The New Raith Rovers Thread

[kingjoey]

I can totally understand and fully support the feelings of anyone connected to Raith Rovers with the signing of Goodwillie, and no idea why anyone would think it would be a great idea to take him to Starks Park. But Goodwillie has been plying his trade in Scottish football since he was found to have raped his victim, so why the outrage from everyone else outside Raith Rovers now. From the coverage you would think that Goodwillie has come back to Scottish football from nowhere. Where was this indignation during the last five years while he played for Clyde? Where was the boycott of Goodwillie’s club when over 7500 people attended Broadwood in 2020 for the Scottish Cup tie with Celtic. The only thing that has actually changed in the last two days is the Scottish club that Goodwillie gets paid by. So where was this proposed boycott of Clyde by opposition supporters five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, last year, last month, last week?

Somebody needs to tell Sturgeon that Goodwillie has been employed by a Scottish football club since 2017, and why does it matter to her that it’s now a different Scottish club employing him.

Rover fans have every right to be outraged and take whatever action they feel needs to be taken, but as for the rest of Scottish football, where have we been since 2017?

[DA Baracus]

12 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

I can totally understand and fully support the feelings of anyone connected to Raith Rovers with the signing of Goodwillie, and no idea why anyone would think it would be a great idea to take him to Starks Park. But Goodwillie has been plying his trade in Scottish football since he was found to have raped his victim, so why the outrage from everyone else outside Raith Rovers now. From the coverage you would think that Goodwillie has come back to Scottish football from nowhere. Where was this indignation during the last five years while he played for Clyde? Where was the boycott of Goodwillie’s club when over 7500 people attended Broadwood in 2020 for the Scottish Cup tie with Celtic. The only thing that has actually changed in the last two days is the Scottish club that Goodwillie gets paid by. So where was this proposed boycott of Clyde by opposition supporters five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, last year, last month, last week?

Somebody needs to tell Sturgeon that Goodwillie has been employed by a Scottish football club since 2017, and why does it matter to her that it’s now a different Scottish club employing him.

Rover fans have every right to be outraged and take whatever action they feel needs to be taken, but as for the rest of Scottish football, where have we been since 2017?

You just ignoring the multiple posts that have addressed that then?

[Scottydog]

This shit show has even been aired to the entire UK nation on the BBC Breakfast sport headlines.

PT Barnum was wrong with his ideas about publicity, the clowns in charge at my club haven’t so much dragged it through the mud as into it, and by mud I mean shite.

They should hang their heads in shame and look to be doing anything they can to get Raith Rovers name in the clear, if that means showing him the door by paying up his contract out of their own pockets then so be it. 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Scottydog

[Double Jack D]

1 minute ago, kingjoey said:

I can totally understand and fully support the feelings of anyone connected to Raith Rovers with the signing of Goodwillie, and no idea why anyone would think it would be a great idea to take him to Starks Park. But Goodwillie has been plying his trade in Scottish football since he was found to have raped his victim, so why the outrage from everyone else outside Raith Rovers now. From the coverage you would think that Goodwillie has come back to Scottish football from nowhere. Where was this indignation during the last five years while he played for Clyde? Where was the boycott of Goodwillie’s club when over 7500 people attended Broadwood in 2020 for the Scottish Cup tie with Celtic. The only thing that has actually changed in the last two days is the Scottish club that Goodwillie gets paid by. So where was this proposed boycott of Clyde by opposition supporters five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, last year, last month, last week?

Somebody needs to tell Sturgeon that Goodwillie has been employed by a Scottish football club since 2017, and why does it matter to her that it’s now a different Scottish club employing him.

Rover fans have every right to be outraged and take whatever action they feel needs to be taken, but as for the rest of Scottish football, where have we been since 2017?

Absolutely.

In terms of morally opposing DGW, a sizeable amount of Raith supporters along with Key Sponsors and some very good people within the club are the first people in Scottish Football to take a real stand against his participation in our game. 

I think the criticism of fans still willing to go to games is well over the top. The people who have brought shame are the manager and 4 directors that sanctioned this move and appear to think that footballing ability alone is enough to make being a rapist ok.

As mere fans we have very little individual power or influence . It probably makes very little difference to them if I go to games or not. 

My main reason for not attending though is because I'm a dad of 3. I simply couldn't watch my kids celebrate a DGW goal or have a poster of him up their room or have him as their idol knowing what he has done, and shown zero remorse for. I don't want a culture around Kirkcaldy where boys grow up thinking what DGW did was alright if you have a bit of footballing talent. These are the guys that will populate the same social venues as my kids in the coming years.

What the club have done repulses me.

Call me a woke bed-wetter all you like, I'm just being a dad.

[Its not only a game]

8 hours ago, roverthemoon said:

God, this hasn’t half brought out the morons in our support. 

Agree with what someone else said earlier, McGlynn in that post match interview has the air of someone who knows he has fucked up. He was a hero at this club prior to this and could have walked away and been loved for how he’s turned us around twice. Now that legacy is fucked. He’ll always be the manager who signed Goodwillie and ripped our club apart. Even if the club see sense and backtrack on the signing, this will always remain a stain on McGlynn which is an awful thing to have to say. 
 

As for the 4 fuckwits on the Board who rubber stamped this, the sooner we get these morons out of our club the better. 

So agree with this. Really sad. McGlynn has done an outstanding job for you , a really descent guy, sees this as the best opportunity in a long time to get promotion to the top league , and makes a woeful decision. The prize had clouded his judgement but that is where the cool heads in the Board come in. They are as culpable as McGlynn for this poor judgement.No idea what happens next, but this cloud will not lift quickly which ironically is likely to sabotage your chance of promotion- the purpose behind the ill fated original decision. A true Cluster F- ck!!

[101]

Matty Bowman, ex Dunfermline and pals with Ethan Ross has come out against the statement and signing.

First time a current professional has done so? Would be a shame if the Raith players do stay silent.

[pub car king]

1 hour ago, John MacLean said:

Re the lack if reaction when he signed for Clyde, well maybe there should have been. 

Maybe there is a bigger outcry now is actually a positive sign. A sign that, perhaps, things have progressed just a small degree when it comes to violence, and sexual, violence against women. 

Maybe there is a greater realisation that rape isn't just dragging someone into the bushes. Maybe there is a greater understanding of what constitutes consent. 

There is much still to be done and the law in Scotland is still failing rape victims hence the need for recourse to the civil court. An extremely brave thing to do with no legal aid available and the sacrifice of anonymity. 

The need for corroboration in Scottish law makes it notoriously difficult to prosecute rape cases and make convictions. That it took a civil court for some kind of justice in this case doesn't deligitimise that judgement. 

If we had signed him 3 years ago there would have been an outcry but nothing on this scale.

However in the time that has passed we have had the me too movement, Sarah Everard and "cancel culture" Which has (rightly) highlighted violence against women and girls. As such this signing was always going to be toxic for the club. His career at Clyde was tolerated and almost under the radar as he'd been there so long. 

There is no good way out if this situation and the club will be tainted by it for a very long time. The board have and will double down hoping to ride it out. 

[Uncle Psychosis]

I think I'd have a more sympathetic view for the "there wasn't this much outrage when he signed for Clyde..." posts if the underlying tone was "... And we should all be ashamed of that" rather than "... So just let him get on with it". 

[craigkillie]

I can totally understand and fully support the feelings of anyone connected to Raith Rovers with the signing of Goodwillie, and no idea why anyone would think it would be a great idea to take him to Starks Park. But Goodwillie has been plying his trade in Scottish football since he was found to have raped his victim, so why the outrage from everyone else outside Raith Rovers now. From the coverage you would think that Goodwillie has come back to Scottish football from nowhere. Where was this indignation during the last five years while he played for Clyde? Where was the boycott of Goodwillie’s club when over 7500 people attended Broadwood in 2020 for the Scottish Cup tie with Celtic. The only thing that has actually changed in the last two days is the Scottish club that Goodwillie gets paid by. So where was this proposed boycott of Clyde by opposition supporters five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, last year, last month, last week?
Somebody needs to tell Sturgeon that Goodwillie has been employed by a Scottish football club since 2017, and why does it matter to her that it’s now a different Scottish club employing him.
Rover fans have every right to be outraged and take whatever action they feel needs to be taken, but as for the rest of Scottish football, where have we been since 2017?

This would only be a good point if there hadn't already been widespread condemnation of Clyde for the last 5 years on this forum and elsewhere. As it is, Clyde were regularly criticised for employing a rapist, you only have to look at every single match thread involving them on here.

[stevoraith]

8 hours ago, craigkillie said:

 

I'm not asking them to quit their jobs or anything like that, I just think it will be fairly depressing if none of them are able to publicly poke their head above the parapet to express concerns. It would seem hugely unlikely that they would lose their jobs for doing so, I'm not sure the club would even have any legal route for doing so. Many of the Raith players would have their choice of clubs at this level if they did decide to leave anyway.

If they choose to let this slide by then to me it basically says that they don't have any problem with it.

I get what you are saying, but if a player was to publicly disagree with the manager there's a good chance he could find himself out of favour and therefor out of the starting eleven.

I don't think a player at this level can afford to miss out on appearance money and potential win bonuses, and if they're not playing they're not in the shop window to be noticed by other clubs.

Like I said, I'd hope players are voicing concerns, but I don't think not hearing about it publicly is a slight on ay of them.

Edited February 2, 2022 by stevoraith

[lennyzer0]

13 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:

Fair enough, but I never felt like that.

I watch Hearts with my brothers and my mates. Have done almost all of my life. I wasn't going to stop that because of someone like Rix. I don't see why people should have to sacrifice good things in life because of someone else's poor judgement.

If people want to, fair enough. But something like your team being promoted is a big deal. It's the kind of day people will always remember and treasure.

f**k giving that up for some scumbag.

I appreciate others feel differently, but I don't think the right response is to give up on the good parts of life. People have lost enough recently.

DG is a c**t. But he shouldn't be dictating what normal people do.

Your choice obviously, and I don't condemn you in any way for making it - but that fact you consider Rix's behaviour 'poor judgement' is a massive under-statement.

[Salt n Vinegar]

Looking forward to hearing the DG apologists on the Radio Scotland phone-in at 9.

Actually I'm not looking forward to it at all.  More embarrassment incoming.  

Not at all the kind of coverage any self-respecting Club would want. 

[Broken Algorithms]

Speaks volumes that there was no pre-match interview (DH resigning from Raith Tv might be one of the main reasons), usually in the past those wee managers chat slots has been used to trumpet new signings. Then more pointedly there was absolutely no mention made of the new signing in the post match interview, the whole interview passed off without even a word about him, it was almost as if we hadn't signed anyone at all....oh if only that were true.
Maybe those wearing the clown shoes down at SP are beginning to get some idea on the magnitude of just how seriously they have fucked things up.

Aye, I noticed that. I was interested to see if they would address it post match. I didn't watch the game and didn't follow the result. My pals tried to text me updates, but I asked them to stop. I did listen to the post match interview and it's no secret that there's an understanding that the manager will do interviews so long as there's no difficult questions.

If you'd watched it, you'd have no idea that we've had half a dozen high profile resignations and a complete schism between most fans and the club with a huge, justified media outrage.

[Jacky1990]

Just read the club statement. 

Jesus. May as well read " we dont give a f**k about anyone's opinion or the long term ramifications, we've signed a guy who might score us a few goals over the next couple seasons". 

Mental someone read that and thought that was a good way to address the issue.

[Mark Connolly]

1 minute ago, Jacky1990 said:

Just read the club statement. 

Jesus. May as well read " we dont give a f**k about anyone's opinion or the long term ramifications, we've signed a guy who might score us a few goals over the next couple seasons". 

Mental someone read that and thought that was a good way to address the issue.

It would be fair to suggest that the "PR staff" who write statements for football clubs in general are not the cream of the PR crop. This one is a particular low point though

[Broken Algorithms]

Surely if there wasn't any outrage when he signed for Clyde (which there was, I'll not be drawn into this revisionist bullshit), then it would be a sad statement for Scottish football.

[Double Jack D]

In a more footballing sense. Matej Poplatnik came off the bench last night and scored again. This is a model pro who has worked his socks off all season to try and break into the team and has never quite been given that chance despite several late cameos. 

I would rather we failed with him in the side than succeeded with Goodwillie. 

[staggy1929]

14 hours ago, BukyOHare said:

Just out of interest what has the reaction been like within the fanbase, community and sponsors when he was linked with the job, got the job and going forward? Genuinely interested. 

There'll be players out there with criminal convictions for possessing or dealing recreational drugs and those who might be on the Sex Offenders register for other crimes. 

Less high profile than Goodwillie perhaps, but among us none the less. 

It was all very quick from when he was linked to actually having the job but I feel an overwhelming feeling was 'surely not?' when he got the job it was a HUGE deal on twitter cosidering how small our fan base is. Myself and others pressing the club for answers that we still don't have tbh. 

[placidcasual]

I can't be fucked traipsing thru 8 pages of "Rape Rovers lol" but was there any sort of a drop in attendance, and how was the atmosphere?

[VincentGuerin]

15 minutes ago, lennyzer0 said:

Your choice obviously, and I don't condemn you in any way for making it - but that fact you consider Rix's behaviour 'poor judgement' is a massive under-statement.

You're the second person who has misunderstood that, so it must be my poor wording.

I meant the poor judgement of the people doing the hiring. Vlad's choice of who coaches Hearts shouldn't cost me, my brothers, our mates the time we spend together doing the thing we all really enjoy.

Similarly, people for whom watching Raith and all that surrounds that is very important shouldn't have the rug pulled from under them by a mad decision their board have made. I don't, especially think in the current climate, encouraging people to give up a sociable hobby is necessarily wise. It's punishing the wrong people.

ETA: One of my mates met his wife on a night out in Aberdeen the night before Rix's first game up there. They've got two kids now. Whether one views this as a positive or negative is personal opinion, but for me, life for normal people should go on.

Edited February 2, 2022 by VincentGuerin