Scottydog

Sooo "Closing one small section due to rowdy fans is not close to "closing a stand" A partial closure is not "close" to closing a stand. I think it is a bit close. It's wee bit like saying "we're offering pennies in the pound" and that is bit close to "paying off our creditors"

I was thinking the theme from the Twilight Zone would be far more apt for this season. Oh and while I remember regarding the Fife Cup Final, well done Zen you did a great job in commentary and you definitely have the right face for radio.

The problem with effecting change is getting commitment, not just at board level but across the entire spectrum. Sadly there's not a queue of millionaire fans waiting in the wings cheque book in hand (Although Val does her bit) desperate to join in. Sure there are people with money (a right few that have shed loads of it) but they simply haven't the inclination nor the time to commit to the club. What we do have is people at the club who are genuine fans and though they are VERY far from perfect I do believe they are doing their best and not deliberately setting out to fail. Our only real hope (other than a Euro Lottery win) is that these people continue to give their time on a regular basis and that when they do f**k it up (which will sometimes happen) that they (a) do not do so in a spectacular fashion. and (b) that they learn from the mistakes of the past. There may be other people out there willing to help but the key word is commitment. Most of the folks on the board are retired because those are the ones with free time to give to the club. To tweak an old adage a football club is for life not just for Christmas. What has been proved is that even if you don't have money if you have something to offer and commit regularly then entry to the BOD is possible. Speaking of commitment it's clearly an across the spectrum issue. Take the 200 club for instance, it boasts over 100 members many of whom regularly enjoy the club facilities pre & post match at SP, but when it comes to a function evening seems 90% of them can't be bothered to support it. Take the recent race night at Styx where there were over 40 in a room that could easily seat double that. Forty is a decent number you'd think until you find that less than half of that were 200 club members and the majority were made up from invited guests and 200 club board members. Stat's could be made to represent anything but in this numbers game its a trend across that spectrum that decreases dramatically in line with commitment levels. Time spent on RRFC Business. Board members will probably average (some do much more of course) about 10-15 hrs per week (12-17%). Fans average 2.5 hrs for home games and around 4 for away games (1.1% & 4.7%) Potential fans? Kirkcaldy & Glenrothes area, Population appx 120,000+. - RRFC core support, 1400 (appx 1.1%) Potential Board members? Raith supporting Millionaires about 10 (I'd guess) - Those on the BOD investing in Raith, 1 Various Club Members (200 club, Trust, J. McMillan Club Supporters club etc) appx 600-700 - Those that attend fundraising events (appx 25%) If you can't get the men/women on the street (those of the 120,000) to attend more often or the individual club members to attend fundraisers in better numbers what chance is there in getting wealthy individuals to invest both time and hard cash into the club? Before someone shoots me down, I'm not an enemy nor a fan of the board. But if they can hold their hand up, admit error, promise it won't happen again and most importantly keep those promises then I am willing to give them their head.

If that's an attempt at B&W humour, I got it!

That'll be that then. I if a temp transfer is the terminology for an over 23 loan then it's indeed a no, and I stand corrected.

I know Hart's isn't everyone cup of tea but Yogi will be away in May regardless and the club would be silly not to be asking certain available people some serious questions. We have 3 games left 2 of which are away from home so I doubt anyone would bat an eye of a former Hibs player rocked up at Easter Rd and took in the game on Wednesday week. Likewise as a former player (and manager at Saints) Danny Lennon could make an appearance at both games and little would be said. Behind the scenes talks should be happening with potential candidates so that as soon as our future is decided they could commit and get to work. Of course it doesn't have to be just Paul or Danny there are others but those are the only one being discussed.

I think Raith25 was talking about Harding not Skacel, I think Hibs can allow Harding to play if they choose.

Bene gets my vote too.

Yup! In a nut shell. Any work to the banking that could potentially disturb the track bed or use of a crane (or other high reach equipment) that could possibly come into contact with the track would require the suspension of the East Coast line. Last I heard on that it would come at a compensation (to Railtrack) cost of £200,000 per day. Even without the compo element the cost of demolition and building alone would be prohibitive. Even assuming it could be built and fitted out for less than £150,000 (doubtful) they'd have to sell an awful lot of hospitality before £1 was generated in profit. Add to this the the poor location of the stadium it's self and the only viable and long term solution is a move away from Starks.

Not quite my understanding, I think they said that players up to a certain age are registered to the academy and can sign for any club once when they reach the given age (16 I think). If that is indeed the case, then any kid who looks a decent prospect will doubtless be offered terms by all four clubs in the academy. What kid though would opt for a part-time contract with EFFC or Cowden if there's a full time contract offer on the table from the other two? I get what you're saying about the level of protection being the same but that's kinda my point as there's nothing to stop kids going to the likes of Hibs and Herts or Rangers and Celtic now and the compensation paid back is paltry. The only way that there is a gain for the PT sides is actually if a youngster goes to another club out with the Academy as at least then they will receive 25% of the components fee. I'm just not convinced it benefits the smaller teams as much as the bigger ones.

I think the new set up was forced upon them by the new SFA youth performance directive and Mr Wott's new System of Excellence. In the new system we've done away with half the number of kids we used to have to concentrate on the remainder under the guidance of Stephen Wright along with a mixture of Elite youngsters from all four Fife clubs. This supposedly means that instead of a dozen average guys and one gem coming through the ranks of 4 clubs with large squads, we will supposedly now have a dozen gems being produced which will then be offered contracts by all the Fife clubs when they hit 16 yrs. However if they decide that they don't want to sign for East Fife but want to go to the P**s or Raith they can, or if they so wish they can decline all offers and bugger off to Hibs/Hearts or anywhere really. So basically anyone who's any good will decide to go to the best place/offer he can, quite whats in it for Raith let alone East Fife or Cowden I struggle to see. Personally I don't buy into any of it.

Maybe I'm wrong but I took a few different things from Hughes rrrfc tv interview today. Remarks, references and hints about a few things but mostly on making notes about things for later does he mean next season? He was far kinder to the squad and far more upbeat than in the post Dumbarton thumping. He's obviously spent the last 4 days trying to rebuild belief and confidence. Looks very much like he's looking to make a signing and bring in a loanee or two, the mind boggles. A former player of his who wants more than we can afford, but who? Lots of people are mentioning Tade but I'd really doubt it'll be him. Thing with Tade Is we all love him to bits, but is he the man to ease our scoring issues? I don't think he's the most prolific of players. Oh what we wouldn't give for a midfield playmaker and striker that could find the back of the net now and again.

Que?

Given how he went, I'd seriously doubt the BoD would go for that.

Injuries are usually a bit of a lottery and to an extent our were/are too, but as you Michael W) suggest (and I also said) it's mainly down to bad decisions. The Roberson injury may have been fairly unforeseeable. But most of the rest were down to poor decisions. The Barr injury was possibly down to playing him too soon (at Brechin) without a decent pre-season. The debacle that lead to Stevo playing in goal at Ayr was down to an atrociously poor signing policy as were the lack of cover for fullback and striking positions. A few years ago we had a lot of injury problems including signing players (eg the Cat and C Barr) who had injuries that kept them out of the team for long spells. This lead to the replacement of the physio. The scenario is to some extent being repeated (constantly) and I wonder if the training methods or the surface that the team is training on is a mitigating factor, either way something desperately needs sorting out for next season. Talking of the signing policy, another factor in our demise is the amount of goals we concede at set pieces. From the opening goal in the 2-0 friendly early on at Forfar to the more recent defeats at Dumfries, Ayr and Dumbarton we have continued to concede from corners and free kicks into our area. Add this to the factor that we have no tall attacking players (ok Hardie is quite tall but his presence at corners is negligible) and you can probably guess why we are where we are. Who do our defenders practice defending set pieces against? Midgets? Mind you I'd have thought that continually facing much bigger opponents in training our diminutive strike force would have worked out some better strategies by now but apparently not. The signing of Stevenson may have helped in this but that plan was short lived.

There can be little doubt about the fact we have been unlucky with some injuries: Roberson not kicked a ball all season. C Barr didn't feature until 24th Dec 3 keeper injuries. Various injuries to Thomson & McHattie (no fullback cover) Stewart now out too (very little striking options, cheers Stevo!) Bad luck is one thing but as they say to some degree "you make your own luck in this game", 3 injured keepers at once is very unfortunate but it's not down to luck (or the lack or it) that we are where we are. It's down to bad decision making, and repeated continual bad decision making at that.

Well you'd like to think so eh? Something is rotten that's for sure.

My tuppence worth. Cuthbert, glad he'll be with us next season, shame he's had such a poor defence in front of him this term. Need a solid back up signed in the summer though. Maybe Penksa, not sure about Lennox but certainly not Brennan. Jason Thomson has had a poor season, even when he's been available he has been sorely missed. Needs to be much much better next term. Not the captain either. McHattie ok going forward but poor at defending, how I miss his 2 predecessors. Shame we lost Mackie. Mvoto, great in the air but slow and not great on the deck, he'll be away elsewhere anyway, young replacement needed, what a shame Bates is away. Bene, player of the year and the only one who looks like he really cares. Make him captain. Craig Barr, slower this year than last, if he is indeed still here and can stay fit he should partner Bene. Davo, squad player. Johnston, too injury prone and lightweight, had hoped he'd be like Connolly but alas no. Squad player at best Upgrade required. Robertson, will be gone I think he is finished, poor sod. Cal, needs a class act alongside him to help him improve, the lads going backwards. Matthew, good squad player who may yet make good. Bobby Barr, can't do it alone, needs a better team around him to help him. He's not bad but he's not the messiah. Stewart, good squad player but we need other/better options up front. Vaughan, needs a good foil to play off, shame Locke didn't sign one. Coulstrain, could be the talisman of the bunch but needs help too. Roberts, punt! McManus has had a poor season but I'm not convinced it's all his fault, the service he has had from his midfield has been appalling. He won't stay. Osei & Court, good for development league but not ready for 1st team. in an ideal world we'd have (as we had last year at this point) a manager in place for next season making his signings now. Sadly we can't do any of that given the position we are in. to recap we need, a manager, a keeper, 2 fullbacks, a central defender, at least 1 midfield playmaker, a winger and a striker or two.

Stevenson offered a presence up front that I don't think anyone else at the club can. The rest may be quicker and better but a bit lightweight in comparison and for that alone I would have rather he'd have stayed until May. By all means give Oesi his chance, but from what I've seen he's very similar to Ryan Hardie and tbh Hardie is the stronger of the two for me. I would have preferred Rudi to go as although Stevenson has offered very little it's still more than Skacel.

So we have a junior keeper already here and a foreign one arriving today (and awaiting clearance). I'd like to hope there will have been extra training sessions with the defence to get them used to the junior guy and have more planned for today (even if it's an extra session) and tomorrow once the other guy arrives. Mind you when you look how we defended the 2 goals lost against Queens and the Ayr winner at Somerset then I'd like to think we will have been working hard with the defenders all week!

That is what most would term the $1M question. Sadly with us it'll more likely be the 99p?

I've just had word that it'll be Yogi, and that it gets announced soon. Apparently it's on Sky?

Wouldn't put it past our board to appoint Jamie Hammil as player manager just to piss us off further.

Yup I heard the same thing, a mate of mines brother is in Grampian CID. Naughty Baz!

By all accounts GL is a broken man and will know he is facing the bullet, I feel sorry for him in the same way I would for anyone about to possibly (eventually) lose their job. That said this is a business and there can be no room for sentiment and in this business as in any other an incompetent has to be removed and replaced. Next!