Yoss

Too early. Murray started well too.

(I don't agree with all the criticism that it's become routine to throw at Murray, and while I'm happy with the way things are looking, I also think it's much too early to judge whether McKinnon represents an improvement. But I can't be arsed getting into a discussion about it.)

If prices drop 50% then you need 100% more fans to break even. But yes, the general point is right enough. Demand for football tickets is fairly inelastic, and price reductions rarely bring in enough extra to cover the shortfall.

And we're going to be in all kinds of shit next summer when virtually the whole squad is out of contract .... If Ray thinks he's the right player, and he's available until January, there's no reason not to sign him and play him just because it's only until January. There'll be other players available by then.

False binary.

And re: the Barrie McKay discussion a page or two back. He was clearly better than many were giving him credit for. There were games last season when he was our most dangerous (if not only) attacking threat, and I'd come back to the match thread afterwards and people were saying he was a waste of a wage and I was, and remain, mystified. Someone made the fair point that he might be best suited to a team that's going well and don't need him to track back as much - but that being the case it won't surprise me if it becomes a pretty good player for Rangers.

Well I'm happy to see Davo back. Of course he's a decent player at this level, can cover different positions, and without him today the bench wouldn't exactly have been bristling with options. Interesting to hear McKinnon's rationale for it in his post-match interview - that he felt we needed a holding midfielder to allow the likes of Callachan and Craigen to get forward. Be interesting to see how that works out. I did have a bit of a laugh when his first touch was a misplaced pass, mind you.

I applaud the club for the living wage thing. http://www.raithrovers.net/20354/rovers-to-pay-the-living-wage.htm

Huh? Why is it urgent to jump to conclusions one way or the other? We don't need to find reasons and impose narratives to explain everything all the time. I'm waiting to see what happens.

No.

Lyle Taylor signed for Wimbledon yesterday, came on as a sub in their friendly last night, and scored a hat-trick.

Great find.

Ah, that's fine then. Play on.

I don't accept this. In the cases of Davidson and Dyer, the players (particularly Davidson) did much better for us than some were ever willing to give them credit for. Of the others you name, all of whom have only just left - Watson was generally rated, I think most of us would have been happy enough for him to stay. Ditto Conroy, though I'm not sure how he's going to turn out from here anyway. Nade is a different case, in that he's clearly got the ability if he can ever string his good games together - which may depend on injury and fitness. Maybe Hamilton are in a better position to take a gamble on that than a Championship side with a smaller squad. Of course there are always instances of players doing better at one club than another for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes that works for us and sometimes against. (Rob Sloan and Dougie Hill both came to us having been released by Alloa.) But if you're suggesting that there's some pattern to it that we generally seem to come off worse from then that's nonsense. I think there are fans at every club who think the same thing. If you're not suggesting that then apologies. But this post goes to anyone who thinks it, anyway.

Were you never at Firs Park or Raydale?

I've been to all 41, generally on multiple occasions for all bar a couple of them, but there are seven I've not seen Raith play at. Eight if I'm not allowed to count a pre-season friendly.

Yeah I remember that one. Someone (Weir?) missed a penalty in normal time. And I think Joe Dunbar played.

I don't have any particular problem with it, sure. I might be a bit worried about another season full-time if I were a Pars fan, but that's your lookout. By-the-by, I met John Potter fairly briefly, a month or two back, and he was talking about the comparison between full and part-time wages and the difficulties in getting players to switch from one to the other. The sorts of figures he was talking about didn't seem unreasonable. (Also, Potter seemed like a decent guy. He's not a legend like his brother though, obviously.)

They couldn't register players, but they could make offers pending the resolution of it - and were actively doing so.

Yeah, many guns being jumped on the basis of very little. You'll need to try a lot harder than this to dampen my pre-season optimism.

I'm unconvinced / open-minded as to the truth of this claim. In any case there's "I don't rate you and you're not in my plans", and there's "I'd like you to stay but if for some reason you're looking for a move we won't stand in your way", and gradations in between. I'd need to know the context as well as the mere fact of it.

It wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

Well this is a bit more impressive than that other bloke's youtube collection we were looking at the other day.

Dublin's fair city has broad streets and it has narrow streets, and sweet Molly Malone wheeled her wheelbarrow through all of them. What's the problem?

broad and narrow is the version I know. Otherwise the same. Geordie Munro is far and away the best Rovers song anyhow. It's the only one we have which is unique.