Scottish Championship PREVIEW 28 Aug 2026: The Fife derby, with Dunfermline four games without a win

Dunfermline Athletic host Raith Rovers at East End Park on Friday night, which in Fife needs no further billing, and Neil Lennon takes it into a run of four matches without a win. The most recent was a 2-0 defeat at Livingston, to goals from Bradly van Hoeven and Robbie Muirhead, and before that his side had already gone out of the Premier Sports Cup to Ross County. "We need to dig in, analyse it and look to where we can get better," Lennon said afterwards, which is the manager's job description in the week of a derby.

Raith arrive in better order and saying so carefully. "We would have liked to have picked up three points in the first game against Stenny but to pick up four points out of six is a good start," Dougie Imrie said of a campaign that opened with a 1-1 draw at home to Stenhousemuir. Imrie has George Oakley back in training after a hamstring strain and Arron Lyall running again, but was doubtful either would be available here. Scott Tiffoney has signed, a player Imrie reckons gives the squad "a different dimension", and Anton Dowds has his first goal for the club.

The two carry the sort of histories that make a second-tier derby feel larger than the division. Dunfermline won the Scottish Cup in 1961 and 1968, reached the final again in May 2026 and lost it 3-1 to Celtic, and hold a record victory of 10-1 over APOEL Nicosia in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1968. Raith's defining day is the League Cup final of 1994, when they drew 2-2 with Celtic at Ibrox and won the shootout 6-5, and the UEFA Cup tie against Bayern Munich that came with it, lost 4-1 across the two legs with the home leg played at Easter Road because Stark's Park did not then meet UEFA's ground requirements.

As for who has had the better of it, Raith Rovers publish the tally themselves on every match preview, and the one for this fixture makes it Dunfermline Athletic 57 wins, Raith Rovers 51, and 31 draws. That figure is worth more than the ones held elsewhere because the club's own series checks out against itself: an earlier preview for a home derby at Stark's Park had Raith 50, Dunfermline 54 and the same 31 draws, and the four meetings since, won by the home side every time and three of them at East End Park, carry it exactly to where it now stands.