Crane hopes to scale the heights on loan at Raith

After moving from Hibs to Livingston in the summer, the left back was hoping to make his mark in the Scottish Premiership this season.

Those plans have not come to fruition, but the 22-year-old insists he is delighted to have joined Raith Rovers on loan until January, despite finding himself back in the third tier.

“It wasn’t part of the plan to go on loan this season,” Crane told the Press. “I was hoping to get games at Livingston, but things haven’t worked out.

“I played three out of the four Betfred Cup games under Kenny Millar, but I was suspended for the first league game, which never helped.

“It’s been hard to get back in the Livi team, and I couldn’t really argue because they have been winning games and picking up points.

“For me, I’m still young, and I want to be playing games every week, like I was last season, so I’m delighted with the move here.

“I just want to get out and play football and the first few weeks here have been good – all the boys are brand new.

“I’m enjoying the way the gaffer wants to play football.”

Crane was part of the Alloa side that wrecked Rovers title hopes by claiming a goalless draw on the last day of the season, before going on to dump them out of the promotion play-offs.

“We came here on the last day when they were trying to win the league,” he recalled. “We stopped them doing that and then in the play-offs it was hard for them to get up for it.

“They came to our bit on the Tuesday, and we won 2-0. We then scored first in the second leg at Stark’s and that pretty much killed the game off.

“The expectation at Alloa was to get to the play-offs and try to go up. They’ll find it difficult being the only part-time team in the Championship, but I wish them all the best and hope they stay up.”

Crane is hoping to go one better this time around by helping Raith win the title, whether he remains beyond January or not.

“One of the things that attracted me here is that they are still full-time, and probably one of the better teams in this league,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity.

“Hopefully we can push on and by the time January comes we’ll be up there and looking like we’re going to get promoted.”

Crane made his home debut on Saturday’s 1-1 draw against league leaders Arbroath, which he admitted was a difficult 90 minutes.

“It was a tough game but we’ll kick on from here,” he said. “I know this league so there will be no surprises.

“Teams are pretty direct, and most of them have got a few units. With Arbroath it’s the whole team basically.

“It was a physical game but it will be like that most weeks.

“They’ve started well but hopefully they drop a few points and we’re top of the league at the end of the season.”