Why Raith Rovers boss Dougie Imrie thinks top Scottish leagues should be expanded

The Raith Rovers gaffer – who took on the Stark’s Park manager’s gig last month after four years as boss at William Hill Championship rivals Greenock Morton – referenced the fact that he led the Cappielow outfit against his current employers five times in the 2022-2023 campaign as the sides squared off in the Challenge Cup in addition to their regular four league fixtures against each other.

“I think it would be better if it was more teams in both divisions,” Imrie told the Fife Free Press. ”You're playing four times a season each in the league.

"I think in my time at Morton, they played Raith Rovers five times in one season because we got them in the KDM Cup too.

"So it becomes a bit mundane when you're seeing the same faces. Sometimes you're playing teams back-to-back because you've been in the league and then the way the cup draw is made.

"But listen, that's over my pay grade. But just for seeing different teams coming up against different players, it would probably be beneficial if it was bigger leagues.

"But I think there's an element to the play-offs that there's a lot of excitement coming into the season with the one up, two down etcetera.

"That's for somebody else to make that decision. But it would be good to see, in my opinion, a bigger league to see more teams and make it a little bit more competitive and maybe go home and away so you just play each other twice with maybe a play-off at the end of that as well.

"Whatever way I put it, 16, you've got a top eight and a bottom eight (in the Scottish Premiership) and you work it that way and maybe have more going up and more coming down rather than one and one.

"I think it would bring a freshness to everyone. I'm sure fans are maybe getting a little bit fed up of seeing the same teams.

"If the Premier League was 16, it would bring a little bit more difference to the leagues and the teams and the personnel in different stadiums. But it is what it is at the moment. We just have to go with it.

"But it would maybe be good to see some change in the next few years for sure.”

Imrie would ultimately like to lead Raith into the top flight. When asked if he had set a timescale for when he hopes to achieve this, he added: “It would be great for the club to be in the Premier League. We all want to be in the Premier League.

"But in terms of a timescale, it's very difficult to get there with the way the leagues are set up in the whole pyramid.

"The play-offs are more geared for the Premier League team to stay in the division. So if you finish fourth, you've got six games to play to get there and you've got to play within two-and-a-half weeks, which is very difficult when the Premier League team have only got to play two. So I don't think there's a fairness.

"If it's more like down the road where it's the four play-off teams, team one plays team four and team two plays team three before a one-off final, then I think that's maybe a bit fairer.”

Imrie said that confidence is high among his squad after last weekend’s thumping 6-0 home league win over Ross County.

He said Raith go into tomorrow’s away league game against Partick Thistle at Firhill “full of confidence”.

Rovers’ on loan 18-year-old striker Josh Gentles – who is in from Rangers until the end of the season as part of the clubs’ co-operation agreement – added: “We went to St Johnstone two weeks ago and got a point away in Perth.

"If we then get something from the Partick game, that’s us got points from the top two, at supposedly the toughest away games in the league. It would prove we can go and challenge at that level.”

Rovers, sixth with 23 points from 18 matches which leaves them just a point shy of the play-off spots, will again be without injured Lewis Vaughan, Shaun Byrne and Callum Fordyce.