Raith Against The Machine

"You don't call retarded people retards. It's bad taste. You call your friends retards when they're acting retarded."

Definitely wasn't Lee Robinson. 16 means it must've been a substitute. The subs were all made relatively late in the game and I didn't recognise them or see them have any major impact. Sorry!

Nobody I recognised. It might've been either of our full-backs, but I think the rest of the players were all signed with the club. How come?

International clearance required from the Swedes before he can play. Probably won't see him tomorrow, but he's a cracking goalie so should help our league campaign at the very least. Agree entirely that this almost certainly means that McGurn is out until the summer.

Apologies if asked before etc etc About ten or fifteen minutes ago I clocked that McBookie were a good two or three minutes behind the club Twitter accounts for the Dumbarton v Livi game. Dumbarton equalised and I managed to get a tenner on them to score Goal 2 before the market was suspended. The resultant fifty quid then went on the same scheme after Livi went 2-1 up. The first bet was settled almost instantly, but the second has been sitting "Open" for about fifteen minutes - but the game hasn't finished yet. What do we reckon the script is? Presumably they've cottoned on to the fact that I've got the jump, and that's fair enough tbh, but will they honour the bet I managed to place or will they just return the stake? And what of the first bet that was already settled? Edit: Nevermind - they waited until full time then paid out in full. *Greggy* Edit again: It would appear they've noticed... I hoicked £150 out my account a wee while ago and my balance is now sitting at -£128! Fun while it lasted... Presumably this is standard behaviour from the bookies. Anything that looks like it might not be kosher and they just void the bets?

That's us now five games without scoring, which last happened in November - December 2004, when the club was still reeling from the Anelka affair. I've had a look as far back as Soccerbase remains reliable and it's been at least 20 years since we went six games without scoring, which is a real possibility when you think how difficult Saturday's game would be under any circumstances. I don't know if anyone has their copy of Always Next Season handy (and f**k all else to do) to tell us when it last occured.

I need to get a cake for tomorrow. Nothing fancy, but I need a name iced onto it. Where can I have this done in the Stirling/Dunfermline areas (or indeed, anywhere inbetween - will the Asda in Alloa do it?). Preferably somewhere that'll do it "while I wait" but if I need to phone ahead in the morning that's fine. Any idea if Bayne's the bakers will do it? More hassle than it's worth, I tell thee.

No problems with that other than the capital "R" at the end of "Remember", which is confusing me.

Not sure how I managed to overlook that. It'd completely slipped my mind, I had to Google it to check! In that case, add Cardle to my list. He doesn't always do something (sometimes he doesn't do anything) but the prospect of him doing what he can do is one of the things that has me looking forward to Rovers games.

So, we're now into the last six months of the majority of the lad's contracts. Without getting into a negative "I'd release X, Y and Z!" conversation, if you could offer, say, three contract extensions to existing players at this time who would they be? For the avoidance of doubt, Ross Laidlaw is signed up until the summer of 2015, and Lewis Vaughan is on board until the year after that. Everyone else is fair game. For me: Grant Murray - I'm cheating at my own game, but technically he's still a player, and his contract runs out in the summer! David McGurn - If I could offer him a four year deal, I would. Paul Watson - Easy to forget that he's only just 23. He's shown a lot of promise this season, and it's been well covered how much we're missing him at the back. The kind of player you can build a long term defence around. Apologies for the brief justifications there, I lost a lot of motivation for the idea pretty quickly. Over to you...

In fairness, there are three teams throwing money around. Hamilton are cash rich and buying clever, Morton are revamping a dreadful squad in a desperate attempt to clamber off the bottom of the league, and Dundee are indulging in the initial stage of their traditional overspend/administrate cycle. If we don't have the money, we can't spend. It's as simple as that. For what it's worth, I think Fraser Mullen will be the last defensive signing we make, and we'll bring in one more player before the window closes. I'd expect it to be another midfielder, and I'd be surprised if it's not someone who gives us another option out wide.

Ah, of course. Bloody stupid rule, right enough, and the point still stands. With the amount of 30 day contracts being lobbed about like confetti you'd think someone would've taken the punt. I've seen a rumour or two saying that he wanted expenses but even then I still can't see that putting enough sides off. I'd love nothing more than for the Rovers to bring in a former Scotland international on a free and for him to be a roaring success, but I just can't see it.

I'm not a big fan of bringing in a goalkeeper just to sit on the bench. If Laidlaw is injured/sent off then we'd need to bring someone in, but until that point I think the wages are better spent elsewhere.

I haven't been at the last two games - are we failing to create or are we creating but not finishing? It sounds like Grant Murray has restored his five man midfield in an attempt to stop shipping goals at the back, and with one conceded in two games, you might say he's accomplished that, but at a very obvious cost. Are Anderson and Cardle not suited to playing as "wing forwards"? Looking at it on paper Cardle should be ideal for that, coming inside and driving towards goal, but in reality I think he's better suited to a flat midfield 4, when he can come inside and stop, then release Booth into the channel. Whether it's as a forward three or a midfield four, Anderson is there to do the same thing - put pressure on the left back hit the byline and drive the ball across the goal. Has he been doing that lately? And if he has, is Elliot in the middle to get on the end of the chances (and is Cardle getting into the box too?). Four games without a goal is an obvious problem, and an open transfer window offers an obvious solution, but what type of player do we need? A number 9? - I'm sure Smith and Spence would both argue that that's their position, and neither have had a proper run of games (because they haven't performed well enough to merit it, granted, but if we bring in another out and out striker and he doesn't score in his first three games, will we be rotating again?) A 10? - I can't actually decide if Elliot is better suited to leading or supporting but he seems to be the only one guaranteed to start (deservedly). Do we want to bring in someone else to do the dropping off and let Elliot stay closer to the goal? I'd argue that Vaughan is the most well suited player to "the hole" in the squad but can we rely on an 18 year old to be the fulcrum of our attack for the second half of the season? Another option on the wings? - We're playing Anderson and Cardle every game because they're our only two wingers. Both have had their critics this season for less-than-stellar performances. Do we need another option out wide, even if it means we can rotate the three and have some fresh legs providing pace and width at the end of games? If I only had money for one player, I think I'd probably opt for another winger. Whoever it is coming in will almost certainly have to be a "Premiership" loan, unless we can pick up a free agent from down south. If we could get another Jamie Walker or simialr I think that'd do for me. Doesn't have to be a polished end product, but someone who's not afraid to run with the ball and doesn't disappear if the first thing he tries doesn't come off. I'd also have a look at telling Spence that he'll be playing the next 8 or 10 games up front with Elliot, injuries/suspensions notwithstanding. His decent form last season seemed to kick in when Murray stopped switching between him and Pat Clarke and made it clear that Spence was Brian Graham's chief lieutenant. It's harsh on Smith because he's been on worse than Spence this season, but it's Spence that I'm leaning towards.

He's been training an Alloa for 2 or 3 months now and they haven't even offered him a matchday place as a trialist. I think that speaks volumes. He's also complaining that a number of teams have refused to even let him train with them - teams at this this level are usually pretty accommodating (does Big Marv still train with the Rovers? I know Iain Williamson was in recently when he was over from Iceland), so their must be a reason that nobody wants him around. He undoubtedly has talent, but the guy is offering to play for free for ages now and nobody wants anything to do with him. There are ten teams in this league, twelve in the league above and twenty in the leagues below who'd all love a free striker with a track record for scoring goals. That "Deeks" can't get a shirt on a Saturday isn't down to an oversight.

Can someone explain Asian handicaps for me? As I understand it, they operate like a normal handicap but if it's a "draw" you get your money back. What I don't understand is when it's quoting more than one number in the same bet. For example, Barcelona tonight were available at (-1.5, -2), (-2) and (-2 -2.5). The middle one makes sense for me but I'm struggling to get a grip on the other two.

I don't know if you're being glib and I'm being dense, but Conan Doyle's Holmes is literally caught in an opium den in "The Man with the Twisted Lip". The scene from tonight's episode was almost a direct lift. Really enjoyed tonight's effort, much better than last week.

I don't think you're allowed to loan two players from the same club any more.

Centre half, plays for the Reserves, hasn't featured for the first team.

If someone with any sort of motivation wants to get a half-decent "We Are These People" banner put together, I'm more than happy to throw money towards it.

The Courier have "Turnbull Hutton's reaction" in tomorrow's paper. Pretty sure that means we're going to have a very small allocation. Would you go to Turnbull Hutton for a reaction if everything was hunky dory?

Composing the piece of music on the violin for Watson and his wife was very "Holmes". Unlike anything else in the episode.

Yeah because we don't already have four strikers for our two forward positions and we do have enough money to afford an SPL striker!

Terrible. Utterly terrible.

Is it relatively simple to re-assign keys on a keyboard? My "Alt" and comma keys have stopped working (probably because I had the keyboard off it the other day[comma] trying to fix a different issue). I've got a feeling taking the keyboard off again will only escalate the issue but if I could swap a couple of keys around (when was the last time anyone used backslash? I'm not sure I ever have.) that would suffice.