrie on what his side must improve on next season
Ahead of a likely major overhaul of his playing squad this summer, Raith Rovers manager Dougie Imrie has admitted that “something has to change” with regard to his troops producing more consistently good performances than they have done in this up and down 2025-2026 campaign.
Imrie, whose side are likely to miss out on the Premiership play-offs after last weekend’s 2-1 loss at Arbroath left them five points behind Dunfermline Athletic with just two games left this season, told the Fife Free Press: “Well, there's an old saying, leopards never change their spots, and it's been the same all season.
"We can look at performances in the last seven weeks and they’ve been very good overall.
“And that's what we can produce when we do the right things for 90 minutes, week on week.
"But their level of performances have not been there more often than not this season with the same group of players. So, something has to change.
"I'm very fair with everyone, but that Saturday was not acceptable in how we want to go about our business here at Raith.
"To challenge to get into the top four, you won’t get that with performances like that week after week.
"And I've praised them since I've come in.
"We've had some good days and we've had some bad days, but Saturday was like going back to Ross County away and to Dunfermline away where we lost really poorly.
"We never laid a glove on Arbroath. We went to Queen's Park last Tuesday night and had 27 shots on goal. Then we go to Arbroath on Saturday and have three, that's the difference.
"You can't be up and down that badly. And not just Queen's Park, the games before that.
"To have three shots on goal and only one hit the target isn't good enough and that's where we have to be better as a group.
"All this group of players haven't even started and we're only eight points off Arbroath, five off Dunfermline, and we haven't kicked a ball yet.
"Over the summer, we need to regroup and be ready to go.”
Raith skipper Scott Brown is suspended for St Johnstone away on Friday and Ross County at home next Friday. Striker Innes Cameron is an injury doubt to face Saints.