A fan’s guide – the club from early doors to today
In a history dating back to 1883, Raith Rovers have only stolen the limelight twice. In November 1994, The Rovers beat Celtic on penalties to win the Scottish League Cup. A year later, they went into half-time 1-0 up against the Bayern of Klinsmann, Kahn and Hamann.
Neither of these momentous events took place in the club’s home town of Kirkcaldy – don’t look for Raith on the map, unless it’s one depicting the historic ancestry of the Kingdom of Fife – but the fact they stand out suggest a certain level of modest slog over decades of football.
To be fair, in this pantheon of Rovers achievements there should be included the Raith side of the 1950s starring a young Slim Jim Baxter and stalwart captain Willie McNaught, worthy challengers but never winners.
For most of the intervening seasons, Raith have been second or, later, third, tier, winning divisional titles. The most recent, in 2020, pushed Raith back into the Scottish Championship after an absence of three years. In 2016, the Rovers had come within two play-off games of reaching the Premiership – the club hasn’t been top tier since the eventual mid-1990s.
Joining the Scottish League in 1902, Raith made the Division One in 1910 and three years later their first and only Scottish Cup final – but froze against fellow debutants Falkirk and lost 2-0.
After World War I, when scouting in the Glasgow Junior leagues, dedicated Raith director RJ Morrison spotted a young talent in Alex James. Small and sleight, playing in what would become his trademark baggy shorts, James didn’t convince the other board members when invited for a trial – Morrison dipped into his own pocket to cover the youngster’s wages.
Signed in 1922, the later four-time title-winner with Arsenal and Scottish international would spend three years at Stark’s Park, Raith’s home since 1891. He earned the club £3,000 when sold to Preston in 1925.
Relegated a year later, Raith bounced between the 20-team tiers of the Scottish League until the 1970s. High points came in 1938, and the Second Division title win with a record 142 goals, and in the 1950s.
Captained by five-time Scottish cap Willie McNaught, the so-called ‘Iron Man’ who learned his football in the army, Raith made three Scottish Cup semi-finals and twice finished top five in the First Division. A 5-1 win over Rangers in 1956 is considered the high-water mark of this Raith side.
A year later, locally born Slim Jim Baxter came into the team, and was instrumental in Raith’s 3-2 win over Rangers before heading to Ibrox for a then Scottish record transfer.
McNaught’s career-ending departure for Brechin came in 1962, at the age of 40. Twenty years later, his son Ken won the European Cup with Aston Villa.
That first season of 1962-63 without McNaught, Raith shipped 118 goals but sprang back under George Farm before he left for Rovers’ biggest rivals, Dunfermline.
Fortunes changed with the arrival of former Manchester United and Northern Ireland full-back Jimmy Nicholl as player/manager in 1990. Overseeing a professional outfit, Nicholl joined at the same time as midfielder Colin Cameron, who signed as a youth player while still at the school next door to Stark’s Park, Balwearie High.
Inheriting the prolific Gordon Dalziel and welcoming another striker in young Stevie Crawford, Nicholl led Raith to an emphatic First Division title in 1993. Dalziel’s 33 goals made him top league scorer that season but Raith then struggled in the top flight.
Nicholl retired as a player but persuaded former Dundee United and Scotland centre back David Narey over to Stark’s Park. Playing 20 odd games for Raith, Narey was the lynchpin in the club’s memorable campaign of 1994-95, turning in a man-of-the-match performance in the Scottish League Cup final against Celtic. Pitted against Charlie Nicholas, John Collins and Paul McStay, Narey and former Tannadice team-mate Scott Thomson in goal kept out waves of Celtic attacks after Cameron opened the scoring with a snap shot.
All seemed lost when Nicholas pounced on a late rebound to put the Hoops ahead but a jink and cross from Jason Dair, and opportunistic header from Dalziel, tied the game. Raith’s young players kept their heads in the penalty shoot-out, Walker almost kept out a weak spot-kick from Mike Galloway, then saved a fiercer one from Celtic captain McStay.
Raith followed up the shock win with the Division One title, a satisfying one point above Dunfermline. First beating Scandinavian opposition in their debut European campaign, Rovers won through to the Second Round of the UEFA Cup – to face Bayern Munich. Switching the home tie to Easter Road in Edinburgh, Raith didn’t wilt after Jürgen Klinsmann gave the Bavarians an early lead, eventually losing 2-0 on the night.
At the Olympiastadion, Rovers took a surprise lead before half-time when a free-kick from Daniel Lennon deflected off the head of Andreas Herzog. Raith’s 45 minutes of Eurofame ended with a defensive slip that allowed a Bayern equaliser, and a scrappy second goal soon afterwards.
Months later, Raith lost Nicholl (plus Dair and Crawford) to Millwall and dropped from the Premiership for the last time to date. While able to revamp Stark’s Park – Bayern were gracious enough to play a curtain-raising friendly – the club then slumped down to the third tier in 2002.
Behind the scenes, Glasgow property developers were eyeing up Stark’s Park for its valuable real estate. As disaster followed disaster on the pitch – Claude Anelka, brother of Nicolas, fielded bargain-bin compatriots from across the Channel, with inevitable results – a fan-based campaign generated a community buy-out of the club in 2005. Smoothing the wheels was then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, a lifelong Raith fan.
Winning the third-tier Second Division in 2009 – with average crowds of 2,000-plus, three times more than most of the league – Raith returned to second-flight football.
Gates remained relatively healthy, boosted by occasional league games with Rangers and Dunfermline. Finishing fourth in 2016, Rovers made the play-offs but a return to the Premiership after 20 years was never on after Hibs scored two early goals in the away leg of the play-off.
For 90 minutes at Stark’s Park, though, Raith had held back the Hibees and even gained a surprise 1-0 aggregate lead in the tie. Hope springs eternal – and brings 5,000-plus crowds to Stark’s Park for rare play-off games.
Condemned to a relegation play-off on goal difference in 2017, favourites Raith failed to brush aside a determined Brechin, who nearly won the tie in normal time then prevailed on penalties. Missing out on an immediate return to the Championship by one point, then swatted aside in the play-offs by Alloa, Raith failed at the same stage in 2019, but nipped in during the 2019-20 campaign curtailed by the pandemic.
Making the Premiership play-off at the first attempt, Raith were paired with Fife rivals Dunfermline, a fixture that might have broken modern-day attendance records at Stark’s Park had it not taken place during pandemic restrictions. Fans followed the game at home as the Rovers edged out the Pars 2-0 after a 0-0 draw at East End Park.
Dundee proved a step too far, however, in the semi-final, although an early goal from long-term Raith forward Lewis Vaughan hinted at an upset in the away leg, after the visitors had brushed aside the hosts at Stark’s Park, 3-0.
Chasing another shot at Scotland’s elite, lying in second place in the Championship, Raith decided to push ahead by signing proven goalscorer – and rapist – David Goodwillie in January 2022. The backlash was fierce and immediate. Crime writer Val McDerrmid, who had sponsored a stand at Stark’s Park in honour of her father, a Raith scout, withdrew her support and two directors resigned.
Once the fuss died down, and Goodwillie was loaned back to Clyde, Raith missed out on a play-off place in 2022. With the club struggling and part-owner/chairman, Thailand-based financier John Sim, looking to pass it on, a run in the Scottish Cup in 2023, ending in a lucrative pay day at Rangers, couldn’t have come at a better time.
With a new consortium taking over later that spring, Raith once more had a spring in their step in 2023-24. Keeping faith with former Scottish international Ian Murray as manager, Raith strung together a long unbeaten run from September to January, culminating in a derby win at Dunfermline the day after New Year’s Day.
Revelation of the season, Polish keeper Kevin Dąbrowski, was missing for the next game, a first defeat in nearly four months, after a freak accident in training, but was back to save the day in the derby win over Dunfermline that all but sealed a Premiership play-off place for the Rovers.
Ground Guide
The field of dreams – and the story behind it
Stark’s Park, San Starko to tongue-in-cheek locals, owes its neat, modern appearance to a single penalty save. When Scott Thomson blocked Paul McStay’s spot-kick to win Raith the League Cup in 1994, it qualified the club for the UEFA Cup, and a money-spinning tie with Bayern Munich.
After Raith allocated funds to the rebuilding of the North and South Stands behind each goal, the record German champions came to Kirkcaldy to play (and lose) a curtain-raising friendly.
Later named after the father of author Val McDermid who was a Rovers scout before she withdrew her support in the wake of the David Goodwillie arrival, the North (Craiglea Timber Frames) Stand accommodates away supporters – numerous for visits by Dunfermline. The South (Penman) Stand is the home end.
The symmetry becomes somewhat skewiffy along the sidelines, where the main (Turnbull Hutton) stand, first built from proceeds of the sale of Alex James to Preston in 1925, barely reaches as far as the halfway line.
As if to compensate, it fills one corner behind the south goal. Opposite, the Railway Stand, aka SM Lighting Stand, has long been out of use, although the half can be given over to an overspill of away support should occasion demand.
Capacity is an all-seated 8,000-plus, depending on how much of the ground is being used.
getting here
Going to the ground – tips and timings
Stark’s Park is about a mile south of town and Kirkcaldy’s bus and train stations. Of the local buses, the 7 runs from the bus station every 30mins (every hour eve/Sun) via Pratt Street on its way to Dunfermline. Allow 8-10mins. The bus drops you on Links Street by the junction with Pratt Street, where you find all the entrances to the ground.
A taxi from town should cost £5. Otherwise, it’s a 15-20min walk from town down Abbotshall Road, past Beveridge Park and the rugby club. After the park, the road becomes Pratt Street, with the ground on your left 300 metres along.
The sat nav code for Stark’s Park is KY1 1SA. There is no car park at the ground. Free parking is available at Kirkcaldy train station, Whyte Melville Road (KY1 1YJ), a 20min walk from the ground. Closer but with fewer spaces, Beveridge Park (Abbotshall Road, KY2 5PH) has a small free car park a 10min walk away. Street parking can be found south of the ground, off Bridge Street (KY1 1TE).
getting in
Buying tickets – when, where, how and how much
The club sells advance tickets online. On match days, the ticket office at the corner of the Turnbull Hutton Main Stand/home South (Penman) Stand opens 1hr before kick-off. There is no payment at the turnstiles.
Admission is £22, £14 for over-65s, £13 for under-21s and £8 for under-16s. All these prices currently rise by £2 for the visits of Dundee United and Dunfermline. Under-12s are admitted free with a paying adult.
what to buy
Shirts, kits, merchandise and gifts
There’s a club shop (Wed-Fri 10am-4pm, match days) beside the ticket office, at the corner of the Turnbull Hutton Main Stand/home South (Penman) Stand. The home shirt is the classic Raith navy with a red-and-white V-neck collar. Away is canary yellow with blue collar, again V-neck, and cuffs. Retro tops of a lighter blue date back to 1990-91.
The club’s recent drive to modernise and maximise income has involved stretching its branded leisurewear, hoodies, tracksuits and pyjamas. Unique souvenirs include copies of artwork by Paul Town showing the celebrations immediately after Raith’s opening goal against Bayern at the Olympiastadion, the scoreboard showing the once-in-a-lifetime scoreline of 0:1.
Where to Drink
Pre-match beers for fans and casual visitors
Many supporters meet at the main Raith bar in town, The Novar in Nicol Street, at the south end of the centre under 10min walk from Stark’s Park. Its walls a pictorial history of the club, framed and occasionally autographed, the Novar offers TV football, superior pub food (haddock, steak pies, curry) and friendly beers.
Towards the ground, the bar at the Kirkcaldy Rugby Club is handy as a pre-match swiftie for away fans. As you’re walking down from Kirkcaldy station, the rugby pitch is at the end of Abbotshall Road – turn right into Balwearie Road just before the railway bridge. As kick-off approaches, walk back under the railway, then veer right into Pratt Street, continuing for 6-7min until the ground appears on your right.
Somewhat surprisingly, there’s no bar at the ground, although the club is working on upping the ante where hospitality is concerned.
