Ro Sham Bo

I think he might make an exception for Benedictus. The Connolly deal falling through is a pity. I think if we had signed him that would've basically guaranteed us the title.

Better than Danny Barrow?

I think Matthews will still see plenty of game time playing wide right, especially away from home where we might be trying to be a bit more compact. Smith has shown with Zannatta and Hendry that he won't disrupt a winning team so I expect that Furtado might need to bide his time on the bench for a while before forcing his way into the starting line up.

Furtado was impressive in the first match at Stark's but I think I'll reserve judgement until I have had the chance to watch a youtube compilation.

Furtado set to sign according to the FFP. Connolly deal scuppered by him winning his place back at York who now aren't willing to release him from his contract.

I think he's called a few deals before although I can't think of a specific example.

McHattie played for the u20s last night so if he came through that okay he might be in the running this weekend. Benedictus hopefully a couple of weeks. He's started ball work but hasn't trained with the rest of the squad as yet.

I would class Brennan at about the same level as a Smith. Both were panic signings made at around the same time and unfortunately for us it is obvious why both were still available at the end of August.

I see they won after penalties, with Gauld scoring the first penalty. Panic over, that's his career right back on track.

Looks like Spence will be on his way tomorrow judging by the Rovers Twitter account....

A month or so ago and this would've been water off a duck's back to me, but the guy has found some confidence and form recently. While he still wastes the odd final ball and often shirks out of 50/50 challenges, we were still getting a lot more from him in recent weeks than we had been getting from Barr since the first month of the season. Poor from Levein regarding the timing, and while we might even end up with him back once he returns it doesn't detract from the fact we are now without our only fit wide player at an absolutely critical point in the season.

I presume Furtado is just continuously signing short term 'amateur' contracts in order to get round his situation with his former club in France then?

Anticipating a tweet sometime this morning showing Danny Barrow standing with his luggage at Kirkcaldy Railway Station.

I've seen a few comments from Ayr fans this last few days which make me think they could give us a run for money there.

Probably, although for those inclined to take a glass half full approach, Smith also won the August award and our next match was.... you've guessed it..... Ayr at home.

Retrospectively.

He is one of my least favourite Rovers players. A sneaky little toad, on and off the pitch.

He was excellent during his first spell with us. Not quite so impressive second time round but considering the state we were in under Locke and Hughes it's hardly surprising. Overall I think he was close to a goal every other game for us so he should do a good job for you if you get him in.

Can't add much to what has been said. He's a tidy enough passer and showed up well during our good start last season. I wouldn't have thought he had the defensive attributes to play as a left full back or wing back although I have a recollection of him playing there after coming on as a sub in the 2nd leg of the Brechin play off last season. Once we started to struggle he became a complete passenger and his attitude and demeanor was awful. Without doubt he was one of the players Hughes took aim at in his infamous post match rants last season. He's not the first player we've signed from The Rangers with an attitude problem however, and possibly playing in a team challenging at the right end of the table will bring the best out of him. I wouldn't bet on it though.

Well that's a kick in the guts. I just assumed Asda had stopped selling it down here and it would still be easy enough to get hold of up in Moray.

Possibly the budget might be flexible ie they might be prepared to push the boat out for certain players like Austin. I'm a bit confused about the timescale part of it though. Would he really have signed for us if we had got the deal in place a bit quicker?

http://www.celticfc.net/news/13776 Looks from this picture that Hendry might have been captain of Celtic u-20s. He's at the age where it looks like he won't make the breakthrough there but hopefully he can do a job for us.

It would be considerate of the Rovers to bring any dreamers back down to earth with a bump by signing Smith until the summer. The Celtic guy will hopefully be okay but, apart from Hardie, we've not had much success with old firm loanees so I don't hold out too much hope for him.

If true I hope he's better than Graham Fyffe.