Yoss

Finance isn't an issue for me, but both work and health circumstances are affecting me at the moment. I've still got my season ticket right enough, but haven't been to any away games yet this season and wasn't at the Hearts or Falkirk cup game. I've no issue with the quality of what's being put on the pitch either, but the diving has pissed me off, and Elliot's continual and apparently unchecked moaning at refs is hard to love as well. (I remain mostly proud of the club and haven't forgotten their actions last summer.) More generally, I think ennui is a big factor in these ten team leagues, especially now we've been in the same division for a few years.

Wilson was subbed off in a game against Stranraer in November 2006, then I think I'm right in saying he didn't miss a single minute of football until being subbed off 19 minutes into an Inverness game in October 2009 (and missed his first game the following weekend). In 2010/11 my recollection is that he missed a game through illness or something and then couldn't get his place back for a while as the team was going so well.

Allan Walker may have had an indifferent season last year but he was a good servant for us over several years, I have many fond memories of him. Stuart Anderson was limited but tidy enough. Anyway, it's been alluded to over on the match thread but can someone confirm the last time Raith scored six goals? My dad and I couldn't think of anything since the famous St Mirren 7-0er. We came up with any number of fives* but nothing more than that. (* Ross County in the league cup, Falkirk twice in a season, Jay Stein's hat-trick game against Airdrie, Graeme Weir's hat-trick game at Hampden, Threave Rovers in the cup, Montrose last season. To name a few.)

Squad numbers announced: http://www.raithrovers.net/9599/rrfc-201314-squad-details-announced.htm Think that pretty much settles any doubts about what his starting eleven is going to be - Saturday's team but with Spence rather than Smith. Which is probably what I'd have gone with too. (Squad numbers are still a sack of old shit, mind.)

David Armstrong from Hearts in 2009/10. He's the only one that springs to mind offhand. (Edited to add - and that was because of an injury crisis rather than any strategic planning.)

I'm mostly with you there. Note to everyone else: When peegee is being more positive about things than you are it's time to take a long hard look at yourself.

Just a drive-by. Hello, everyone.

That was the right ball, and perfectly weighted. Cardle needed to hit it first time though. I wasn't at Wednesday's game but was mostly impressed with that tonight. My main complaint is that if Eliot and Smith are going to be playing together I'm going to have trouble telling them apart.

I bet it's John Stewart.

I mostly remember Elliot for getting injured about ten seconds into his big comeback game for Dundee, when we played them at Dens.

Hello again everyone. Been away from the site for a bit but I've been catching up with the thread and following the summer's developments with interest. I missed loads of games last season, think I was at fewer than half of them in the end. So in terms of team and players I don't feel especially well-qualified to have any firmly held opinions. But in true internet style that isn't going to stop me doing so anyway so I might as well get stuck in. Of the players who we know have left I'm very sorry to have lost Walker. I'd have kept him on if at all possible - I know you can't run a club on sentiment but it's not all that easy to replace his sort of commitment, and I always got the impression he had an influence beyond his playing ability. Though obviously Murray knows that best and I'm happy to trust to his judgement. The others leave with my best wishes and all did jobs for us - Stuart Anderson I was sceptical of to begin with but grew to appreciate; Mensing and Malone were decent enough; and Hammill was a good deal better than he was often given credit for, though he reminded me a little bit of Rob Sloan in the sense that we never really worked out where best to play him - he lacked the pace and drive to make a really dangerous wide player, but seemed like a bit of a luxury playing in a two-man centre midfield. As for where that leaves the squad: 'keepers: Delighted Laidlaw has re-signed, very good young 'keeper. Obviously it'll be terrific if McGurn does so too (is that confirmed yet?) but - while the McGurn of 2009/10ish would have been a clear first choice - I don't see that there's very much at all to choose between them at this stage, and I'm not taking it as read that Laidlaw will be the one who starts the season on the bench. Full-backs: Nothing needs to be said about Thomson - great that he's staying. I presume, particularly given the number of full-timers we seem to be signing, that we are again going with a very small squad so Donaldson will be left-back. Hill and Ellis can both cover there if required. Centre-backs: I always find it really hard to judge defenders. There are some who always look terrific and seem to cut out everything every time you notice them, but then a big hole opens in defence and, as a casual viewer, I'm left scratching my head wondering whose fault that was. So again, while I've always been a bit suspcious of Hill's decision-making, I'm happy to defer to Murray's judgement there. I would certainly say that Hill cares about the club more than Mensing would ever have done, and that counts for something. It seems unlikely that Murray and Ellis would be relying on themselves too much though, so there'll surely be another player coming in. I'll be happy if the Craig Barr rumours are true. Centre-mid: Interesting that Murray seems to have viewed this as the area that most needed addressing, and like most of us I'm very pleased with the signings of Moon and Fox. Not going to get too carried away though - I remember Moon being very highly-rated as a youngster but I haven't, personally, seen an awful lot of him since. Fox I always rated, right from when I first saw him a few years back, but he does have his limitations which I have seen some Livi fans complain about on p&b over time. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out anyway, and Callachan should provide back-up. Wingers: Grant Anderson was frustrating at times in the way that only wingers seem to know how to be, but on good days he provided an edge that we'd been lacking for years, again I'm glad he's staying. Cardle is another player I always rated when playing against us, he might not have done match in those few games for us last season but I hope he signs on. If not, no matter. No urgency to fill that squad place either, sure we'd get by until the inevitable loan signings start coming in. Up front: Every year Raith seem to sign a forward who stays for two years then moves upwards - Tade then Baird then Graham, each overlapping a year with his predecessor. It wouldn't at all surprise me if Spence has a great season and continues that pattern. Though that might then be the end up of, because while Elliot and Clarke are tidy enough - if the latter signs on and if the former is permitted by the SFA to do so - neither of them, at this stage of their careers, is going to set any heather on fire. It would be lovely if there were some more exciting options in the pipeline, but we'd have to be reasonably content with that. I'm really looking forward to the season anyway. It's clear that Murray is making his own squad now in the way he didn't have the chance to do last summer, and I really want it to work out for him, for his sake as well as ours. When do the fixtures come out?

Can I have a PM as well please, if I'm not too late to the party?

The board are indeed all for it, Hutton and Drysdale pretty much said so last week.

I'm surprised the voting structure is such an issue, it's pretty normal across various leagues for there to be a weighted structure, and it seems like an improvement to me, the SPL will have rather less than half the clout (and three of the eight directors on the board) - as opposed to the current set-up where they have 100% of the control of the bulk of the game's external income. Not that I'm knocking anyone for disagreeing, if people aren't happy with it that's fair enough - it's just not the part of the proposal that I'd anticipated would be especially controversial.

Thanks to the club for doing that. Hutton spoke very cogently about why he thought this was the best option available for both Raith and the SFL, Eric Drysdale backed him up with the details of the new proposals where required, though there's some detail that still needs to be worked through. Essentially TH said the SFL had a "shopping list" of things they would like from league reconstruction, which included: - fairer distribution of income - a single league body - fairer voting rights - relaxed rules on stadium requirements And then, ideally, other stuff like the pyramid, more promotion opportunities and so forth. Essentially the new proposals tick all of these boxes, in his view, and it's the SPL that are making the biggest sacrifices in order to make it happen. Of the £4.2 million extra cash that would be fed down the leagues, about half would be coming from extra sponsorship (it remains to be seen whether they've actually got this lined up or if it turns out to be illusory) and half is being voluntarily given up by the top league, with the top two teams in particular being the big losers. The biggest winners, financially, are the second tier teams - the lower leagues have merely been assured that they will be at least no worse off. The plan is that there would thus be a more gradual tail off of income as you go down the league, rather than the sudden cliff there is at present - and there's a recognition that this would in any case need to happen for teams from the second tier to stand a chance of being able to compete within the middle 8 group come the play-offs. Whether it really provides more promotion opportunities is open to debate, but TH observed that he if a team was unable to compete within that middle 8 group then they wouldn't be in a good state to be promoted outright anyway. Both he and Drysdale were also hopeful that the splits and play-offs would provide more interest and excitement (and, hopefully, crowds) in their own right in any case. The one big box that's unchecked is of course the desire for a bigger top tier, but they were quite clear that this isn't an either / or option at this stage. No there isn't a bigger top division but thre's no other proposal that does so either - these proposals address other issues instead, which should be considered on their own terms. The 12-12-18 (or 12-12-10-10 if two clubs get their way) is not set in stone for the long-term and can be changed if it doesn't work. If anything progress towards a larger league would be more, rather than less, likely under the new set-up - firstly by evening up the finances between the top two tiers to make such a thing more feasible, but more importantly because a single league structure will make such decision-making much easier in future. As I've said before I was already receptive to these proposals anyway - there were at least some others at the meeting who were clearly a lot less convinced - but the club have given us some info we didn't previously have and have given a fairly clear set of arguments as to why they think it's for the best.

I'm going along tonight, yes. (I'm already provisionally in favour of it all anyway, so there'll be at least one person who isn't hostile to the idea at the outset.)

Does anyone know how many part-time players we have this season? don't need to know who they are, just wondering if anyone vaguely in-the-know can tell me how many of them we currently have.

so said the Courier the other week.: http://www.thecourier.co.uk/sport/football/div-1/raith-rovers-hope-to-hold-on-to-hearts-winger-1.61981

It was reported in the summer that he'd signed for a year, then I read in one of the 'papers the other week that he was only signed for six months after all, but had now been given an extension to the end of the season. Either way, yeah, he's here for the season.

I miss New Year's Day games as well, but they don't seem to schedule those at all any more, even a couple of years back when it fell on a Saturday.

Yeah, I wish they'd left the Dumbarton game today. That said, I've sprained my ankle and probably wouldn't have been able to get there anyway.

first Rovers competitive home match live on TV in the UK, I think you'd have to say. I'm sure that Akranes game was shown live in Iceland (which was why the advertising hoardings were all in Icelandic for the evening). Watching that clip above reminds me how angry I remain at what the SPL rules made us do to Stark's Park subsequently. Also, Davie Kirkwood at right-back? Where was McAnespie that day?

I remember the game - I seem to recall thinking Thom had dived to win a free-kick to produce the goal - but I'm pretty sure it was played at normal time on a Saturday. Agree with all that. Including the choice of favourite moment of the year - big big goal, that, at the time as well as retrospectively.

Here's a question I was unable to answer in the pub this evening - when, if ever, was the last time we had a Raith game at Stark's that was televised (domestically)? (I say domestically because the only one I could think of was the game against Akranes, which was shown live on Icelandic telly.)

It's going to be played on Sunday lunchtime, being shown on BBC. http://www.raithrovers.net/6979/cup-tie-to-be-televised-live-on-bbc.htm