CatAlan

This aged well. Ah well, I’ll just need to own it. But a huge ask now to recover such a lead. It’s Stenny’s to lose now, less about the football and more about their mindset and if they can handle the pressure.

Stenny running scared and wanting to keep watch on our result tonight I see. Obviously nerves kicking in that we’ll do to them what Stirling did to us last season. #uncleFaz

I’m not sure how much football at which levels of the game you’ve seen, but to suggest he’s the worst player you’ve ever seen marks you out as knowing little about the game. He is hamstrung massively by having zero pace, but he’s a decent enough defender in other aspects for this level. Clyde have an abundance of issues that I don’t need to lay bare here but Grant isn’t anywhere near the top of that sizeable list, and for you to suggest he is the worst footballer you’ve ever seen is pretty laughable to be honest.

I’m glad someone said it. Peter Grant’s huge limitation is his chronic lack of pace or turn thereof. As a tackling/heading defender and organiser, I can only speak for his time with us last season, but he was pretty decent. He was shown up for pace on occasion but, having not seen much of you other than the games between the sides so far, there are clearly much bigger issues in your squad than Peter Grant. Of that there’s absolutely no doubt.

And you guys thought Brian McLean was a boring b*****d…

How has Stuart Carswell been doing for you guys? Not seen him mentioned much.

Firstly, a modicum of credit should be given to ‘colpie’ here for having the cojones to come on here in the aftermath of him leaving the club. He will have known he’d have been received more poorly than a fart in a lift but he’s come on here and at least been visible. That’s certainly more than he did when he was in place at the club, and more than some of the other ‘interested parties’ in place at the club have done. We all know who these people are. Only a select few will ever really know of Colin’s motivations or intentions on carrying them through but him coming out now, after leaving the club, to me smacks of trying to save face before another Scottish football ‘project’. Whether he’s another joker or pretender or his ambition was misplaced, who will ever really know, but I’m certainly glad to be rid of someone whose intentions were at best unknown and at worst potentially damaging to the club. There’s more where he came from but it’s a start.

Not sure if you’re being sarcastic but doing what you suggest is what’s left the club being owned by shysters and persons of questionable integrity over the last x number of years. We should treat any interest in the club extremely carefully indeed.

So, what with it being a boring Sunday evening with not much else to do, coupled with me being that sad, I thought I’d have a look at the remaining games for the sides around us and make a possible projection for the remainder of the season. I’ve tried to remain balanced and go on both league position, form and how much is at stake for each fixture when projecting, but by my reckoning we’ll need at least 8 points from the remaining fixtures to avoid the drop or play-offs. There’s of course stacks of different permutations but that’s what I think we could need. The sides around us play each other and we only have Alloa and Peterhead of those we are in direct competition with, so 8 points is a substantial ask. It’s got to start with this Saturday although I’m sure we all said that about yesterday’s trip to Fife…

I was considering McLean as the other but yeah, he might well be considered a winger, which makes our whole striking fiasco this season all the more deplorable.

Head above the parapet time here… I see criticism for Wright, Stanger and Bronsky here, particularly in light of yesterday’s shambles. Unfair in my opinion and it’s people looking for easy targets. None of them were great yesterday, but who was? Our issues are far more widespread than three new-ish signings not setting the place alight. We appear to have no direction or set way to play. We have a terrible lack of discipline. We look unorganised and chaotic at the back. We lack determination as a unit when things start terribly. We start games terribly on far, far too many occasions and give ourselves a mountain to climb. We only have two out-and-out strikers on the books (one until January). The squad is unbalanced and we don’t have many serious impact options from the bench. All of the above while the players have a responsibility individually, as a collective is down to the manager. He’s got to go. I too worry if the board have the cojones or nous to make the change necessary but it is necessary. Everyone can see it. Nice guy I’m sure. But his time’s up.

The offending Twitter post of Paton's is an absolute disgrace. I would hope someone at the club has spoken with him, and hasn't pulled any punches. I'd also hope that we out out a statement fully distancing ourselves from his, quite frankly disgusting and skewed views on the subject at hand. Is he bringing the club into disrepute with the posting of his views? Perhaps? I don't know enough about that sort of thing and whether it meets that threshold, but given what he's said and what his feelings on it all clearly are, if we decided to empty him as a result of bringing the club into disrepute, I can't say I'd be unhappy in the slightest.

As an outsider looking in I had refrained from posting and had been reading this weekly, mostly through my fingers as this sorry episode unfolded. I'd like to however record my praise for the good people of Raith Rovers this week. The volunteers, the board members who voted with their feet in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, the vast majority of their posters on here, the employees, the ladies team captain and any others who I've not expressly mentioned there. They have shown incredible courage in their actions and/or in speaking out and pressuring the remaining people in positions of trust and authority at the club to reverse their quite frankly horrific decision to sign a rapist for the club. I have no ties or loyalty to Raith Rovers, other than I can only praise the guys and girls on here who have gone through a hell of a lot this week. From my point of view, I think a clean break is what the club needs. I don't see how McGlynn (as legendary a figure he has been for the club) can remain. Football is immaterial in all of this, but he thought it ok for the club to sign a rapist. For me there's no way back from that. I also think that the remaining persons on the board need to go too. They authorised/voted for/were happy with, the club signing a rapist. A person who has been judged in a civil court to have raped a woman. I don't see their positions as tenable at the football club now, albeit I appreciate emptying them comes with a large raft of issues (having read this topic in it's entirety since the news broke). The people who sanctioned this deal have shown that there are deep-rooted failings at the club that lie at their door. They sanctioned the deal. They doubled-down when the initial backlash started. They saw it fit for a proud and long-standing part of the fabric of Scottish football in Raith Rovers football club, to sign a rapist. I don't see how they continue in their positions in the medium to long term. For the club to rebuild the reputation which has been massively affected this week, those people need to be held accountable. I hope Val McDermid, the other sponsors and the fans who (perfectly within their rights) who have left the club/stated they won't be back, find a time when they can return. Whenever and however that may be. Fans make football and they make football clubs. And as if it needed illustrated, it's fans who have massively affected the club's decision to, albeit after the horse has bolted, decide that DG will not play for the club and to start the process of having him removed. Having read the transcript of the civil case, it makes horrific reading. I don't think any person with an iota of a moral compass could deny that. There are unfortunately people who will continue (either because they're reprehensible human beings, or they're at the wind up) who will defend DG to a point, claim invalid nonsense about it 'only' being a civil case, or compare DG to other professional footballers who also have criminal records for a variety of offences. All of which is utterly horrific. I've read a lot of people commenting that there didn't seem to be such a huge furore when Clyde signed him. And I don't think there was as big a furore, but there was one. That is down to several factors. The standing of Raith Rovers in football. The size of club. The public figures attached and associated with the club. That Raith are in the Championship and Clyde were (I think) near the bottom of League Tow when they signed him. There's also the matter that DG had the right of appeal when he signed, so the matter wasn't done and dusted, whereby it is now. And also it must be noted that the landscape on sexual offending has changed massively, and such an excellent thing that it has, in the 4/5 years since the court ruling, and long may that continue. There was an outcry when he signed for Clyde, and rightfully so. That does need to be acknowledged. But what also does, is that it's, to put it mildly, that its pretty reprehensible for some (I don't know what portion) of their fans to have continued to support the club in the same way they did in spite of that decision. To sing his name is diabolical. And to perhaps be open to him returning? Please in the name of absolutely everything, surely not! They've sullied their name probably forever in accepting DG, no less championing him as anything more than an unrepentant rapist. But in the coming days/weeks/months they can finally do something acceptable and right by football, by society and by the victim, in turning their back on him. Will they though? I'm not sure, but given the morals some sections of that club have displayed since the ruling in the civil court, I won't be holding my breath. Other players that have been mentioned in this topic since the news broke have committed offences and there isn't a 'furore' about them remaining in the game. But for two huge reasons. 1-none of them have been found to be rapists (a horrific offence second only to murder in the severity stakes) and 2-those players as far as I understand have shown remorse and contrition. They are therefore in a position to begin and continue on a road of rehabilitation. However, DG is a rapist. And he hasn't, as far as I can see (I'll happily be corrected if I'm wrong) shown any remorse. He hasn't admitted his wrongdoing. He hasn't shown a shred of contrition. He has griped about how the situation has affected him. He has bemoaned the fact that he has or had, a 'banger' of a car. He hasn't apologised to the victim. The victim he was found to have raped. The victim who has had her life turned upside down and changed forever. The victim who hasn't received the full payment she was due and who remains, and always will remain the most important person in all of this sorry, sorry story. That is what makes DG completely different to any of the other players mentioned alongside him in this topic by a sorry few fans whose embarrassing point-scoring efforts and whataboutery are quite frankly pathetic. It only goes to show, sadly, that football, and society in general, has a long, long way to go when it comes to being educated about and having anywhere remotely close to an appreciation of the impact of violence towards women and victims of such heinous offences as the one at the centre of all of this. None more so adequately demonstrated by my own club's player Paul Paton's shameful twitter post which is utterly embarrassing, horrific, disgustingly skewed and to be honest, makes me feel sick. I very much hope that he is spoken with by the club at the very least, that we as a club make a statement distancing ourself from his rancid views, and to be honest I'd be in favour of sanctions in ridding him from us, for bringing the club into disrepute with his horrific views which he aired very publicly. What for DG now? He'll presumably get his pay off in one way or t'other from Raith Rovers. More's the pity. Perhaps some of it could be directed to his victim? I'll be honest I don't know the laws around something like that but it would certainly be a smidgin of something right and proper for the victim in all of this. And to my mind there's not been much right and proper for the poor woman to date. Credit is due to the swathes of Rovers fans, and fans of other clubs alike who have come together in light of this and sent a message reverberating around football and society that this whole incident has been disgraceful and unacceptable. I really hope Raith Rovers come out of the other side of this both financially and reputationally as while football brings people together, its been morals and being good people and knowing what's right and wrong that's forced the hand of Rovers in making that first step towards redemption. All the best in your fight to get your club back Rovers!

I thought a draw was a very fair result today. Cove obviously have quality and worked hard today but I think we won the battle and were good for the point at least. Their penalty was one for the handball but I think ours was too. Fyvie’s foot is high and he’s kicked Pignatello in his follow through. I thought defensively Buchanan had his best game for a while and Bronsky while basic, was solid and just what we need, someone who can defend stoutly with no frills. I was baffled by Faz’s decision to hook Joshua Oynisan, thought he was quite effective largely on his own. Maybe he had an injury. Perhaps Jan Vocajek can clarify? In the end a well-deserved and welcome point. Hopefully Paul Hartley has a thoroughly unpleasant evening. An odious creature.

I don’t think you’re totally wrong in a lot of what you say, and there is a potential for this to become an unmitigated disaster. However. To my mind, while we are playing catch-up, that couldn’t have been avoided and it’s only been six-days since we confirmed what division we will be in next season. Since that’s become known, we’ve been decisive on a decision about the management for next season. A good thing as far as I’m concerned and by most accounts, the right decision was made. The next two weeks will be pivotal as far as I’m concerned. Who we get in as manager and when we get them in and who we offer contracts too and when we make moves for players. If this summer is anything like Jim Duffy’s summers with us then yes, panic can commence. Until then, I’m not panicking. Yet.