Ro Sham Bo

Smith and Lennox are both pretty hopeless and I'll be incredulous if either of them get offered a new deal. Lennox was actually signed after Barry Smith was appointed so technically he signed both of them (although I think Lennox was signed on Cuthbert's recommendation). Smith chose to splurge most of his budget on Buchanan and Spence when we already had Vaughan signed up and, to all intents and purposes, Mark Stewart. He only needed to sign one other striker to go with Vaughan, Stewart and Court but he chose otherwise. He did apparently have the rug pulled from under his feet by the board when the deal to sign the Dundee defender was cancelled (who we didn't need anyway because McKay did fine) but they were apparently willing to bankroll the signing of Nathan Austin so I don't think he can complain to much about his budget or what he had to work with.

Total conjecture but I would guess he would've relegated us the season McKinnon had us in the promotion play offs.

Hard lines guys. I feel your pain, but also look forward to another trip or two to Gayfield next season.

The fact we only signed Buchanan, Spence and Murray prior to the season starting gives a fair indication that we (or should I say Smith) blew most of our budget on Buchanan and Spence.

That seems to be the widespread belief.

Smith's disappearing act at the end of the game summed him up. There is absolutely no chance I'll renew my season ticket with him in charge and I hope many others take the same stance.

So business as usual then?

Buchanan is on £50k a year and he's been absolutely dire this season. The thought of the likes of him and Barr worrying about where their next wage is coming from is about the only thing keeping me going just now.

Agree with this. For as bad as the last two seasons have been the likes of Thomson and Benedictus have been good players for us and deserve a bit of respect if it's to be their last appearance for us. There are also others such as Hendry who are not to blame for this and the likes of Court who gives his all. None of the above deserved to be booed. Those who clapped weren't necessarily clapping all the players and those who booed weren't necessarily booing all the players. At least the players just didn't bolt right down the tunnel like their manager.

Exactly. Both from a recruitment point of view and also a sale of season ticket point of view.

We signed Hendry and Smith didn't play him.

So he even has full belief in players we don't even have yet? Get him out.

To be fair we've played like a league 2 side over the last 7 days.

One down....

Only a little over 18 hours till we never have to watch a Rovers team managed by Barry Smith again.

Maybe the board can persuade Barry to take a "sideways" step.

I suspect at the time for Dundee Barry Smith was the right person at the right time. He was in with the bricks at Dundee, not that much older than some of the players and seemed to be exactly what they needed then. Unfortunately he is the wrong person at the wrong time for us.

One issue about turning part-time once we get knocked out of the play offs is that we'll be late to the party in terms of signing part-time players. Many of the best will have agreed new contracts with their current clubs or signed pre contracts elsewhere eg Trouten. Unless some of the current squad turned part-time we'd be looking at having to source an entire squad at very short notice.

Don't worry folks, Barry is going to try and make sure the players are motivated for the 2nd leg...

There have been signs as the season has gone on that Smith wasn't up to it but the events of this last week have really exposed his shortcomings. His inability or unwillingness to change things round last Saturday and then his attempt at addressing that with his team selection tonight is pretty much inexcusable. Having said that, a number of those players, some of whom are apparently very well paid, need to take a long hard look at themselves. If we go part-time off the back of this and these guys earn deals at full time clubs elsewhere it'll be a total travesty.

He'd certainly be better than what we've got anyway.

I don't understand all this chat about whether the play off final itself should be one or two legged. Of what relevance is this to any supporter of Raith Rovers?

I turned up before 2.45 and didn't get in til near on 3.10. Two of the turnstile gates weren't even open.

36 games come down to the width of a post with virtually the last kick of the last game of the season. Bummer.