Starter for 10

Picking 10 decisions that shaped Raith Rovers season was easy, a catalogue of calamities that ended up with the 2015/16 promotion hopefuls being relegation fodder by April of the 2016/17 season. If the ever increasing relegation finally happens, this will set the club back massively and will undo the steady progress made in last 5-6 years. And this summer the board have an arguably bigger decision to make, should John Hughes disappear over the horizon (as expected) at speed to protect his reputation. The Raith Board will be looking for a fourth manager in 2 years. One they can not afford to get wrong. 

1. Appointing Gary Locke

Obvious starting point, and an appointment that looked destined to fail from the off. Everyone could see it with the exception of the people actually responsible for appointing Ray McKinnon’s successor. The problem with Gary Locke being hired is we got the Gary Locke of Hearts and Kilmarnock. The same Gary Locke who made same errors time and time again and seemed incapable of learning from his mistakes. A good guy by all accounts, loved by former colleagues and the media, looked on with suspicion from fans of Scotland all over. Fans who looked at his shaky track record and found it unfathomable that he could be hired so promptly on the back of his last debacle. Indeed my expectations were so low that the only way he could fail in my eyes was if he actually succeeded. By February he was sacked, 16 games without a win leaving a massive squad so unbalanced that it was almost impossible to pick 11 players playing in rightful positions.

2. Raith Rovers Development Fund

Raith Rovers decided to try and fund their under-20 squad with fan investment this season, wonderful in theory but a damn sight harder in practice to pull off. Craig Easton has done a magnificent job, and is thoroughly engaging and committed to it, the best salesman that Raith have for it. But by all accounts the take up has been less than impressive and a significant plug from the board will be required to make up the short fall. Why is this? Well timing is everything and it was announced almost simultaneously with Locke’s arrival which had apathetic fans struggling to sign up to a monthly financial commitment. Second reason may be confusion. Now this may be ignorance on my part but the Development set up at Raith is confusing. We have a dedicated under-20 squad but are also involved in the Fife Elite Academy alongside Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath and East Fife. I am not entirely sure what the fund is for? As previously mentioned timing is everything and another concerted effort to raise the uptake on contributions was held at the same time as we loaned the best prospect we have had in 20 years out to a division rival, and allowed another top prospect to leave for free by all accounts. More of those deals later. 

3. Aaron Lennox

The signing of Aaron Lennox on loan from Aberdeen was a curious one, nothing against the player whatsoever, but rather the judgement of the manager (a term used loosely) to use Raith’s one and only allowed loan signing over the age of 21 on his backup keeper. As it happens Kevin Cuthbert was injured early doors in the campaign and Lennox was called into action swiftly, only to pull his hammy half an hour into the first Fife derby of the season, he still managed to keep a clean sheet on one leg in a 2-0 win. Gary Locke was then forced into signing a keeper to deputise for the injured Aussie. Worse was to come a few months later when in a ‘bounce’ game against Dundee United he suffered a list of injuries of which Evel Knievel would be proud. In a single challenge he managed to fracture his jaw, cheekbone, numerous teeth and some bones in his hand. This then coincided with every keeper in the greater Kirkcaldy area sufffering injuries which led to another shambles to be discussed later on. 

4. Rudi Skacel Signing

The 37 year old with an arititic condition in his hands that permanently leaves one hand showing five fingers and the other showing just one, was more concerned with protecting his Hearts legacy and was happy to discuss Hibs at every opportunity he could. His legendary ‘wand of a left foot’ has appeared only twice in the whole season, in the final minute against QoS setting up Mark Stewart and in the final minute against Hearts setting up Declan McManus. His only other contributions was riling Hibs fans at Easter Road on Christmas Eve and being whored by the club to entertain pissed up Hearts fans after the Scottish Cup tie at Starks Park in January. 

5. Goalkeeping Shambles

An unfortunate perfect storm left Raith without a keeper for a crucial Tuesday night away match at Ayr United. Aaron Lennox was still recovering from having his face kicked off, Kevin Cuthbert had recent surgery on a hernia problem and then our only fit keeper (who had been playing without back up for a month) Connor Brennan suffered a ligament injury at QoS three days before the midweek trip to Ayr. Raith’s exhaustive search to sign a keeper seemed limited to a keeper on Celtic’s books who at the eleventh hour decided ‘Fuck That’ which led to Raith asking SPFL to postpone the fixture around Monday lunchtime citing Hearts successful appeal a few years earlier. SPFL decided Raith were ‘at it’ and refused before helpfully informing Rovers officials at midday on the day of the game that were other options available to them. Essentially Raith could sign any keeper at the discretion of the SPFL in a previously unused “unwritten rule” A shambles of a situation handled diabolically by both SPFL and Raith Rovers, with only midfielder Ryan Stevenson appearing from the other side with any credit, stepping in to play the full 90 mins in a narrow 1-0 defeat. 

6. David Bates

David Bates was a youngster that came through the youth ranks and shone at under 20 level, a successful spell at Brechin in which he had to be recalled to cover for injuries at Starks Park highlighted his obvious talent. An accomplished display against Rangers in February 2016 put him on Mark Warburton’s radar. A MOM performance at right back where he neutralised the inconsistent enigma that is overrated winger and golden boy pin-up of this piss poor Rangers side Barrie McKay with relative ease. The following summer an unexpected loan spell was agreed with Rangers. Bates moved to Govan and in return Raith got the use of NI under 21 international Jordan Thompson and the unknown Scott Roberts for six months. None of the players pulled up any trees at either club.
When Rangers decided to make the Bates deal permanent, a straight upfront cash deal with unrealistic clauses looked certain to be announced. The Daily Record were first with the exclusive, fawning that Rangers had signed the “highly rated defender” had Rangers opted to send the player back to Raith, it is doubtful the headline would be “Rangers miss out on highly rated defender” With no official announcement, Raith fans waited eagerly for confirmation of a deal that would at least cover the cost of the Under 20 set up for a year or two surely, justifying its existence. Gary Locke (seemingly off message) then let the cat out of the bag in an interview that no money would be received by Raith, but Rangers and Locke’s good good pal Davie Weir had kindly loaned us Thompson for a further six months. Ryan Hardie would also be returning for a second spell for the remainder of the season. Somewhat inexplicably Scott Roberts who had stugggled to break into Locke’s beleaguered, under performing squad for the past 6 months left Rangers and signed on permanently at Raith. At a time when Raith were trying to convince fans that investing in youth development was critical, this decision was catastrophic and ill-thought out at best, utter negligence at worst. It undermined the whole ethos of youth development and from the outside looked like Rangers had taken advantage of Raith big time, and heaped more pressure and scrutiny on the manager and now had opened up the scrutiny of the board also. 

7. Board Statement

After several days of radio silence confirming the widely known permanent free transfer of David Bates to Rangers, a statement was issued with a weak as piss refutal that Raith had been taken for mugs by the club with the second biggest budget within Scottish Football. We will never know officially the true value of the Bates deal as it was “undisclosed” but Gary Locke’s transparency and naievety in the Press a few days earlier pretty much confirmed it. Raith also chose to attack their own supporters at this juncture, never a wise thing but the timing of this was spectacularly bad. I have sympathy for anyone running a football club, difficult job with little gratitude and I expect that the board were beginning to realise the clusterfuck the club had found themselves in, and with horrendous results and horrendous transfer dealings beginning to pile up, they knew action was likely imminent and were now in a state of panic. They had a choice to make, stand by the manager they appointed 6 months earlier, buy him and themselves a little while longer (in hope more than anything) or throw him under the bus. They chose to stand by him, before throwing him under the next available bus a few weeks later. 

8. Sacking Gary Locke

In hindsight, sacking Gary Locke was a mistake, or rather the timing of it was. Without a win in 16 matches looks cut and dried, an easy decision to make. But that run somewhow crept up on Raith, a run of draws and a few decent performances against Hibs and Hearts papered over the cracks in the four months without a win. The norm was the dismal, uninspiring shot shy borefests that saw Raith slip down the table steadily if a little slowly. It was literally in the month before Locke’s slaying that revealed just how deep in the mire Raith had slipped. A last chance saloon for the management duo came against Morton on the 7th of February and inevitably it ended up with a 1-0 defeat that mirrored many matches Raith fans had endured in the four previous months. This one really felt like the end though, and within an hour, he was officially sacked. What wasn’t entirely apparent at the time, but is now, Locke was sacked too late to give Raith the best opportunity to survive. Probably a month too late and only a miracle will now see Raith retain their Championship status. 

9. Ryan Stevenson

To bring in another player Gary Locke was instructed to move someone on. Locke decided in his wisdom to loan our best player (albeit he was out of form) to a now relegation rival and stump up for another former Hearts player. Stevenson signed on, got injured immediately, came back, played in goal, then retired leaving us short. Ryan Stevenson had been struggling for a year with Ayr United and Dumbarton to find any form, he looked like he had given up on football, which he has subsequently admitted. Gary Locke decided to give his old pal one last shot at rekindling his love for the game and another shot at full time football. The signing was met with lukewarm indifference to seethe from Raith fans, not a reflection on Ryan Stevenson but more what Raith had given up to make it happen (see below). In fairness Ryan Stevenson did little wrong at Raith, in his brief spell he did far more right than wrong at Stark’s Park, a stunning goal against Hibs and his determination to put himself about giving us a different option to what we had endeared himself to the at times venemous South Stand critics. An unfortunate concussion picked up on his debut prevented him capitislising on what was an encouraging start. It was his final game that will see him go down in Raith Rovers and Scottish football folklore however. Deputising in goal due to an omnishambles (see above) should put him above any criticism from Raith fans, he was an absolute hero that night. By all accounts more than held his own and was blameless for the only goal conceded after an hour. His bravery to step up and don the gloves also made up his mind that football was no longer for him, and he retired (from the professional game at least) a couple of weeks later. 

10. Lewis Vaughan

This one is a beauty, an absolute belter of a decision that I will never, ever understand. Lewis Vaughan is the best player Raith have produced in easily twenty years. A player who excites, can score goals, he has everything. A lightning start to last season was derailed before the end of August with a season ending ACL injury. A bitter blow to Raith and Ray McKinnon who had quickly recognised his talent and had built the team around him and for him to maximise his ability. Vaughan never quite made it back for the end of last season but started back for a full pre season and indeed started back in the team when action began mid July. The spectacular start to last season wasn’t replicated and eventually he was dropped, after a short spell out with an injury. There was no doubt that Lewis Vaughan was not at his best but he had rarely featured in the two months previous to his move to Dumbarton. He was our most talented attacker at the club. Gary Locke decided to send him out on loan to “give him some game time”. He did this on the same day the club extended Vaughan’s contract for a further 12 months. This decision alone was where Gary Locke essentially sacked himself. His judgment or lack of it to be more accurate was astonishing, a lack of self awareness to where the club currently lay in the table and more importantly where Raith were heading defied sense. A fortnight later, Vaughan scored in a game that led to Dumbarton jumping Raith in the table, a MOM performance against Hibs again highlighted just what was given up. Then on April Fools day another Vaughan winner saw Dumbarton again jump Raith and leave them firmly standing on the trapdoor to League 1 obscurity. For Raith to give up an out of form but promising, improving attacker for an out of form 32 year old who was on the verge of quitting football, and then eventually did less than 6 weeks later was what did for Locke in the end.

His appointment was met with bemusement, a fear he would steer Raith towards relegation with a team full of former Hearts stars who’s shine had faded came true. His track record suggested this might happen, would happen. It did happen. It’s still happening even after he is gone. John Hughes who was the outstanding candidate out there is struggling to steady the ship, mostly down to a squad short of cover in key areas, Locke signed 17 players that complimented a solid, settled team that had reached the playoffs at a canter. The board’s hideous decision to appoint Locke is only trumped by the countless hideous decisions the manager made in the 8 months as manager. 

CB