Stand-in Raith Rovers captain Keith Watson aiming to go for goals after getting off mark

The 33-year-old centre-half has been keeping the captain’s armband warm for injury-hit Brown since his arrival in Kirkcaldy from Scottish Premiership side Ross County at the end of June and that’s a responsibility he’s been happy to shoulder, he says, having previously skippered the Highlanders.

“Scott Brown and Ross Matthews have suffered a little bit with injuries so I’ve been looking after the armband while they’ve been out and I can do that, if required, until they’re back fit,” he said.

“With my age, I’m usually one of the older heads in a squad, and I like to think I’m a bit of a leader on the pitch and in training and I’m kind of vocal as well, so it just comes naturally to me.

“I was captain for two years at County and I have been at Raith as well for our recent competitive games, so it’s great to have got the armband again, but obviously when the boys are back fit, it’ll go back to them.”

Not being a prolific goal-scorer of late, Watson was glad to open his account at Raith so soon into his time here, telling us: “I’ve not scored many in the past few years so it’s always nice to get up and running early.

“Hopefully that’s the start of something and I can go on and score a few this season. That would be nice and it would obviously help the team a lot as well.”

Watson’s looking forward to playing in the Scottish Championship again – starting with a trip to Partick Thistle this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm – his last experience of the second tier having been helping to get Ross County promoted to the top flight in 2019.

“When I first signed for Ross County, it was when they’d just been relegated to the championship and we won it that season and the Irn-Bru Cup as well,” he said.

“It’s a very difficult league. Every team can beat each other, it’s that tight.

“Partick away will be a tough start. I’ve played against them before in the play-off finals with Ross County. They’re a really good side so that’ll be a tough test, but we’re confident we can go there and try to get off to a positive start.”

Livingston-born Watson is also relishing the prospect of returning to Edinburgh’s Easter Road to face former club Hibs, having played there on loan for the first half of 2015, for a Viaplay Cup last-16 tie on Sunday, August 20, with kick-off at 2pm.

“First, it was great to get through,” he said.

“It’ll be a very difficult game but it’s one we’re all looking forward to. It’ll be in front of a big crowd and on a great pitch.

“We caused Kilmarnock problems in the cup, another premiership team, and I’m sure we can do the same to Hibs.

“Hibs will be massive favourites, being at home and playing in the league above, but it’s a cup game and anything can happen.

“In the group stages, there were plenty of upsets and results you didn’t expect to see, so that could happen again.

“It’s definitely a game we’ll be going into looking to get to the next round.”

Looking back over his stint at Hibs, he said: “It was great. Hibs were in the championship at the time, and I think Hearts and Rangers were as well, so it was a really tough championship, but I went down there and played nine games I think it was. so that was good experience for me.

“They’re a massive, massive club and they’ve got great facilities as well so it was nice to spend time there.”

Raith aren’t Watson’s first club in the kingdom as he was loaned out by Dundee United to East Fife from December 2009 to March of the year after, one of three loan spells while there, the others being to Hibs and Forfar Athletic.

Recalling his time in Methil, Watson, a full-back in those days, added: “That was a while ago. I was at Dundee United at the time and went out on loan at East Fife just to get games.

“I’d been out with an injury and stuff and needed to get back into first-team football.

“Stevie Crawford was player-manager at the time.

“I wasn’t much more than a boy at the time and that was one of my first experiences of men’s first-team football so that was really good for me.”