Raith Rovers CEO Andrew Barrowman explains Neill Collins' shock exit last month

Stressing that 41-year-old Collins’ great commitment to Raith had seen him move his four children – one of whom subsequently signed with St Johnstone’s academy – to Scotland from Leeds – upon taking up his Raith role, Barrowman told Raith TV: “I’m fortunate that I’m here every day. I can see the work that Neill was doing, I can maybe appreciate what Neill was good at maybe more than others because results maybe didn’t reflect what was going on.

"Neill’s a good man, he’s a good manager. But it’s the nature of the beast, everyone’s got their price so to speak, it’s football, it’s life.

"And these clauses that are in contracts are natural, they’re in every contract, they’ll be in every contract going forward.

"To dispel the myth in terms of a release clause and all that, it wasn’t that.

"There was a clause in the contract that Sacramento triggered and the club were fairly compensated financially.

"I think it caught us all on the hop but that’s why these paragraphs and clauses are within contracts, so that everyone is protected.”

Collins’ shock departure paved the way for Rovers to install Barry Robson as their new gaffer on December 29, with the former Aberdeen manager’s first match in charge ending in a 3-0 William Hill Championship loss at Ayr United last Saturday.

When asked what he and his fellow board members had learned from now departed Collins’ initial appointment – he was finally installed in Kirkcaldy on September 3, a month after former incumbent Ian Murray’s dismissal – prior to installing current gaffer Robson, Barrowman added: “I think it took too long for Neill’s recruitment. There were reasons for that.

"We wanted to speak to more people at that point as well.

"I think our search was a lot narrower this time, we were a lot more focused on who we wanted, what that looked like, what their personality and skill set were.

"We learned from the first recruitment process, that’s fair to say, and it was a lot more targeted.

"Barry is a good man, he’s a strong leader and I think what set him apart in the process was his understanding of who we are as a club, what our fans want to see out there on the pitch.

"He is acutely aware of the local area and what they demand from their football team and that really set him apart from the others.

"I think we’re getting a modern day coach with some real old school values.

"I think what he brings as a coach, what he brought as a player and as a human being fit perfectly with the club.

"And I’m convinced that he’s the man who can lead this club into a successful era.

"We’re building something longer term here. Last season was great and I don’t want people to forget what happened in the highs of last season because they should use that as motivation to fuel that being the norm.

"That’s what we want to strive for but that’s hard.

"We are very much long term thinking, we’re very much looking at the long term future, hence why we’ve made the decisions we’ve made in the past.

"We’re here to build a sustainable club and when we do get to where we want to get and we get it right, everyone will see that sustained success that everyone craves.”

Rovers, currently sixth in the league table with 24 points from 19 fixtures, continue their championship campaign at Greenock Morton this Saturday in a 3pm kick-off.