The New Raith Rovers Thread

[madton]

Nothing against Murray but thought Imrie would get Dec MOTM.

We went from losing 8 games in 11 to being undefeated for 5 games picking up 11 points out of 15 in Dec and keeping 3 consecutive clean sheets. The turnaround was incredible from where we were.

I know you won 4 and drew 2 so that's also a brilliant return but you've been consistently good all season whereas we were brutal so felt our upturn in results merited the award more.

I was surprised Murray hasn't had if yet right enough so maybe that's why.

Hopefully we beat Thistle and Arbroath and he picks up Mr January.

[BigMadMental]

The most interesting thing so far about this window is the friendly pissing contest between Rovers & Thistle to sign cracking players while United announce they are broke.

[RRFC_Liam]

16 minutes ago, third lanark said:

To be fair mate Luke McBeth was at Glenafton who are sitting 10th in their division and I suspect will be on a very low wage, Stewart was a free agent and with oreilly it was a case of I think that we we’re offering 18 months while you guys only offered 6 months.  
We offloaded McDonald and sent McGinley and Williamson.  So their wages would go towards the new guys.

For all we are being linked with other players could just be paper talk.  Like yourselves our crowds are significantly up which will at least help a bit with finance

Plus add in Dundee United 4 times guaranteed both teams and we’ve played Dunfermline in 5 times (gonna be 6 guaranteed) so that’s a derby with big crowds so there’s extra money in the coffers but it’s not like we’re throwing unsustainable amounts, I’m guessing with the bumper crowds and with Dundee United and Pars in the division makes up for it 

[AllanJM]

5 minutes ago, madton said:

Nothing against Murray but thought Imrie would get Dec MOTM.

We went from losing 8 games in 11 to being undefeated for 5 games picking up 11 points out of 15 in Dec and keeping 3 consecutive clean sheets. The turnaround was incredible from where we were.

I know you won 4 and drew 2 so that's also a brilliant return but you've been consistently good all season whereas we were brutal so felt our upturn in results merited the award more.

I was surprised Murray hasn't had if yet right enough so maybe that's why.

Hopefully we beat Thistle and Arbroath and he picks up Mr January.

To be fair we took 14 points out of 18, including winning away in Inverness for the first time in 20+ years and inflicting United's first league defeat of the season.  We moved to the top of the league and scored 16 goals.  

Morton had a good month but Murray definitely deserved it.  

Imrie would certainly be the current favourite for January but still a few games to go.

[Ex Machina]

21 minutes ago, BigMadMental said:

The most interesting thing so far about this window is the friendly pissing contest between Rovers & Thistle to sign cracking players while United announce they are broke.

They've already signed Wotherspoon who's been performing well in this league and Alex Greive who I don't know much about but has been getting fairly regular substitute appearances in the league above all season with St Mirren. I doubt they're done yet either despite the financial circumstances. Looking at it, they need to go up much more than we do and will probably push the boat out to try and do so.

[Stardog_champion]

For all dufc’s problems, they have a better pulling power than Rovers or Partick. The realism is they’ll go back to the premiership and spend what they do t have like what dafc did. I don’t know if blowing what they have left on a title challenge will solve their issues, but realistically they have no choice, as for ourselves and Partick we really don’t have to, to us it’s just a bonus. If we go up great. Outside of the OF it’s much of a muchness. Not as exciting as the Championship imo. 

[SirJimmyofNic]

36 minutes ago, Stardog_champion said:

For all dufc’s problems, they have a better pulling power than Rovers or Partick. The realism is they’ll go back to the premiership and spend what they do t have like what dafc did. I don’t know if blowing what they have left on a title challenge will solve their issues, but realistically they have no choice, as for ourselves and Partick we really don’t have to, to us it’s just a bonus. If we go up great. Outside of the OF it’s much of a muchness. Not as exciting as the Championship imo. 

That's to sensible a post min, from our point of view if we did get up there we'd need to lay a grass pitch (with all the problems we had with drainage, mould etc) + undersoil heating, contribute a fair whack for VAR, and all the other added costs, plus pit a team on the park that would keep us there, and of course I remember the last time we tried that what it cost to satisfy the greed is good league and very nearly cost us our club.

 

[bobbykdy]

15 minutes ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

That's to sensible a post min, from our point of view if we did get up there we'd need to lay a grass pitch (with all the problems we had with drainage, mould etc) + undersoil heating, contribute a fair whack for VAR, and all the other added costs, plus pit a team on the park that would keep us there, and of course I remember the last time we tried that what it cost to satisfy the greed is good league and very nearly cost us our club.

 

You are absolutely right 1996 onwards for a good few years was a horrible spell for the club, I know it was a long time ago and many of todays fans won't recall it but I really hope if we do go up we don't go chasing the sun financially to stay there as last time it almost killed us.

[MICMAC]

12 minutes ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

That's to sensible a post min, from our point of view if we did get up there we'd need to lay a grass pitch (with all the problems we had with drainage, mould etc) + undersoil heating, contribute a fair whack for VAR, and all the other added costs, plus pit a team on the park that would keep us there, and of course I remember the last time we tried that what it cost to satisfy the greed is good league and very nearly cost us our club.

 

That's not the case at the moment about artificial surfaces. Yes they plan to ban them but it would need backing from 11 of the 12 clubs. Kilmarnock plan to change theirs during the 25/26 season and any time before that I can't see them voting for it before that time. As for Livi, they just can't handle that kind of outlay and probably won't be able to for quite a number of years. There's also VAR to consider as it costs a fair whack as well. Without SFA funding I can't see how they could do it (if they're still in the league) I can't see how they could legally stop a team from playing on an artificial surface if they're still in that league if the pitch is Fifa and UEFA approved. 

Yes they can stop teams from being promoted if they don't have a grass pitch as they did years ago with the 10,000 seater stadium fiasco.

[SirJimmyofNic]

4 minutes ago, MICMAC said:

That's not the case at the moment about artificial surfaces. Yes they plan to ban them but it would need backing from 11 of the 12 clubs. Kilmarnock plan to change theirs during the 25/26 season and any time before that I can't see them voting for it before that time. As for Livi, they just can't handle that kind of outlay and probably won't be able to for quite a number of years. There's also VAR to consider as it costs a fair whack as well. Without SFA funding I can't see how they could do it (if they're still in the league) I can't see how they could legally stop a team from playing on an artificial surface if they're still in that league if the pitch is Fifa and UEFA approved. 

Yes they can stop teams from being promoted if they don't have a grass pitch as they did years ago with the 10,000 seater stadium fiasco.

Maybe not the case at the moment but it's coming. And very costly to adhere to, chase the bigot brother would be simpler   

[lellywong]

The rules re pitches seem to be changed at a whim, football authorities have a lot to answer for

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

 

 

[Dundee Hibernian]

39 minutes ago, MICMAC said:

Yes they can stop teams from being promoted if they don't have a grass pitch as they did years ago with the 10,000 seater stadium fiasco.

I don't think that's the case: the SPL and SFL had a different set of regulations, which allowed the top league to be a closed shop when they chose.

The SPFL operates as one body for all 42 clubs, but there are maybe circumstances I'm unaware of which allows them to f**k over clubs when it doesn't suit them. I've lost a lot of interest in football over the past few years. VAR was (almost) the final straw.

[Stardog_champion]

1 hour ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

That's to sensible a post min, from our point of view if we did get up there we'd need to lay a grass pitch (with all the problems we had with drainage, mould etc) + undersoil heating, contribute a fair whack for VAR, and all the other added costs, plus pit a team on the park that would keep us there, and of course I remember the last time we tried that what it cost to satisfy the greed is good league and very nearly cost us our club.

 

Yea, we were screwed royally, but screwed ourselves too. We all know who they are

[Rovers_Lad]

1 hour ago, Zen Archer (Raconteur) said:

 

 

Every chance they were big game hunters so probably wont bother them plus dont see how DAFC police such a ban?Different if its a ban imposed by the police/courts

[TxRover]

32 minutes ago, Rovers_Lad said:

Every chance they were big game hunters so probably wont bother them plus dont see how DAFC police such a ban?Different if its a ban imposed by the police/courts

It’s pretty simple, they probably aren’t acting to enforce the bans per se, but have them to use if the banned individuals either catch the eye of security or such. Effectively, a ban imposed by the club is a no trespass order, and means that IF the individual(s) banned is caught within the property, there are additional charges that can be pressed.

As a fun bonus, even a social media post showing them present at EEP could be used to pursue charges against them, so it’s basically hitting them where they “live”.

[stevoraith]

Getting promoted is a funny one for me…. 
Do I want us to win the Championship? Of course I do, that’s why we’re all here, to win games of football and end the season as the best team in the league. 

However….. Being in the Premiership means being beaten more often. It means success is not being relegated. It means lots of teams with not much to play for for the last couple of months of the season. It means 6 or 8 games a season where you play teams whose budget for a week is your budget for a year. It means having horrible sectarian nonsense in the town between two or four times a season.
It means the temptation to spend outwith our means to keep up with bloody Motherwell and spending significant amounts on new infrastructure.  
 

Is it possible to win the Championship, collect the prize money and the gate receipts from a season in the Premiership but still play in a league where there aren’t any teams that are utterly despicable, anyone can beat anyone and you never know from season to season who’s going to win it?

Because that’s what I’d like to do.  

[chris1883]

1 minute ago, stevoraith said:

Getting promoted is a funny one for me…. 
Do I want us to win the Championship? Of course I do, that’s why we’re all here, to win games of football and end the season as the best team in the league. 

However….. Being in the Premiership means being beaten more often. It means success is not being relegated. It means lots of teams with not much to play for for the last couple of months of the season. It means 6 or 8 games a season where you play teams whose budget for a week is your budget for a year. It means having horrible sectarian nonsense in the town between two or four times a season.
It means the temptation to spend outwith our means to keep up with bloody Motherwell and spending significant amounts on new infrastructure.  
 

Is it possible to win the Championship, collect the prize money and the gate receipts from a season in the Premiership but still play in a league where there aren’t any teams that are utterly despicable, anyone can beat anyone and you never know from season to season who’s going to win it?

Because that’s what I’d like to do.  

The championship is by far the most entertaining league in Scotland. The standard also matches or exceeds much of the bottom half of the league. Indeed, I do believe that you could take the top 3 teams in the championship and they would out perform the bottom 3 or 4 in the prem. The problem is the Premiership in Scotland doesn't allow for much scope to build - everything is short-termism in a desperate attempt to maintain position. The key to dealing with this, and to make the bore-fest that is the SPL more interesting is league reconstruction - but that's a different conversation.

From a player point-of-view - every single man that goes out to play on a Saturday wants to play at the highest level possible. The personal aim for every player in our team is to play in the premier league. If we don't afford them that opportunity they will go somewhere that will. If our aim is not to be an SPL team, we would lose many of our players and tumble down the divisions again.

If we do go up, the key would be to maintain what we have and build as money allows. The big benefit of going up is different away days!

[pub car king]

I was thinking about this recently as well and it's a real first world problem compared to where we've been over the last 25 years. 

There must be some sort of financial incentive to going up. However its hardly like its the English premier league and their 100 million and what the club wins will end up being spent on players, wages and facilities. 

If somehow we get up I'd hope the club are sensible with it and we take it as a free hit. Tour a lot of grounds we've not been to for a long time, cause a few upsets and have some great afternoons at a packed San Starko. 

If we stay up it has to be done in a sustainable fashion and not the Livingston, Dundee, Pars, Gretna etc model.

Anyway all pie in the sky thinking at the minute. Onwards to what I expect will become 16 cup finals. 

[BigMadMental]

27 minutes ago, stevoraith said:

Getting promoted is a funny one for me…. 
Do I want us to win the Championship? Of course I do, that’s why we’re all here, to win games of football and end the season as the best team in the league. 

However….. Being in the Premiership means being beaten more often. It means success is not being relegated. It means lots of teams with not much to play for for the last couple of months of the season. It means 6 or 8 games a season where you play teams whose budget for a week is your budget for a year. It means having horrible sectarian nonsense in the town between two or four times a season.
It means the temptation to spend outwith our means to keep up with bloody Motherwell and spending significant amounts on new infrastructure.  
 

Is it possible to win the Championship, collect the prize money and the gate receipts from a season in the Premiership but still play in a league where there aren’t any teams that are utterly despicable, anyone can beat anyone and you never know from season to season who’s going to win it?

Because that’s what I’d like to do.  

I always say this as a thistle fan. We are at our most successful on and off pitch as a championship club, playing decent enough football and enjoying the discourse of being in league with other teams and fans who have been long time lurkers of the league and they know the ropes.

Everything about the premiership is boring. Sick of hearing the term “low block” - absolutely not something you get in this league. Most teams have a go or at the very least they work hard. Away days are better, General comraderie is better.

the money can’t be that much better, when you factor in the additional costs just to compete. Nobody is watching it really are they? 

every year teams go up and they have a bit of something about them, but they quickly just blend into the bottom 6 pish that is served up.