MVP: WlD

Team DPs: 168

RR are rivals to 2 teams.

Someone to write press for me. Raith Rovers offer 10K per paragraph.

Update -Season 49 July 2021

Season 49

Division 2 beckons again.  Having won it 3 times the fans are looking forward to it.  Raith's stays previously have been short.  Season 40 and 46 saw Rovers bounce straight back up.  With Digweed, aging, but still very good, and a forward line of Barnes, Sarr and Thomas hopes are that history will repeat itself.  Young tyros Sierralta and Daziel will be very good Age I players by MSA.  The question of back-up keeper will need to be resolved, either an Age I (difficult to get) or a youngster from teh inevitable oldie cull of the squad.

Season 48

Relegated via the play-offs in a dispiriting end to the season.  We seemed to run out of luck towards the end of the season, key games against relegation threatened rivals ended in defeat when they shouldn't have done.  Then to cap it all star keeper Perry Digweed managed to get suspended for the play-off against Livingston.  Despite outplaing them we lost 1-0, and faced Division 2 again.  A decent run in the Cecil cup swelled the coffers, but tthe SESL cup last 32 defeat was a dissapointment.  The season was ultimately a tale of too few goals, and slice of bad luck.

Season 47

Mid table with 8th.  Raith neither challenged or looked like being getiing relegated.  Which was pretty much the expected and required outcome respectively.  Highlights of the season included a 4-0 thumping of the Champions at home as the season drew to a close. Helped a little by the Champions deciding to coach an Age 10 and an Age 9 in the match.  Which was pretty much "SESL show-boating" as far as the crowd and Manager thought and a little disrespctful to the league considering Raith could have been dragged into the relegation battle.  Still 4-0 is 4-0!!

We brought home the sponsorship for the second year running, turning a nice return on the 18K investment for a 3 game undefeated streak.

Season 46

Before last seast I asked "A glorious return to the top table - or a further slide down the league structure?".  Well it is a return to the top table, but 4th was perhaps not as glorious as hoped.  Dundee were very strong and we faded after MSA, so grabbing the final promotion spot was a relief in the end. The cups were a distraction for the main prize of promotion.  The biggest disappointment was Liam Buchanan finished joint top scorer but missed out on the golden boot having played more games.

Season 45

It turns out that season 44 was the prelude to a relegation.  A pretty awful season, being out shot and generally out played.  Even when we had the upper hand we couldn’t score.  Relegation was inevitable, and despite a late rally that hinted at another great escape there was not reprieve.  14th was a poor season, and a season in Division 2 beckons.

Season 44.

Just!  Raith stayed up by the skin of their teeth.  In deep relegation trouble Raith pulled themselves up into the last play-off spot, which they duly won.  Was it a blip in the standard run of mid-table finishes or the start of the slippery slope.  The cups were best forgotten.  Craig Ramage was top scorer in the league with only 10 goals.

Season 43

Another solid Division 1 season, although a little closer to the drop zone, with a late run of form dragging Rovers clear of any danger.  An SESL cup run to the Quarter finals was the best part of the season, but as it is so often is the CECIL cup was an absolute disaster.  Jonny Court was the league top scorer.  Who seems to have vanished from our records.  Sold somewhere I guess.

Season 42

A solid 6th.  Nowwhere near the title and no where near relegation, but no cup run to bring the fans highlights that they could remember, or indeed the manager can remember. Top scorer was Luis Suarez in his second season at the club having signed from Queens Park.  Named after the Urguguayan genius or the player on Watford’s books I cannot hazard a guess.

Season 41

Division 1 again – not much chance of the title.  But as masters of the mid table finish somewhere between 6th and 10th is likely.  Tommy Mooney is still around so goals may still flow.  In fact the current squad has the three top scorers of all time for Raith.  Odion Ighalo, Ben Watson and Tommy Mooney.  Admittedly their best days are behind them, but what a trio of greats.  Watch out for Ighalo leading the Nigerian front line at the world cup.

Season 40
Well it was brief.  Raith promoted at first attempt, as Champions of Division 2 for the 3rd time.  The two teams of the Old Firm the only others to have done this.  Tommy Mooney was top scorer, with 23 and golden boot again.  Semi-finalists in both cups, gave the tantalising possibility of an unlikely treble.  The SESL cup sandwiched a remarkable 15 game winning streak, which propelled Rovers to the title, by just the clear 12 points.  It was all done in entertaining swashbuckling style with awesome wing play and 63 goals.

 Season 39
RELEGATION- Shock.  16 full seasons in Division 1 and Raith were finally dumped out of the top flight.  Curiously Tommy Mooney was top scorer (silver boot) and more goals than the glorious season before.  The cups were best forgotten.  In fact let’s just forget season 39.

Season 38,
A thoroughly entertaining season.  We finished 4th, equalling the best ever (season 27) but so close to the title that we dared to dream, losing out by just 6 points to Blair’s Clydebank.  Tommy Mooney grabbing the first of his Golden Boots.  It really was close in a very tight season.  Made the quarters of the CECIL cup, but the league dominated and the SESL cup campaign was a disappointment.

Season 37
After the relative success of the previous season back down to 10th.  Last 16 of the SESL cup, out in the first match of the CECIL cup, which is pretty normal.

Season 36
Mid table again – but an improvement 5th! – No cup runs, didn’t get out of the group stage in the  SESL cup (first time since season 23) and out early as so often the case in the CECIL

Season 35
Mid table again (6th), but runners up in a cup yet again.  This time the CECIL cup, the season marks the end of many years of cup glory.

Season34
Mid table again (10th), but no cup glory.  Everything going a bit stale -  maybe??

Season 33
Mid table again – But marked a 4th consecutive SESL cup final, but unfortunately a 3rd consecutive runners up medal.

Season 32
Yep you guessed it  - a mid table league finish and a cup run. No really.  Raith finished 6th again, never  looking like mounting a serious title bid and never looking in any threat of releagation.  Young Italian striker Diego Fabbrini topped the goalscoring charts.  As ever this lack of danger or glory means the cup is the path for silverware.  Raith reached the cup final for the third straight season, but for the second time in a row ran up against a better team in the final.  Dumbarton despite an early scare ran out comfortable and deserved winners. 

Another season then much the same as the last few where does this leave Raith.  Survival and a cup run seems the status quo, but how to break into the top 3 of the league and dare to dream of the title?  Answers on a postcard please.

Season 31
It gets boring to say it but yet again Raith finished in the top half of Division 1.  Again neither botheing the relegation zone or the title challengers.  A high placed and commendable 5th placed finish.  As normal such a state of affairs lends itself to a cup run and so it proved as Raith reached the final for the second year running, but came up short against deserved winner Airdrie.  So a a satisfactory season if hardly sparkling.  Andy Walls led the team scoring charts in the league.



 

July 2021  Update 

(I think I might need a new photo!) (July 2021 - I still need a new photo!)
In real life I am 48, living with my lovely partner Rieta and my 13 year old son Elliot and 11 year old Chloe . We no longer live in South East of London, but the leafy shire of Hertfordshire which is a little bit closer to my roots. I still work for the world's largest ink company working in their Product Stewardship team.  We have been extremely fortunate that we can and continue to  both work from home.  In fact it seems a return is becoming more and more unlikely with everyone enjoying the flexibility and stress free commute that WFH offers.  So apart from every day appearing to be the same we have been largely unaffected by the pandemic.  Double jabbed and hoping to get on holiday without being pinged beforehand.

In SESL I am the master of the Top 11-5 finish in Division 1.  SInce Season 24 we have only been relegated three times and promoted twice.  All other seasons we have occupied 4th-11th in the top division.  The Everton of SESL if you will!

I am a real life Watford supporter and had been pumping money into the club as a season ticket holder for as long as I can remember.  This is the reason for more than the odd Watford player name appearing in the Rovers team.   This season finds The Hornets back in the Premier League.  The rough and tumble of the Championship, and frequent matches make it much more enjoyable than the grind of the Premier League but here we are again!.     As someone once wisely said there are only so many times you can marvel at Arsenal and Thierry Henry waltz around your static defence.  Now it is Manchester City, and they do seem to enjoy playing us.      I missed going to the games - and I don't get the same buzz from just watching on TV.  I have come to realise there is more than going to football than just watching the games and they are just as important if not more so.

Having started in Alan Parr's United by snail mail as a schoolboy, I have moved on to the internet versions. Starting in GOAL (sadly no more), and The Manager (very sadly no more), SESL was the next league I joined. To prove that I occasionally know what I am doing my much loved Orpington Inkspots  won The Manager league title seven times. MSWL-United which is I guess a return to my roots and a little bit of knowledge helped where I had 10 good seasons before having an extended break, and now really enjoying it again and grabbed a title with York City.