Raith Rovers winger Aidan Connolly reveals why he'd be open to new contract

When asked if any discussions have taken place with Raith over him getting a new contract, winger Connolly, 30, told the Fife Free Press: “No, we'll see what happens. I know how football works now, so we'll address it in the summer time.

"Of course I would like to stay here as I love Raith, it's a good club. There's a lot of good people at Raith, I've made a lot of good friends here as well.

"I think a lot of the seasons I've been here, we've made play-offs so it's been pretty successful for Raith. Obviously we'd love to go up (to the Scottish Premiership), but it's not as easy as that.

"It's a competitive league and it's a good football club. I can't speak highly enough about it.”

If Raith do end up pipping Partick Thistle to fourth place in the William Hill Championship this term, they will qualify for a spot in the premiership play-offs for a second consecutive season.

But, unlike last season when they finished second tier runners-up to automatically go through to the play-off semi-finals against Partick, this time around a fourth-placed finish would mean a two-legged quarter-final against Ayr United.

When asked to recall Raith’s play-off efforts in the last campaign, when a penalty shootout win over Thistle was followed by a 6-1 aggregate final defeat to Ross County, Connolly said: “It's tough because you go that far and it's two games and you just want to push through to the premiership because we're all fighting to go up. But it's football and that happens.

"I think the premiership play-off set-up does favour the premier league teams. I would prefer the League 1 set-up, where it's like the fourth team versus second bottom.

"But I don't think they'll ever do that because they always want to suit the premier league team.

"We've got to just keep going and hopefully we can get there first.”

Connolly and fifth-placed Raith – who trail fourth-placed Partick in the final play-off spot with one round of fixtures remaining – round off their league season at Queen's Park, one of his old teams, this Friday in a 7.45pm kick-off while Partick are at Livingston.

The winger scored on the Kirkcaldy side’s last visit to Hampden Park, a 2-1 Raith win in December in what was former manager Neill Collins’ last game in charge before resigning to take the job at Sacramento Republic FC in California.

Connolly added: “Queen’s Park is a good club and I think they've got their problems just now but it'll be a tough game as well.

"I think they're a wee bit lucky to not be in a relegation battle. I know a few boys there and it wasn't looking good for them.

" Obviously, I think Hamilton Accies – relegated after being deducted 15 points barring an appeal success on Thursday – helped a lot of the clubs down there, so it's looking like Queen’s are going to be safe.

“They are not fighting for anything, but boys will be fighting for contracts and they'll be wanting to impress.”