Barr hits out at Hughes over Stark’s Park reign

Former Raith player Bobby Barr has hit out at John Hughes, accusing the manager of turning “a good dressingroom” into a bad one as the Kirkcaldy side suffered relegation from the Championship two seasons ago.

The 29-year-old winger admitted his heart sank when it was announced that Yogi had been appointed Stark’s Park boss after Gary Locke had been sacked.

Barr had endured a frosty relationship with Hughes when the pair had previously worked together at Livingston.

Speaking to the Pele Podcast, Barr said: “I couldn’t have been more gutted when he came in, if I’m being honest. I know what kind of guy he is.

“I could have gone to the board and said, ‘Look, I don’t want to work for him’, but I wanted to help the club.

“He turned a good dressing-room into a bad one. He was going about asking boys if they liked me – ‘ What do you think of this Bobby Barr then?’

“As if they wouldn’t tell me! We ended up having a barney about it. He said it never happened but the boys told me.

“We were in a group chat and in the dressing-room just saying, ‘Look, let’s do it for ourselves’. But then sometimes he wouldn’t set us up in the best way to get us to win.

“To be fair to Yogi, his training is good. It’s sharp, it’s at a tempo, boxes, possession, it is good. But then it got to the stage where I think he’d had enough.

“We just came in, had a warm-up, had an eight v eight and that was it. He wouldn’t say anything to us. Obviously the fans don’t see that. He was in charge for 15 games and we won four.”

Raith’s relegation was confirmed when they lost a play-off on penalties to Brechin and Barr said that afterwards in the dressing-room: “A couple of boys called him out. But obviously it didn’t get us anywhere.

“He came in to try to save us from relegation but ultimately we weren’t good enough to stay up.”