The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Scottydog]

I’m confident that any interest Rovers had in David Goodwillie is purely historical and that these days the current board members would be desperately looking out the proverbial barge poles.

My only fear would have been the potential maverick actions of our owner who has shown himself to be quite driven in his ideas with little regard to other’s opinions.
 

[SirJimmyofNic]

I'm very confident McGlynn would not even put himself or the club in the line of fire for even suggesting Goodwillie, hes maybe desperate for a goalscorer but even he's no that desperate.

[raith1974]

The good thing about all this chat is if we are indeed looking at Goodwillie then McGlynn must see we need a number 9. If Goodwillie is ruled out for a number of factors then hopefully we see someone signing that can score goals.

[Virtual Insanity]

6 hours ago, raith1974 said:

 I don't really want him signing for us, as there must be younger, better players out there, but Clyde gave him a chance why shouldn't other clubs.

This really gives context to your other points. You don't want him signing only as you don't think he'd be up to the job. Thankfully the vast majority of Rovers fans are of a different mindset. The fact that one team gave him a chance does not oblige anyone else to. Clyde will I think forever be tarnished in the minds of many Scottish supporters for their involvement with Goodwillie, and decent Raith fans are rightly doing everything in their power to ensure Rovers don't do the same. 

[TxRover]

Re Goodwillie and allowing redemption.

1) Acknowledgement of one’s error/crime is necessary.

2) Repentance is also necessary.

3) An appropriate period of time should have passed.

4) The crime must have been of a magnitude that is pardonable, or the person of an age that mitigates some of the severity.

Goodwillie falls at the first hurdle.

[roverthemoon]

If there’s a silver lining in this pish, maybe it’s that in being so willing to embrace a sex offender, then perhaps those sing that brutal sex offender song to our opponents will cut it out. 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

1 minute ago, roverthemoon said:

If there’s a silver lining in this pish, maybe it’s that in being so willing to embrace a sex offender, then perhaps those sing that brutal sex offender song to our opponents will cut it out. 

Two wrongs don't make a right.

[roverthemoon]

Goodwillie seems dead in the water, which is a good thing, but there’s a lingering disappointment that the club let this run at all. Scott Burns would have heard the rumour and phoned the club. They could have easily quashed it. The fact that they didn’t and whatever they said led Burns to publish an article saying we were interested, suggests there was a degree of truth in it. That’s a horrible mis-reading of our support. 

[roverthemoon]

1 minute ago, Zen Archer (Raconteur) said:

Two wrongs don't make a right.

I’m just clutching at straws and hoping that folk will stop these horrendous chants.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

11 minutes ago, roverthemoon said:

Goodwillie seems dead in the water, which is a good thing, but there’s a lingering disappointment that the club let this run at all. Scott Burns would have heard the rumour and phoned the club. They could have easily quashed it. The fact that they didn’t and whatever they said led Burns to publish an article saying we were interested, suggests there was a degree of truth in it. That’s a horrible mis-reading of our support. 

I'm sure the club could have consulted a moral compass, I downloaded one for free.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

4 minutes ago, bullywee2010 said:

I would fully agree with the above if Goodwillie had been tried and convicted in a criminal court rather than a civil court and if that had been the case I would've wanted him nowhere near my club. However, from speaking with people who were involved with the case and others in the law profession more generally the consensus is the Goodwillie case is the perfect example of why these sort of cases should not be allowed to be tried in a civil court. The fact someone with no criminal record for an alleged rape and who is not on the sex offenders register can have their career ruined by being branded a rapist is wrong. Ultimately, nobody knows what happened that night other than those present and if he maintains he is innocent then why should he have to fake repentance to be able to sign for clubs. The same arguments were made about Ched Evans down south who showed no remorse once released from prison, yet when found not guilty on appeal there was no apology from those such as Jessica Ennis that had prevented him (an innocent man) resuming his football career.

I am of course bias and want Goodwillie to stay at Clyde but that does not outdo what I think is an unfair restriction that he has had put on his career based on a massively reduced burden of proof and if he was to move on from Clyde for one last go at full-time football he would leave with our best wishes and a thanks for everything he has achieved with us. 

Do everyone a favour, f**k off.

Footballers Goodwillie and Robertson lose appeal against rape finding - BBC News

[Rovers1992/1993]

I'm obviously no expert on the case but I can confidently assume that Goodwillie vehemently denied the allegations. 
If that was the case, why would he show any remorse for something that he maintains never happened? 

Because there’s a very good chance that it actually never happened in the first place?

At least if we do sign him, it looks like I’ll get a ticket for these games with limited fans quite easily. There’s always a silver lining.

[Halbeath Raith Rover]

4 hours ago, roverthemoon said:

I’m just clutching at straws and hoping that folk will stop these horrendous chants.

Not heard that chant for months tbf. Hamilton away maybe ?

[Raith Against The Machine]

16 hours ago, McGuigan1978 said:

While misspelling the names of both the strikers on our books in the article. 

At least they corrected these errors before putting the article on the back page of the print edition. 

Oh... 

[Offshore Rover]

1 hour ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

At least they corrected these errors before putting the article on the back page of the print edition. 

Oh... 

Bring back Mathew Elder!

[basher brash]

6 hours ago, bullywee2010 said:

I would fully agree with the above if Goodwillie had been tried and convicted in a criminal court rather than a civil court and if that had been the case I would've wanted him nowhere near my club. However, from speaking with people who were involved with the case and others in the law profession more generally the consensus is the Goodwillie case is the perfect example of why these sort of cases should not be allowed to be tried in a civil court. The fact someone with no criminal record for an alleged rape and who is not on the sex offenders register can have their career ruined by being branded a rapist is wrong. Ultimately, nobody knows what happened that night other than those present and if he maintains he is innocent then why should he have to fake repentance to be able to sign for clubs. The same arguments were made about Ched Evans down south who showed no remorse once released from prison, yet when found not guilty on appeal there was no apology from those such as Jessica Ennis that had prevented him (an innocent man) resuming his football career.

I am of course bias and want Goodwillie to stay at Clyde but that does not outdo what I think is an unfair restriction that he has had put on his career based on a massively reduced burden of proof and if he was to move on from Clyde for one last go at full-time football he would leave with our best wishes and a thanks for everything he has achieved with us. 

Ask yourself why he’s playing for Clyde ? Because he loves the club?  No other team was willing to touch him with a barge pole and I’m really disappointed with Rovers being linked with him , Of course your opinion is biased he’s your player and is banging the goals in for you

[Specky Ginger]

2 hours ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

At least they corrected these errors before putting the article on the back page of the print edition. 

Oh... 

Aside from the Rovers, they have a photo on the letters page claiming to be the River Dee in Kirkcudbright (not sure what connection this has to Fife), when it's clearly the River Nith and the Whitesands in Dumfries 

This would be bad enough, but the same photo was in the paper about six weeks ago and they were still claiming it to be Kirkcudbright.

Talk about money for old rope.

Fact checked journalism my arse.

[Raithie]

There is a possibility we weren't even linked with Goodwillie in the first place? Could have just been lazy journalism with it being pulled from this thread several pages ago and it suddenly grew arms and legs. 

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

16 hours ago, Cardle is Magic said:

“However I’ll still dive in two footed with my zero knowledge.”

Hardly diving in two-footed asking why someone who is adamant that they're innocent would show remorse, is it? 

 

[Raith Against The Machine]

There's a real lack of nuance when it comes to discussing this case. Too many people want to reduce it to a black and white "guilty" and "innocent" as if it's a case of mistaken identity. Like the two possible scenarios are that David Goodwillie is a rapist, or he was at home reading his bible. He's either 100% guilty or 100% not guilty. 

And that's just not the case. The facts of the case may not have met the appropriate threshold for a criminal conviction (because of the need for corroboration, such as I understand it), but there's much more information about the events of the night. The actions of David Goodwillie, as detailed in the civil case, are the actions of a deeply despicable person. 

Too many people are choosing to be wilfully ignorant. They're choosing to take the headline "not successfully prosecuted in criminal court" because the person in question can score goals, without taking on board the additional information available. 

The justice system has to stick by very specific rules and standards. That's the best set of guidelines we have to keep all of us safe, both as victims and potentially as suspects of crime. 

But the rest of us aren't bound by that. We can take the information that's in the public domain and reach our own conclusions. 

It's deeply, deeply depressing that so many people are willing to go to bat for despicable scum like David Goodwillie just because he's good at football.