The Toun Clock

There we go.

Never mind the penalty shout that Matty Todd got booked for, 05:35 on the Rovers highlights is a stonewaller, every day of the week. Ref had a brilliant view. Personally think the ref got the “dive” wrong too, was far to keen to make it about him, more cards than Mother's Day. For the record, we’d have probably missed the penalties had they been given…

Aye I think so mate, would he 100% starting the game if fit. He signed and played home to Arbroath, then the following Friday in the win at Thistle. However he missed the midweek game in Inverness due to illness. Apparently crawled off the sickbed to score on the Ayr game then was missing midweek again due to “fatigue”. Fully expected him to play yesterday until someone touted on Saturday morning that he was out, and they were unfortunately right. He's the only real striker at the club apart from one of the academy graduates. Ali McCann’s wee brother Lewis is about as much use as a button on a sock at the moment and Jakubiak is better playing wide of a three as opposed to through the middle.

The game I’m referring to finished 1-1, Brad Spencer scored late for RR. We went to Arbroath and lost 4-2 a few days later and Grant was binned. We did beat you 2-0 under Yogi towards the end of that season, April time. Think I might have got the “then we played Thistle” bit mixed up last night.

Chris Kane or Kane Richie-Hosler?

If this did happen, do you think the wee fannies that did it post on pie and bovril? Unlikely.

Was your fellow Rover who started talking about crowds…

Aye I think that game was on the telly and we were knee deep in Peter Grant world.

Just seen a wee snippet of the highlight, that fucking save man!

October 2021, things were back to norm by then. Was no restrictions in the home end, because I remember we missed 5 mins getting in, it was packed. We’d beat Thistle 4-1 live on the telly the week before, probably the last positive performance before we shit the bed.

There was a game two years ago where you didn’t even fill the North East stand at East End

Btw, I’ve just skimmed my eyes over the post match interview. No mention of taking Otoo off but slates is for all the possession and no output, says Raith deserved to win and deservedly roasts Mehmet.

The kind of shithousery we’ve missed this season, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Not sure but if you find out can you let us know? I think the main issue is we don’t know what he is anymore. He can’t do the centre forward thing, not on his own anyway. Yet he doesn’t seem to do enough when he plays wider, he has all the attributes but in my opinion he has the heart of a pea. In the absence of Chris Kane on Tuesday night he played wide but found himself getting into the box, his timing for headers is appalling, always up too early. He had a good first couple of months, scored a brace at Hampden against Queens Park and got a new deal because clubs were sniffing about. Has been dire since, I think maybe one goal in a draw against Inverness. To be fair to him that was the day we hit the woodwork about seven times and I think he contributed to about five of those. Someone will get the best out of him one day, but I’m not convinced it’ll be McPake or even Dunfermline.

Disappointing result but not surprised. We were in control of the game, I don’t think Raith had any possession in the final third until the goal which was near the 40 minute mark. Even when Raith went ahead we then continued to control up until half time which was a positive, I thought we might have fell into our shell. Second half again wasn’t terrible, a lot of the ball but toothless in the final third. Dabrowski pulls off a wonder save from Otoo, and if that goes in I think we could be taking about a completely different outcome. However, it wasn’t to be, fair play to Raith, they’ve had our number this year even if some of the matches have been close. The Otoo sub was baffling unless injured which I don’t think he was. He was probably the best player on the park IMO. Broke up everything, made good runs, didn’t lose the ball and annoyingly was our biggest goal threat. Matty Todd was miles off it today, worst I’ve seen him but that happens, I won’t be too critical because I know what he can do and what he’s went through this season. The biggest issue was Chris Kane missing from the team altogether. Thought Bene and Fagan-Walcott had a good partnership and coped well with whatever Raith through at them. Summers & Hammy grafted away and Jakubiak has decent play but just isn’t the man for the goals. Mehmet selling the points again, he’s a massive liability. The ref was really poor, made it all about him, some of the decisions were baffling. Lastly, I thought you lot were getting a signing section? Sell out home crowd, title challenge, on your way to beating us for the 5th time this season and the atmosphere was flat apart from when you scored and a minute or two after.

Did you get your head kicked in after the game? Sam Stanton wasn’t even the best midfielder for Raith.

With regards to the song, I remember it first being sang in roughly 2009. To be fair we'd had a lot of time apart then as we'd been mainly in the Premiership, so perhaps it was sang before that however I would only have been 17 in 2009 so I almost certainly was a child the last time the clubs met on league business which I think would have been 1999/2000? The words I've always heard and joined in are "we f*cking hate you", however it makes no sense whatsoever, as many have pointed out over the years. The words should be "we don't even hate you, you're just a wee team" but there's no doubt "we fu*king hate you" is what people do end up singing.

He was the general manager of the club and I think initially he really enjoyed the role but quickly found that it could be a bit of a thankless task. He had so many great ideas but instead was dealing with the day to day running like ordering sparky's and plumbers for maintenance work and piles of paperwork. Also, on match day he was running about making sure people were well looked after and that things ran smoothly, so the thing he loved the most that was watching the Pars was now no longer something he got to enjoy. If the club were in a better position and maybe in the top flight and could afford a proper media team I think he'd be the perfect man to lead that, he works in marketing still and is brilliant at it but unfortunately the time he was able to spend doing those type things were minimal. Aye the 2017/18 kit was his idea, and a bloody great one at that. I had entered the not buying kit stage at that point so missed out, even though I loved it. Fortunately managed to get a home one from a mate. I'm not 100% if the boy from Kelty is a volunteer or not, I see him at most games with another guy and they're always recording wee bits here and there. From what I can see, the guy coming in from Stenny is much more hands on with the graphic and all that type stuff. These days clubs need a lot of guys if they want an all singing all dancing media team. Obviously still have Craigy Brown involved too, think his role is now something to do with media as well as the club photographer. The weekly pre-match/post-match interviews on ParsTV are torture. I actually listened to Ian Murray's one on Raith's Twitter last night, the guy who does the interviews is class and has been all season. Sounds well prepared and leads the interview well. To be fair, I stopped listening to ParsTV interviews when Peter Grant was here, his slavering was enough for me to switch off. Of course when it's something pretty big and he's not working we get Steven Mill from the radio in to do it, who is great but I suppose that's when he's free. I know if we appoint a new manager or a big club announcement he's normally involved in some form. Agreed, I have no sour grapes over RR's media output. As long as it's just banter, which is what it has been then that's fine. I just hope we've got something up our sleeve in case of a result tomorrow.

100% mate, Mikey is a good mate of mines and he was very switched on and ahead of the time, he still is to be fair just unfortunately not as part of the club.

FWIW I think the approach on social media that RR have taken this year is decent, the only thing is when you set your stall out like that you're going to have to take the backlash when it comes. Was great for RR when winning, but then you just became a target. Any slip ups and you had teams from all over jumping on and having a pop, but worth it and as long as it's all just a bit of banter then I think it's fine. I'm not really fussed about the stuff they've posted about us, of course it looks a wee bit obsessive at times because you can bet if we were battling it out with Dundee Utd for the title we probably wouldn't give you a second thought, but I understand, you're getting one over us and that's fine. I'm sure Mr McGuigan mentioned it on AVFTT the other week after you posted the video of Jack Hamilton sliding into the Utd keeper that if the roles were reversed and Dundee Utd posted that he'd be livid, and that's where football fans are such hypocrites. The Pars had really decent social media output back about 8-10 years ago, but people moved on and now it's more basic, however I noticed yesterday that the boy that does Stenny's (who is a Pars fan) is taking over as head of media next year at East End, so maybe we'll see a bigger social media output next season.

OFT. It's okay the man in the bear suit with loud bangy bangy cardboard tank won't be there tomorrow, you're safe now.

Mental that your father in law is Gregory Tade

Ticket purchased. Driving to this one so no pre-match beers which may not be a good thing if we end up getting a scudding but at least I'll be able to make a quick getaway if that's the case. The last and only time I attended a derby sober at Starks it was a comfortable two nil win for the Pars, New Year 2017 I think, would bite Val McDermid's pants off for the same result. Hope the away tickets pick up a bit more, I'm sure they will but won't be anywhere near a sell out in the away end but it won't be bad come Saturday afternoon.

I was thinking this last week, it's a strange one but I personally feel it is with more togetherness. If you look at some of the individuals that were part of that squad like Lawless, Polworth and the Polish goalie, they've all went on to do well. Lawless did have good spells with us, but I was as surprised as anyone when Polworth started playing regularly for Killie under Derek McInnes. No doubt the Polish goalie plays over Deniz so perhaps weaker between the sticks. I don't think defensively it's up for debate, saying we had everyone fit then there's no way Col Donaldson and Efe Ambrose even make the bench. Obviously Edwards is still here, as is Comrie and even Yogi's favourite right back Matty Todd. Bene, Fisher, MFW, Breen, Hammy, Benjamin I think is better. Also Welch-Hayes, I think could be an improvement on Comrie over time. Nothing against Comrie at all but I think when fully settled he could offer more. The middle could be up for debate if we look at individuals but I personally think this team is better, and IIRC Dom Thomas didn't play for the last 5 or so games as it was rumoured he'd already singed a PCA with Queens Park. We still had Chalmers then, Polworth, Lawless, Dorrans who on paper sound quite good but we all know the truth. The striking options were much the same as we had last season, in fact exactly the same with Todorov, McCann, O'Hara and Wighton, although the latter went out on loan to Arbroath. Only other person was Bobby Kamwa from Leeds who didn't really play at all. I'll die on the should have kept Todorov hill, but personally I think Chris Kane is better than everyone mentioned there. That's all quite high level and just my opinion of course but I do think this squad is better and the key thing is togetherness. Would be interesting to do a side by side and analyse it.