Dancing in the streets of Raith...again

[Gary_Parker]

Cheers mate, mob is being kind to them I think though

March was becoming a busy month for us now. It was where the cup competitions became serious and the league started to mean business. For the 2nd March in a row we had 3 competitions to focus on, none of them European sadly, but last year we scored a domestic hat-trick and had a great opportunity to repeat part, if not all of that again.

We kicked off at Ibrox, a Scottish Cup Quarter Final against Rangers.

Saturday 2nd March, 2019

Scottish FA Cup Quarter Final

Rangers 1

Raith Rovers 2 (Paco 54, Hoare 90+2)

Attendance: 34,751

A draw and a replay forced into an already busy schedule was looming until Will Hoare roamed forward from his holding midfield role to smash in an effort from a cleared corner. It was a goal worthy of winning such a match. I was happy with the result in the end. It meant a Semi Final tie against St. Mirren was set up for April. One step closer.

First though, we had to entertain St. Mirren in the league. A dress rehearsal for the cup Semi Final was of course in everyones thoughts, but at the same time, we were looking to make sure we couldn't be caught in the league. The day before the match, another disappointing batch of youth appeared in our intake. Again none of these guys would make the grade.

Saturday 9th March, 2019

Raith Rovers 3 (Novothny 10, 46, 49)

St. Mirren 0

Attendance: 7,850

After the match, St. Mirren manager Danny Lennon was relieved of his duties. An ex Raith Rovers legend, I felt for Danny. It was never nice to see a fellow manager lose their job, but it felt worse being the one who tipped the balance. I tried to reach out and see if Danny would be interested in joining us in any capacity, but it wasn't to be.

Wednesday 13th March, 2019

Partick Thistle 0

Raith Rovers 3 (Novothny 1, 4, Kishna 69)

Attendance: 5,322

A comfortable win took us to within 4 points of winning the league title again. It was great seeing Soma hitting some great form for us. It set us up nicely for Sundays League Cup Final vs Celtic. Our first trophy opportunity of the season was upon us.

Sunday 17th March, 2019

Scottish League Cup Final

Celtic 2

Raith Rovers 3 (Novothny 14, 75, Tinkler 79)

Attendance: 41,212

Having taken an early lead, we found ourselves 2-1 down by half time to two Jordan Rhodes, who else, goals. Celtic spent a lot of the 2nd half defending very well before Soma took the initiative and skinned Liam Moore in the Celtic defence before chipping their keeper from the edge of the area. From there Ty Tinkler scored our winner from a corner. One trophy down, 2 to play for.

[Gary_Parker]

Wednesday 20th March, 2019

Ross County 1

Raith Rovers 3 (Kishna 29, Novothny 40, Tinkler 90)

Attendance: 5,124

We had moved to within 1 point of securing the league title and happily for us, going by our previous record, the chance would come our way on a Monday night TV match. We had yet to taste defeat in all our time playing on Monday nights. Naturally, nothing could be taken for granted, but the opportunity was ours to take and of course, ours to let slip.

Monday 25th March, 2016

Raith Rovers 1 (Novothny 16)

Dundee United 0

Attendance: 8,473

A capacity crowd turned up to push us on and in the end a 1-0 win was ground out. We had started brightly and got ourselves an early goal, but Dundee United pushed us all the way and despite creating good opportunities, they didn't find the net themselves. However, the League was ours and the plaudits were quick to post their reactions the next morning.

"Wonder maker Parker nets back to back titles" - Daily Record

"Raith defy odds to win league" - Sky Sports

"Hutton declares proudest moment as Raith win League" - BBC Sport

The fans spokeman also congratulated the team, I of course passed on my full thanks to the team, it wasn't me who played each game, I just watched from the sidelines and offered suggestions when needed.

Next day was back to business, a cup semi final to come against St. Mirren and of course 6 games to go in the league. We started with Celtic away in the league.

Saturday 6th April, 2019

Celtic 1

Raith Rovers 2 (Randolph o/g 38, Teixeira 69)

Attendance: 58,421

1 guess as to who scored for Celtic.....again..

We were ready to head back to Glasgow for the Cup Semi Final. However, the day before we lost Soma Novothny to an injury. Great

[Gary_Parker]

Saturday 13th April, 2019

Scottish FA Cup Semi Final

St. Mirren 1

Raith Rovers 2 (Paco 41, 72)

Attendance: 11,741

St. Mirren tested us early on and scored with their first attack in the 6th minute. From then on, it was all Raith. The concession of the goal pushed us on and woke us up. We settled the tie with two good goals from Paco who beat the offside trap to equalise before dismantling the St. Mirren defence with a run from his own half to score the winner. The young Brazilian was starting to really show his talents now. The victory set us up with a tie against unlikely Championship opponents Falkirk, who had beaten Celtic 1-0 in their Semi Final.

The league would now split into its oddly formatted group stage, this year we were already champions and could take it easy, or easier anyway. I decided it would be time to test a new formation, something I had been tinkering with all season in my head whilst looking to train my players to adapt. The formation chosen was a 1-2-2-2-2-1 essentially, including a Libero, two ball playing defenders, two complete wingbacks, two midfielders, one a defending CM and the other a supporting DLP, an Advanced Playmaker and Attacking Midfielder and a Complete Forward. Oh and a keeper, but you all knew that. We're not that bold..

While still highly experimental and subject to change, I had decided that this could offer us a way of controlling games better whilst also allowing us to exploit our strengths, which were undoubtably in the attacking central midfield area, Ricardo Kishna, João Teixeira, John Noble and to an extent Alun Ainsworth could all occupy that role successfully and it made sense to use them. The Libero is a pure wish of mine to have operating correctly, in the mould of the great Beckenbauer himself. Would it work with Scottish football? Lets find out was my answer.

It didn't start well....

Saturday 20th April, 2019

Hibernian 2

Raith Rovers 1 (Teixeira 1)

Attendance: 10,463

Ok, it looked like it would start well, but faltered. My usage of Tinkler as my Libero was good, but his wayward pass exposed us for Hibernian to net the winner. It was fine though, its a learning experience and we all took something from it. I decided to keep on using it for the remainder of the league season.

Saturday 27th April, 2019

Raith Rovers 1 (Teixeira 28)

Inverness CT 1

Attendance: 7,698

I was glad we'd wrapped up the league already.

Saturday 4th May, 2019

Motherwell 4

Raith Rovers 3 (Neilsen 11, Hutchison o/g 33, Paco 74)

Attendance: 8,788

A youthful side took to the field and did themselves proud for the most part, sure we conceded 4 goals, but I was OK with that in the end as we started to really acclimatise to our new formation. A bit tighter at the back wouldn't go amiss though.

Saturday 11th May, 2019

Raith Rovers 5 (Neilsen 4, Robertson 39, Kishna 40, 63, Sakor 70)

Dundee 1

Attendance: 8,473

Thats more like it. Dundee didn't know what to do for that game, we dominated start to finish and only an 89th minute consolation goal to show for their 90 minute efforts. Our final game of the season was to runners up Celtic. Lets see how we fared against the stronger opposition.

Sunday 19th May, 2019

Raith Rovers 2 (Teixeira 2, Tinkler 7)

Celtic 0

Attendance: 8,473

Oh yes. I enjoyed that. Especially my Libero moving forward with the ball and giving a great one-two pass with João to run through on goal and score our 2nd of the game. It was great to watch. Celtics 2nd half also highlighted where we could be caught out and we tightened up successfully. With the league over, we had won by a comfortable 18 points. Scoring 86 goals and conceding only 25 all season. With the cup final left to play, João Teixeira was confirmed as the leagues best player, top goal scorer with 22 goals and top assist maker with 28 assists. Ty Tinkler was young player of the year and I won Manager of the Year. An award I dedicated to my players of course. The cup final was next.

[Gary_Parker]

Saturday 26th May, 2019

Scottish FA Cup Final

Falkirk 2

Raith Rovers 4 (Kishna 1, Paco 8, Teixeira 19, Novothny 60)

Attendance: 41,256

Having gone back to our 4-2-3-1 formation from this season, we looked comfortable after 19 minutes and nervous by half time as Falkirk scored two good goals to pull it back. Soma Novothny, on his return from injury sealed the victory and the cup. A 2nd domestic treble was a fantastic feat and it was announced that I had been entered into the Scottish hall of fame. I felt quite proud. I was still a long way behind our most successful managers.

We were just about to head for holidays when I was hit with a bombshell.

"Boss, can we talk?" said the dulcet Australian tones of Ty Tinkler.

"Sure Ty, whats on your mind?" I said, somewhat apprehensively.

"This doesn't need to go any further but I want to look for a bigger club" he said, almost embarrassed to say it.

"I see, well i'd like you to stay and fulfil your ambitions here son" I said.

"I can't wait that long boss, i'm sorry" he said.

"Ty, I'm disappointed, but OK. If thats what you want." I said, resigning myself to his wishes.

"Thanks boss." he said, leaving the room.

Well that was a dampener to the season. The man I had tagged as my Beckenbauer in training wanted to leave. I now had to hunt for a replacement. It put my plans to adopt my experimental formation next season onto the back burner.

The players left for holiday, the season ended and we all looked forward to next years challenges.

*****Coming soon*****

A record transfer fee paid, a record fee received and the new season starts, but will Parker still be in charge of Raith Rovers?

[Gary_Parker]

Breaking news from Holland as Sp!ts are reporting that Dutch champions PSV have paid out a fee of £2.5m for Raith Rovers' Australian defender Ty Tinkler. The young defender joined Raith Rovers on a free transfer last season and provides the Scottish champions with an exceptional profit. It is understood that Tinkler had made his desire to move away from Raith known to his manager who allowed him to leave. Tinkler joins PSV having played 31 games for Raith last season including 6 Champions League ties. The price of £2.5m shatters the previous highest fee received by Raith Rovers. It is yet to be seen how Parker will spend the money from this deal.

Reluctantly Tinkler left for Eindhoven but the money received was well above anything I expected to get for him realistically. I decided to set about scouting for his replacement during the close season.

In further news, it is being heavily rumoured that Gary Parker is being sounded out for the vacancies at both Arsenal and Manchester United. With Arsene Wenger retiring this year, it remains to be seen who will ultimately replace him with Roberto Martinez and Remi Garde also in the running for the job. Manchester United have today parted company with David Moyes after a lacklustre season in the EPL, finishing 5th and losing out in Europe at the group stage. Antonio Conte and, as a surprise to many, Brendan Rodgers seem to be bookies favourites with Parker an outside bet at 11/1

The coming days were a bit of a shock, both Arsenal and Manchester United had lost their managers and both had me linked as a possible manager. In truth, I had not even expressed an interest but the media didn't seem to care.

"Mr Parker, is there any truth in the link with Manchester United?" I was asked as I left the stadium after a day of scouting with Mr P. Layersearch.

"I've heard nothing about it and i'm not interested in leaving the club" I said in reply. It was true, Manchester United was not the club for me.

"Mr Parker, what about Arsenal?" said another newshound from the crowd.

"No, as much as i'm flattered, i'm not interested in leaving" I replied.

"Why would these clubs not interest you?"

"I've not even come close to finishing the job here, sure Ajax turned my head but this is my club, i'm staying here" I replied as I got into my car to drive off.

The next day, the club released a statement saying they were delighted I had turned down those opportunities to stay and looked forward to many more happy times together. I couldn't tell if that was a vote of confidence or not. By the time the players had returned, we had no new signings to speak of aside from those on bosmans that were joining on 1st July.

[Gary_Parker]

Pre-season would be our usual mix of small games for fitness and any glamour ties we were offered. This years glamour tie came in the form of a visit to Yeovil and a visit from Rayo Vallecano. First we had our fitness to attend to.

Thursday 26th June, 2019

Raith Rovers 3 (Aaram 66, Kishna 78, Paco 80)

FC Bayern II 2

Attendance: 5,596

A good start, considering we were 2-0 down by half time it was also a good comeback.

Sunday 30th June, 2019

Raith Rovers 3 (Noble 40, Venuti 43, Oskarsen o/g 79)

Haugesund 1

Attendance: 2,226

As July came around, our two new faces arrived. Hervin Ongenda, a striker from PSG was looking ready to go from the first minute while Mikhail Ozerov had some work to do, but I expected him to blend in through time. Both were included in our next squad against a side Hervin knew well.

Wednesday 3rd July, 2019

Raith Rovers 3 (Noble 35, 48, Crawford 57)

PSG Reserves 0

Attendance: 5,602

A comfortable win with young midfielder John Noble excelling in front of goal again.

Saturday 6th July, 2019

Raith Rovers 1 (Ongenda 80)

Metalist Kharkiv 3

Attendance: 4,174

3-0 down after 20 minutes didn't help us as an already fully fit Metalist side took full advantage. Hervin bagged his first goal in our colours with a free kick 10 mins from time.

In transfer news, Thomas Aaram left for Derry City for £49.5k, Aaron Matthews moved to Peterborough for £140k, Paul Robertson left for Southend on loan, Steinar moved to Rayo for £600k and in a huge move that shattered our received transfer record once again, Tomas Podstawski moved to Dnipro for a fee of £3.6m. Our finances and our squad were in good shape, even when those players had left us.

Tuesday 9th July, 2019

Raith Rovers 11 (Venuti 3, Devlin 5, 65, Ainsworth 37, 42, 83, Mahon 44, Crawford 52, Noble 61, Teixeira 78, Paco 86)

Arbroath Vics 0

Attendance: 2,220

A very resounding win against our non league opposition. Every major player got their chance to play in the game and our quality showed through from start to finish.

After the match, our received transfer fee record was shattered again, this time with Lorenzo Venuti moving to Southampton for a fee of £4.5m. The youngster was brought in on a free less than 12 months ago and played only 20 times for us before moving on for a hefty profit. He was joined in leaving the club by the loan move of Conor Blakeman to Ross County.

So far this summer we had spent £0 and received in a total of £11.4m. Not bad business to be honest.

Friday 12th July, 2019

Raith Rovers 10 (Teixeira 5, 25, Crawford 6, Kishna 33, Mango 36, Ainsworth 68, 80, 90, Paco 74, 82)

Arbroath CSC 0

Attendance: 2,233

Another resounding win that increased both morale and fitness ahead of the new season. I was proud of my lads so far this year.

Monday 15th July, 2019

Raith Rovers 3 (Mazarekic 39, Teixeira 51, Neilsen 58)

Arbroath HSFP

Attendance: 2,234

Thursday 18th July, 2019

Raith Rovers 7 (Teixeira 1, Crawford 14, 40, Paco 33, 35, Mazarekic 50, Hoare 79)

Arbroath Harp

Attendance: 2,230

Our invitation to all but the professional club in Arbroath ended with another fantastic win for the lads, it meant we could head south for Yeovil in high spirits and good form.

Saturday 20th July, 2019

Yeovil Town 1

Raith Rovers 6 (Ainsworth 1, 47, Crawford 30, Teixeira 37, Mazarekic 55, Neilsen 57)

Attendance: 2,432

Whilst Yeovil couldn't be considered a huge club, a win away from home against any opposition can be classed as a good result. I couldn't have a complaint with my sides performance.

After the match, it was confirmed that Øystein Koppegodt would spend his season in the Czech Republic with Slovan Liberec. We then returned home for our final friendly of pre-season against Spanish side Rayo.

Wednesday 24th July, 2019

Raith Rovers 1 (Ainsworth 62)

Rayo Vallecano 1

Attendance: 3,864

A good result in an even game was rounded off with the knowledge that our Champions League opponents would be Olympiakos of Greece in the 3rd Qualifying Round. We had a week to go before the game to rest and relax.

Coming next, a new transfer record and a Champions League visit to Greece

[Gary_Parker]

We left for Greece without really knowing what to expect, the obvious cliches of "Its a hard ground to get a result in" and "Fanatical atmosphere" aside Olympiakos hadn't really done anything in Champions League terms lately.

Wednesday 31st July, 2019

Champions League 3rd Qual Round 1st leg

Olympiakos 0

Raith Rovers 1 (Ongenda 39)

Attendance: 30,722

Ok, it wasa tough place to go, but we defended well and took a great result and away goal back home for the return leg. The next day brought us our first signing of the season and breaking our transfer record in the process. 17 year old defender and midfielder Stefan Schwab arrived from FC Red Bull Salzburg for a fee of £2m. Whilst still very young, Stefan had all the attributes needed to become a great player for us. I was extremely happy with the deal.

Wednesday 7th August, 2019

Champions League 3rd Qual Round 2nd leg

Raith Rovers 2 (Paco 102, Ongenda 110)

Olympiakos 1

Attendance: 7,832

I had never felt so relieved at the end of a match. Olympiakos scored in the 84th minute to bring the tie to extra time. Only then did we take control and win the match. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective in the end. We had moved on to the play-off round where Steaua Bucharest were waiting for us. Before that of course, our league campaign was set to kick off. As reigning champions, we had the honour of playing home in the first game. Could we successfully defend our title again? I decided to further shore up a defence by bringing in young Dortmund defender Tomasz Matysiak on loan. It was the first loan I had accepted from our parent club, but I felt this lad would be a welcome cover for our centre half pairing if they were to be injured.

Saturday 10th August, 2019

Raith Rovers 2 (Kishna 7, Paco 11)

Ross County 1

Attendance: 7,407

By the time Kishna scored our first goal, we were already 1-0 down as Ross County scored in the first minute with a freak goal straight from a cross. The result was sealed in 11 minutes with Paco scoring another goal from a mazy run at the defence. Our league defence got off to a winning start.

[Gary_Parker]

The games came thick and fast in August, with two league games before we left for Romania to play Steaua. It started with a trip north to Inverness.

Wednesday 14th August, 2019

Inverness CT 0

Raith Rovers 1 (Ongenda 71)

Attendance: 5,859

while not on our best form, it was another good result for us, I wanted confidence to be high when we went for Champions League qualification. Of course before that, we had a Saturday lunch date at home to Rangers.

Saturday 17th August, 2019

Raith Rovers 3 (Paco 57, Kishna 64, Langton o/g 90)

Rangers 1

Attendance: 7,813

TV games were always going in our favour and this proved to be much of the same as we picked a stubborn Rangers defence apart to win 3 games in a row to start the season. We left for Steaua in high spirits.

Wednesday 21st August, 2019

Champions League Play-Off 1st Leg

Steaua Bucharest 1

Raith Rovers 2 (Kishna 3, Mazarekic 37)

Attendance: 38,380

A quick start pushed us in the right direction to win the match with Ricardo Kishna chipping the keeper from an angle. The post match conference was all about bigger clubs attempting to sign him. I knew I couldn't stand in his way from the massive clubs, but I wasn't going to let him go on the cheap.

We returned to Scotland to finish off our month.

Saturday 24th August, 2019

Raith Rovers 2 (Sakor pen 75, Novothny 90+3)

Hibernian 0

Attendance: 8,216

4 wins from 4 as my much changed side extended our winning streak in style. We were in perfect form to welcome Steaua to Scotland.

Tuesday 27th August, 2019

Champions League Play-Off 2nd Leg

Raith Rovers 1(Paco 48)

Steaua Bucharest 0

Attendance: 8,473

We had done it, for the 2nd year running we were in the group stage of the Champions League. Our aim was of course to make sure we did our country proud in every game, a tough task but one we could take on, I was sure of it.

We had one league game to play before the Transfer window closed and the group stages were drawn for Europe.

Saturday 31st August, 2019

Dundee United 1

Raith Rovers 4 (Ongenda 45+1, Mazarekic 70, 87, Paco 75)

Attendance: 11,236

Buoyed on by the fantastic European qualification, we hammered United on their home patch. It was a satisfying win. The transfer window however, would bring its share of bad news....and of course, Europe.

[Gary_Parker]

The bad news arrived in the form of a transfer bid from Southampton for Ricardo Kishna. The offer was for £7.75m and it was money I couldn't turn down in honesty. So the bid was accepted. It was immediately followed by a bid of £8.5m from Wolverhampton Wanderers for Will Hoare, the young man had been an exceptional holding midfielder since his arrival, on a free from Crystal Palace. It was again accepted. Other outgoings for the month were Serge Gnabry on loan to Colo-Colo in Chile and Conor Henderson to Sheffield United for the season.

It wasn't all bad news, we had a record bid of £2.4m accepted for 21 year old holding midfielder Willy Diallo, a Frenchman from Cesena and £110k for 16 year old goalkeeper Bjarki Pall Kristjansson. Both players would be welcome additions to the side both now and for future. We also moved to secure a future transfer for Brazillian left winger Marcelinho from Cruzeiro to join us on 1st January subject to a work permit.

The busy window closed at that, with Raith Rovers making £27m in transfers and spending a total of £4.5m. It was good business in all.

Our champions league group was drawn too, another tough set of teams. The group of death was Group G and consisted of;

Raith Rovers

Fenerbahce

FC Porto

Real Madrid

A collective sigh went around the Raith delegation as Turnbull and I looked at each other and shook our heads. It could not have got more difficult for us.

"Well son, lets do our best" he said as we left the event

"I don't think we can ask much more" I replied, starting to work out what I could do to win any games in this group. We were due to start away to Real Madrid before hosting Fenerbahce. FC Porto would be our double header game in the middle of the competition.

We had 2 weeks international break before we resumed playing. September was going to be a busy month with 3 league games and two cups to contend with. Especially when the first two weeks were internationals.

Finally the season resumed as we hosted Kilmarnock in the league.

Saturday 14th September, 2019

Raith Rovers 3 (Mazarekic 2, 90+1, Noble 62)

Kilmarnock 1

Attendance: 7,454

A debut given to Willy Diallo and the natural Kishna replacement in Noble turned the match. Diallo setting up Noble with a fine through ball from deep. It set us up nicely to head off to Spain for a clash I was not looking forward to.

Wednesday 18th September, 2019

Champions League Group G. Game 1

Real Madrid 0

Raith Rovers 3 (Anderson 42, Novothny 51, Ainsworth pen 83)

Attendance: 76,555

Stunning. Madrid clearly thought they could play their usual game against us, that wasn't to be however and even though they dominated chances and possession, we hit them quick and hard and won the game. I couldn't believe what I was watching, my team had done the impossible and with style. I almost did a Jose Mourinho or David Pierce by running down the touchline when we scored.

[neilhoskins77]

What a result! Amazing Gary, well done mate. Getting out of that group would be an impressive feat!

[Gary_Parker]

Cheers Neil, we can only try. I was literally celebrating when we won that game. Even at 3-0 you start to think, this is Madrid, they can come back from this.

No sooner than we had touched down from the trip to Madrid our minds were onto the next game, a home league tie against Celtic. The deposed rulers of Scottish football historically now had a new rival and one that had bested them in the previous two seasons. That only made it harder for us really, we had expectations to live up to now.

In the run up, we secured a January deal to bring Emil Christiansen, a 16 year old Swedish fullback in from Malmo for £550k. As Anderson, Crawford and now Neilsen were attracting offers, I figured I had best look for inevitable replacements.

Sunday 22nd September, 2019

Raith Rovers 0

Celtic 0

Attendance: 8,473

Celtic made it hard for us, playing a 4-4-1-1 and being compact and tough to break down. In the end it would easily have been Neil Lennon who was the happier of the managers. Maybe the result in Madrid had taken more out of us than expected. The lads would get a break now as I sent a young side to Arbroath for the League Cup tie.

Wednesday 25th September, 2019

Scottish League Cup 3rd Round

Arbroath 0

Raith Rovers 3 (Devlin 9, Ainsworth 47, Ongenda 81)

Attendance: 849

Satisfied by the result we rounded off September with a visit to St. Mirren. It had been a great month and we wanted to finish it unbeaten and ideally in style.

Saturday 28th September, 2019

St. Mirren 0

Raith Rovers 0

Attendance: 4,334

Not the ideal result, but a point none the less and an unbeaten September. Could October be just as good for us?

[Gary_Parker]

Tuesday 1st October, 2019

Champions League Group G. Game 2

Raith Rovers 1 (Paco 29)

Fenerbahce 0

Attendance: 8,085

After 2 games, we were sitting on top of the group, a position that I doubt any Raith fan would have expected when the group was drawn. Madrid bounced back with a win away in Porto to join them on 3 points each. Fenerbahce propped up the table with 0 points from two games.

League action resumed the following Monday, the lads greatful for the extended break and the TV game was of course, a good omen for us.

Monday 7th October, 2019

Dundee 0

Raith Rovers 1 (Teixeira 25)

Attendance: 7,789

Another good TV display gave us another 3 points. We were on form as the international break arrived. In good news for the club Jakub Smuzski, Soma Novothny, Martin Neilsen and John Anderson all received caps for their country in addition to my other internationals. It was great recognition for their fine form.

The international break wasn't good news however, João Teixeira returned injured and would miss the remainder of October.

Saturday 19th October, 2019

Raith Rovers 4 (Crawford 2, van den Boomen 12, Novothny 33, A.Diallo 90+2)

Hearts 0

Attendance: 7,276

A resounding win that saw Branco van den Boomen net his first goal for the club with a well worked move. We flew out to Porto looking forward to the game.

Tuesday 22nd October, 2019

Champions League Group G. Game 3

FC Porto 3

Raith Rovers 2 (Crawford 39, 90)

Attendance: 45,536

Porto are an impressive side to play. They are packed full of fantastic players who all know each others game inside out. Their star player was Gabriel Barbosa who had signed for £17m and fellow Brazilian Otavio did the damage. It was a good learning experience for us and I knew we needed to get something in the return match in a few weeks if we wanted to do anything more in the group.

We returned to Scotland to face a League match against Inverness and a League Cup match against Celtic to close off the month.

Saturday 26th October, 2019

Raith Rovers 2 (Novothny 23, A.Diallo 80)

Inverness CT 0

Attendance: 6,009

Another unbeaten league month ended, we needed to beat Celtic in the League Cup to finish off.

Wednesday 30th October, 2019

Scottish League Cup Quarter Final

Raith Rovers 4 (Crawford 18, 44, 72, Ongenda 64)

Celtic 1

Attendance: 7,721

Peter Crawford took Celtic to bits down the right side, their defensive setup had no answers for my wide players stretching their defence. Another month ended, a bigger month to come in November.

[Gary_Parker]

All, as an aside, i'm going to be putting tactical discussion, player profiles and the like on a new blog at http://thestreetsofraith.wordpress.com/ so feel free to check in there for any non-story information. November will be coming soon.

[Gary_Parker]

November kicked off in spectacular style as we headed north to Dingwall to visit Ross County.

Saturday 2nd November, 2019

Ross County 1

Raith Rovers 4 (Mazarekic 7, 63, Teixeira 37, Ongenda 40)

Attendance: 5,252

The return from injury for João Teixeira brought a return of fantastic football for us. Its no shock by now that the lad is a mainstay in the side and helps us tick. It had proved however that we were not so reliant on him given the other lads in the squad. His creation of 2 goals and scoring one himself was of course not to be disrespected.

We had no time to reflect on that win as we entertained FC Porto 4 days later in what would be the crunch match in the champions league group.

Wednesday 6th November, 2019

Champions League Group G. Game 4

Raith Rovers 1 (Ongenda 12)

FC Porto 0

Attendance: 8,010

We held firm for most of the game after hitting them early with our first real opportunity. Porto knocked on the door repeatedly and thankfully never found the net. We were ecstatic after the match as we had 9 points in the group of death, 3 more would confirm our passage through. Real Madrid and Fenerbahce were the obstacles however.

It was the day after when I received some disturbing news. First through the newspapers.

It is understood today that Raith Rovers chairman Turbull Hutton is willing to listen to offers for the club. Hutton, a member of Raiths board for over 20 years now has decided that time has now come to pass the club onto someone else. It has been rumoured that Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov, one of Russias most wealthy individuals has been looking to purchase a club in the UK for some time now. It could be that the increased prestige surrounding Raith Rovers now will tip his hand. We'll have more on this in due time.

It was odd to read about that from the papers before Turnbull called personally. He did however ring moments after i'd put the morning paper down.

"Son, you've probably read the papers today?" He said.

"Just now yes, that was a shocker." I replied, starting to wonder what the future would hold.

"I know, for me too. I'll be honest, I've been feeling my time is up here for some time now, but I've never made that public, I don't know where the papers got it from." He said, almost resigned to his words.

"I don't know what to say Turnbull..." I started.

"Its ok son, I've taken this club on for 20 odd years now, I want to enjoy what time I've got left." he said, reassuringly.

"I understand boss, I can't say i'm happy with the choice but I get it." I said.

"Thanks, this thing with Antonov may hold more water than the report indicated. I've met him before and he's a good man. If he comes in with a good bid, i'll accept. However, I want to offer you a new deal to stay with the club, no matter what happens." He said, sounding a lot brighter. I think he didn't want to tell me he was wanting to go at this time.

"Ok, lets discuss contracts later today? I still don't have a new agent, so I'll be discussing it myself." I replied as we said our goodbyes and I headed to training.

We had a few days to recover as we had another Monday game, our speciality fixtures these days it seemed. We ensured we prepared correctly for Motherwell, regardless of what else was going on in the club.

Monday 11th November, 2019

Raith Rovers 5 (Ongenda 48, 56, 69, 90, Teixeira 89)

Motherwell 2

Attendance: 7,899

For all our preparation, our first half performance ended with us being 2-0 down. A half time team talk about how the lads needed to play their own game changed the course of the fixture and Hervin Ongenda stole the show with 4 goals. 2 of which were from free kicks outside the area. The lad was really settling in now, it was a pleasure to watch him play football.

International breaks left us with plenty time to work on the training ground and gave me time to sit and sign a new four year contract with the club. Even with the uncertainty of the continued support of the chairman who had already done so much for me, I was never going to walk away from the club without finishing what I started here. With the deal signed and the players and staff being buoyed by it, we got to work on our next and final league game of the month, a trip to Rangers before we welcomed the Spanish circus that was Real Madrid to our small stadium in a champions league match that would decide our fate, progress or the Europa cup.

Saturday 23rd November, 2019

Rangers 0

Raith Rovers 2 (Sakor 45, Noble 81)

Attendance: 35,688

We had rested both João and Hervin for this match, keeping them fully fit for the visit of Madrid, it was a decision that worked out well for us against a Rangers side that decided to play deep and narrow, not what you'd expect from a side like this, at home. Still, we won well and set us up for the closing match of November.

Tuesday 26th November, 2019

Champions League Group G. Game 5

Raith Rovers 1 (Teixeira 14)

Real Madrid 0

Attendance: 8,473

The double over the Spanish side was considerably the best thing i'd ever achieved in my time in football and unlike the first game where we countered them, this time we took them to bits in ways i'd only seen Barcelona do before. Even though the score was 1-0, we had double the chances and 51% of the possession. We played like a team possessed and our prize was the knockout stage of the Champions League.

[Gary_Parker]

November was rounded out with a Scottish Cup 4th round tie away to Kilmarnock. With the lads still on a high from the midweek game, I took the opportunity to allow some momentum and played a strong side.

Saturday 30th November, 2019

Scottish FA Cup 4th Round

Kilmarnock 1

Raith Rovers 2 (Novothny 26, Teixeira 37)

Attendance: 4,880

We had finished off what was a fantastic month, the club would be in Europe after Christmas for the first time ever. December arrived with 7 games to be played, 6 in the league and our final Champions League tie, a nice trip to Turkey.

Wednesday 4th December, 2019

Motherwell 0

Raith Rovers 2 (Paco 4, Crawford 89)

Attendance: 6,333

A first goal in a while for both Paco and Peter Crawford won us a tough match at Motherwell. It was good seeing both find a return of their end product.

Saturday 7th December, 2019

Raith Rovers 1 (Novothny 72)

Dundee United 0

Attendance: 8,473

Another tight win set us up nicely for a trip to Turkey to complete the champions league group. Avoiding defeat would see us finish top of the group, unbelievably. Whilst a defeat and Madrid not winning by more than 3 goals would would also be favourable as our head to head meant we would be on top.

Wednesday 11th December, 2019

Champions League Group G. Game 6

Fenerbahce 1

Raith Rovers 0

Attendance: 48,163

Defeat and Madrid winning 4-1 at home to Porto meant we finished the group in 2nd place. It was OK though, I mean we were lucky to get this far in the first place. Whoever we drew in the next round would be an utter bonus to our season.

We flew back to complete the year with league games.

Saturday 14th December, 2019

Hibernian 0

Raith Rovers 2 (Nyatanga o/g 44, Ongenda 50)

Attendance: 10,803

A satisfying result for us was dampened with the news that we were now under a transfer embargo as Russian Billionaire Vladimir Antonov discussed a takeover of the club.

We tried to keep the uncertainty out of our minds, knowing we couldn't bid for players now really anyway, and we'd already tied up our deal for Brazillian Marcelinho by this point. We headed west to Kilmarnock again to face them in the league.

Wednesday 18th December, 2019

Kilmarnock 1

Raith Rovers 1 (Noble 65)

Attendance: 5,664

A disjointed performance from us with the game rescued by substitute Noble. We never got out of 1st gear, to use the old cliché. Happily our next match was a faithful Monday TV fixture.

Monday 23rd December, 2019

Raith Rovers 4 (Ainsworth 14, Sakor 60, Mango 64, Teixeira 88)

St. Mirren 1

Attendance: 7,421

Ahh, good old TV match. Nothing better for us to return to winning form. It was our Xmas present to the fans as well, we'd finish the year away from home, at Celtic Park on Boxing Day.

Thursday 26th December, 2019

Celtic 1

Raith Rovers 3 (Mazarekic 67, Sakor 71, 89)

Attendance: 47,888

After being 1-0 down since the 12th minute thanks to Jordan Rhodes, who else, we came back in the 2nd half to deservedly win the match and effectively hammer our intentions of retaining the league into our biggest rivals. A great end to the year for us again.

[mark wilson27]

An absolutely cracking run of results and a brilliant double over Real Madrid. Could this be your year for a Champions League victory?????

[Gary_Parker]

We can but hope sir.

January 2020 arrived as quietly as December 2019 left, still no sign of all these technology promises that factual shows like 'Tomorrows World' or 'Back to the Future' said we'd have by now. I still had to arrive at work in a diesel powered car, that moved on the road, so 20th century. Anyway, while we were still under a transfer embargo due to what was a protracted takeover process, we had our new years fixture with Dundee to play.

The Champions League draw in late December paired us with regular foes Arsenal. Never an easy tie.

Wednesday 1st January, 2020

Raith Rovers 2 (Ongenda 22, Teixeira 80)

Dundee 0

Attendance: 8,150

A good result from us in a game we dominated from start to finish. This game was our last as the mini-late-winter break started in Scotland. We decided to do some tactics work in this period. It wasn't long before I got a call from Turnbull.

"Son, how are you?" he started. "Sorry I've been busy lately, but I've got news."

"Morning boss, I see, whats the news?" I replied, slightly pensive.

"I've agreed to sell the club to Antonov, he's buying us out for £7.4m and he's floating the club on the stock exchange. He'll give you a call later, but part of the sale ensured you would stay in charge." he said.

"Turnbull, I...I don't know what to say?" I said, knowing an era was ending now and a new exciting but ultimately unsure future was ahead.

"I'll keep in touch son, i'll be here weekly as a supporter anyway, a rich supporter but still..." he said with what sounded like genuine emotion for the first time ever.

"Thanks Turnbull, come by and chat to the lads, they appreciate what you've done here." I said as we ended the call.

It was less than an hour before I got another call.

"Mr Parker?" said the voice with a definite eastern bloc accent. A female voice, I didn't expect that.

"Yes, It is" I replied, because it was true.

"Mr Antonov would like you to come to the boardroom this afternoon, can you accommodate?" she said.

"I will be there. 2pm." I replied, wanting to add 'will you?' but decided against it. Was hardly the best way for a first conversation with a strange but quite interesting voice on the phone.

And so I went to the boardroom at 2 and the first day of the next step for Raith Rovers began.

"Mr Parker, I'm Vladimir Antonov, please, be seated." Said my new chairman. He was a small man, but had a presence about him that was quite reassuring.

"Thanks Mr Antonov, good to meet you." I replied, looking at the assistant to his left wondering if she was the voice on the phone. If she was it would have been a perfect match of voice to facial expectation.

"Please, call me Vladimir" he said before adding "Unless we lose, then its sir!" quite sternly, before cracking a smile and a laugh.

"I'll remember that." I said smiling. "So, what made you come in for our club Vladimir?"

"This is a club on the rise, I love its history and I want to be part of its future. I know you might look at other Russian owners and think its a pet project of a bored rich man, but I want this to be different." he said.

"Excellent news, this is a fantastic community driven club, one that has, as you said, a proud history. I'm glad to have you own board." I replied.

"We've floated on the stock exchange now so we've all got shareholders to how do you say...appease? as well"

"I understand. You can see we've been getting some great results. I've worked within our budgets as well, so can you tell me your expectations?" I said.

"I don't want you doing anything differently Mr Parker." he replied.

"Please, call me Gary, unless we lose, then you know, whatever you wish" I said with a grin.

"Ha, I like it. We're going to get on" He said with a beaming smile before "Unless we lose, then you know...".

Dammit, touché sir, touché I thought to myself.

"Anyway, I'm not going to throw money around here. We think the budgets are good, however we are investing in the future, training, youth, facilities and we're going to look at infrastructure too."

"I agree with that. I think that's the best way, it gets the locals really behind their side." I said.

We chatted for an hour or so about the way forward, the past and what brought Vladimir into football. It was all intriguing and interesting. I felt we would have a great future. With the embargo now lifted, I got to work strengthening my squad and allowing some others to go on loan.

Out went Eoghan Mahon to his old club Southampton on loan for the season. he was followed by Mikhail Ozerov who joined PSV Eindhoven for the remainder of the season and Karl McGlue who went to Hull City. Young striker Jos Prins joined Portuguese club Beira-Mar to get some more experience.

Joining us were two South Americans who had been released by their clubs but showed awesome potential. Jaja an 18 year old keeper joined after being released by Corinthians and Racing Club of Argentina youngster José Murúa joined him. Both were deemed perfect for my side and joined young left winger Marcelinho and Swede Emil Christiansen in training for the next match.

League business resumed with all eyes on a trip to Edinburgh to face Hearts.

[Gary_Parker]

Saturday 18th January, 2020

Hearts 0

Raith Rovers 2 (Ongenda 60, Teixeira 67)

Attendance: 12,472

Another good win for us and two good goals to boot. Both came from direct free kicks as Hervin set the challenge for João to follow. The rest of January would be spent on the road with two more games. The first came against Inverness.

Wednesday 22nd January, 2020

Inverness CT 1

Raith Rovers 1 (Novothny 12)

Attendance: 4,095

A rotated side headed north to ensure everyone got some game time, admittedly the result was not what we had hoped, it was a solid performance against a side who caused us some problems.

Monday 27th January, 2020

Motherwell 2

Raith Rovers 3 (Crawford 34, W.Diallo pen 47, Novothny 88)

Attendance: 6,627

Seriously, TV games suit us, we came back twice in the game before Soma scored our late winner. Motherwell were looking fantastic throughout though and matched us well.

Januarys transfer window closed without any further excitement. We were unbeaten and we were heading to Hampden for our League Cup semi final tie with Rangers to kick off February.

Sunday 2nd February, 2020

Scottish League Cup Semi Final

Rangers 1

Raith Rovers 6 (Ongenda pen 14, 28, Paco 20, 84, Teixeira 61, Allen o/g 76)

Attendance: 52,025

Ouch. Rangers started brightest with a goal in the first 4 minutes, but after that it was all Raith Rovers. We took full advantage in taking them to bits at every opportunity. It was a very satisfying cup match.

[Gary_Parker]

Wednesday 5th February, 2020

Raith Rovers 4 (Paco 6, Schwab 28, Teixeira 34, Marcelinho 39)

Ross County 1

Attendance: 7,996

A youthful side took Ross County to the cleaners with both Stefan Schwab and Marcelinho netting their first goals for the club in the process.

Saturday 8th February, 2020

Scottish FA Cup 5th Round

St. Mirren 1

Raith Rovers 2 (Paco 52, Schwab 82)

A late winner saved us from having a replay game being added to our already busy schedule for February. Schwab netting his 2nd goal in 4 days from a corner. The Arsenal game was looming now, 10 days until we headed to London for the first leg. We had two league games to play between there and now to concentrate on first.

Wednesday 12th February, 2020

Raith Rovers 4 (Murúa 7, 85, pen 88, Paco 72)

Rangers 0

Attendance: 8,135

Jose Murúa was now fit and started with a bang as he bagged a hat-trick to open his account with us. There was no better way to endear himself to the fans. Paco also kept up his good form in front of goal with his 3rd goal of the week. We had

Saturday 15th February, 2020

Dundee United 1

Raith Rovers 3 (Mango 44, Teixeira 48, Sakor pen 83)

Attendance: 12,557

We were in fantastic form heading to London for the European match with Arsenal. However, before that, we received a surprise bid from Zenit for Vajebah Sakor that couldn't be ignored. With the Russian window closing in February, Zenit made a last minute bid of £11m plus 25% of future profit for the young lad. I accepted and Sakor left us for a club record fee. Overall this season we had spent £5.03m and received a total of £38.67m. Any chairman would be happy with that.

Tuesday 18th February, 2020

Champions League Knockout Round First Leg

Arsenal 3

Raith Rovers 1 (Paco 90)

Attendance: 57,531

Well, Arsenal taught us a bit of a lesson there. We setup to counter attack them and had a lot of movement and good positions, Arsenal however had the cutting edge with Diego Costa grabbing two opportunist goals and Olivier Giroud scoring the other. A 90th minute Paco goal gave us an away goal in the tie though. A win at home could see us progress. We could hope anyway...

[gyles]

Fantastic story so far... Took me over an hour to read from the start to your latest update last night and looking forward to more.

I'm interested to see if you can hold off the temptation to move to a bigger team or will you build Raith Rovers into a superclub.

[chesterfan2]

I'm kind of happy in a strange sort of way that I've not been keeping up with this story, it's meant that I have had a good long read today !

A rollicking good story, G_P, here's hoping that last minute goal against Arsenal is the lifeline you need for the second leg.

[Gary_Parker]

Thanks for the words guys, appreciate them all. Hopefully you'll not be disappointed in the outcome of the game.

Our dejected squad, I think that was the best way of describing it, returned north to finish out the month with league meetings with Kilmarnock and Hibernian. We had almost 3 weeks until we played Arsenal in the return leg. Plenty time to exorcise our demons and build ourselves up for the game.

We started with a guaranteed result, not because of the opposition, but because it was a Monday night TV match.

Monday 24th February, 2020

Raith Rovers 1 (Paco 81)

Kilmarnock 0

Attendance: 8,023

See...though I am totally aware this TV run will end at some point, it would not be tonight. Paco kept up his goalscoring form with another stunning goal for us.

After the game we announced the free transfer signing of Scotland International defender Murray Wallace on a free transfer. Murray would join on 1st June and both give experience to younger defenders and assist with our quota for Europe.

Our final match in February would see us entertain Hibernian.

Saturday 29th February, 2020

Raith Rovers 3 (Marcelinho 20, Mazarekic 24, Ongenda 48)

Hibernian 0

Attendance: 8,473

Hervin Ongenda showed his class again with another direct free kick curled into the top corner of the net to round off a fantastic win.

And so we got to March. The month would entirely shape our season. The league could be won this month, the League Cup final was coming, the Scottish Cup reached its quarter finals and of course...Arsenal. It was a month that offered so much, but at the same time could destroy so much.

We started with the league of course, heading west to Paisley to meet St. Mirren.

Tuesday 3rd March, 2020

St. Mirren 0

Raith Rovers 3 (Murua 39, 76, 86)

Attendance: 5,393

José Murúa was starting to acclimatise to the country well. A stunning hat-trick bringing his tally to 6 goals in 4 games. I was introducing him gradually and because Hervin Ongenda and Soma Novothny were playing fantastically for us.

Saturday 7th March, 2020

Scottish FA Cup Quarter Final

Raith Rovers 5 (Ongenda 3, 19, 58, pen 60, Paco 73)

Ross County 2

Attendance: 8,103

I have run out of words for Ongenda now. I wish I could post the fine finish for his 2nd goal on Youtube but I can't get it to log in these days...boo.

Victory ensured a semi final tie against Rangers to come next month. We'd be seeing Ross County again next weekend in the League Cup final. Before that though, we had our biggest game of the season.

Wednesday 11th March, 2020

Champions League Knockout Round Second Leg

Raith Rovers 1 (Marcelinho 78)

Arsenal 0

Attendance: 8,298

Heartbreak. Literal heartbreak. Arsenal, to their credit defended so well all game that it took us until the 78th minute to break the deadlock. Before that, Arsenal had not troubled us once as we played the ball wide and hit them hard on the counter only to be denied by their keeper each time. Once we'd scored our goal, courtesy of substitute Marcelinho bursting through their defence we kept pushing for our 2nd goal.

The 90th minute produced our opportunity, only to see Paco's goal disallowed for offside. I couldn't have been prouder of the lads, they gave everything they had and took the English champions all the way to the end. With that, our European season was over and we were determined to be back next season.

[Gary_Parker]

So Europe was a loss to us again this year, but I wasn't too disheartened, if we looked at it objectively, 3 years ago we'd never been in the Champions League before. For a club that's not being bankrolled by a billionaire, even though we had one now, it was a huge step each season. We did however have 3 competitions to win, and that was now our focus. We started with the League Cup final vs Ross County.

Sunday 15th March, 2020

Scottish League Cup Final

Ross County 2

Raith Rovers 3 (Teixeira 2, Paco 5, Ongenda pen 61)

Attendance: 30,855

We were cruising after 6 minutes in the game and looked home already, however Ross County sensed that and made it hard for us until Hervin bagged another goal, his 5th of the competition to win us the Cup. It was small consolation to our European desires, but it was a good win for us. Baby steps... I kept saying to myself upon reflection.

We had a good rest after that with our next game being another Monday night football game, live on TV.

Monday 23rd March, 2020

Dundee 2

Raith Rovers 2 (Teixeira 34, Ongenda 90+2)

Attendance: 8,385

Did we ride our luck in keeping our TV record? Definitely, did we deserve a point? Maybe...but we got one in the end thanks to yet another Ongenda free kick. The lad was on fire in front of goal now.

We had another break to take us to April with a title deciding match against nearest rivals Celtic. Unbeaten as we were so far this season, Celtic had kept pace with us well, their only defeats coming at our hands, however, the gap would be sufficient with a win for us that the title would be ours again.

Wednesday 1st April, 2020

Raith Rovers 4 (Teixeira 8, Ongenda 45, Smithies o/g 55, Marcelinho 57)

Celtic 2

Attendance: 8,473

2-2 at half time left the game with 45 minutes to be changed by either side. It was Celtic who created their own downfall with keeper Alex Smithies allowing Pacos effort to hit the post, then him and then into the net. It was an unfortunate moment for the lad and we wrapped the game up 2 minutes later when Marcelinho curled in an effort after cutting inside well. The celebrations could start, Raith Rovers were 3 time champions of Scottish Football.

We didn't have long to celebrate as the games were still queued in front of us. I decided now the league was won I could rotate a bit and experiment with the team. It started against Hearts.

Saturday 4th April, 2020

Raith Rovers 3 (Paco 5, Mazarekic 25, Schwab 64)

Hearts 0

Attendance: 8,433

A young side, including Emil Christiansen, Stefan Schwab and Mikhail Ozerov all gave great displays to win us the match. The game was followed by the confirmation of the league split where Inverness, Celtic, Dundee United, Hibernian and Dundee would be our opposition, not that it mattered to us I guess.

Saturday 11th April, 2020

Inverness CT 0

Raith Rovers 1 (Ongenda pen 67)

Attendance: 4,260

A series of wins pushed us towards our Hampden visit to play Rangers in the Scottish FA Cup semi final.

[Gary_Parker]

Sunday 19th April, 2020

Scottish FA Cup Semi Final

Rangers 1

Raith Rovers 3 (Neilsen 23, Paco 57, 77)

Attendance: 52,025

An injury early on to Peter Crawford gave Martin Neilsen his chance to shine, which he did with a fantastic goal after picking up on a through ball. It pushed us on with Paco netting twice to finish the game off.

We would be back to end the season with a game against Inverness in the final.

Saturday 25th April, 2020

Raith Rovers 3 (Marcelinho 11, 42, Christiansen 22)

Dundee 2

Attendance: 8,198

Dundee gave us a fantastic game, my rotated squad played so well to go 3-0 up by half time before being pegged back in 2nd half with two quick goals.

Saturday 2nd May, 2020

Celtic 3

Raith Rovers 1 (Marcelinho 40)

Attendance: 48,021

Our unbeaten season was over, Celtic deserved their win but with the league already won, it didn't dampen our spirits at all. We had two games left in the league before the cup final.

Wednesday 6th May, 2020

Raith Rovers 2 (Ongenda pen 4, Teixeira 30)

Hibernian 2

Attendance: 8,473

Sunday 10th May, 2020

Raith Rovers 2 (Paco 64, pen 68)

Dundee United 0

Attendance: 8,473

Our league wrapped up well with a good final day win over Dundee United. Our star of the season was Hervin Ongenda who had a fantastic debut season with two games where he scored 4 goals. Mentions go to both Paco and Marcelinho who came up with big goals all season for us.

Our final game of the season came in the Scottish Cup Final.

Saturday 16th May, 2020

Scottish FA Cup Final

Inverness CT 0

Raith Rovers 4 (W.Diallo 4, Teixeira 20, Paco 25, 75)

Attendance: 41,408

A 2nd consecutive domestic treble was in the bag. We were outstanding all year and even if we lost out in Europe, there was never a bad moment for us. The team headed off for a break and the Euro Championships where João Teixeira was given the captaincy of Portugal. I spent the summer working on deals to bring in and move players out. Our next season would be the best yet, I was certain of it.

[Gary_Parker]

Our summer dealings started with the acquisition of three 16 year old players in Montenegrin Bozidar Stankovic who had appeared at Austrian club FC Admira Wacker Modling for a fee of £6.75k, Swedish central defender/midfielder Erik Petterson from IFK Mariehamn for £500 and Boznian left wingback Senad Duvnjak from Olimpic for £500k. All 3 would be developed within the club for a few years and become naturalised home-grown players over time.

In terms of first team signings, we made deals to bring in 22 year old Portuguese midfielder Antonio Pinto from FC Porto B at the end of his contract. Pinto was seen as the ideal Deep Lying Playmaker for me and would be a natural in that role. He was joined by 21 year old Alejandro Mendoza, a Chilean left wingback who would be re-trained as a centre half due to his fantastic attributes for the role. He joined on a free from Sporting Lisbon. A 4th Brazilian joined us, this time on a free from Mexican club Tigres, 22 year old Uallison Henrique, a natural striker and attacking midfielder on both the left and central areas had all the stats to play in numerous positions. His capture would be an absolute coup for the club. The final bosman capture would be 21 year old attacking midfielder Wijnand De Jong from Feyenoord. This young man had everything we needed from a player and room to improve too. In total we had brought in 8 players, including the earlier capture of Murray Wallace for a total of 506k.

Leaving the club were keepers Jonathan Henly on a free and Conor Blakeman for a fee of £42.5k to Wigan.

I had other players in mind to move out, but I would wait until the transfer window opened before offering them to clubs. I felt that waiting until the end of Euro 2020 would be beneficial for us and interested parties. A pre-season training camp was arranged in Spain where we would take on Alaves, Barakaldo and a visiting Swiss amateur club, FC Atlantic Vevey while we were there. We would come back to a busy schedule too with games against Scottish amateur sides Lothian Thistle, Craigroyston, Arbroath CSC and Herriot Watt University before playing in some high profile games vs AA Gent, Anderlecht and AS Monaco. A Friendly tournament was arranged to include ourselves, Sunderland, SC Heerenveen and Standard Liege before we closed things off with an affiliate tie vs Dortmund. The lads would definitely be fit for the next campaign.

Our European exploits meant that this year we had qualified straight off for the group stage of the Champions League. The bypassing of the qualifying rounds meant we could enjoy a longer pre-season schedule before the league kicked off.

[Gary_Parker]

Pre-season started in the stunningly sunny climbs of Bilbao, or just outside the city anyway, in the hillside of the Basque region. It was a pre-season camp without a few main players, some still participating at Euro 2020, others having a wee break after their tournament ended. It gave me a chance to work with new signing Wallace and a few loan returnees.

Our first match of pre-season was against Segunda league side Alaves, just newly relegated from the top flight the previous season.

Tuesday 23rd June, 2020

Alaves 1

Raith Rovers 6 (Marcelinho 4, 17, Ongenda 11, Crawford 16, 36, Mango 84)

Attendance: 2,652

A good run out for the lads and some good goals to boot. The game had no sooner ended when I received a call from Arsenal regarding Danish rightback Martin Neilsen.

The conversation ended with an agreement in place to allow Neilsen to leave for a club record fee of £17.5m. Neilsen was a fantastic player but I had a lot of cover in the position. The fee alone justified the sale given the profit made on the deal.

Our next friendly was against local Basque side Barakaldo.

Friday 26th June, 2020

Barakaldo 0

Raith Rovers 3 (Crawford 6, Ongenda 36, Murua 61)

Attendance: 1,351

A tidy win against a compact side, the lads were enjoying the summer heat and the fitness it was bringing.

We followed that up with the a game against amateur side Casereno to finish off June.

Sunday 29th June, 2020

Casereno 1

Raith Rovers 6 (Novothny 11, 77, Marcelinho 14, 78, 89, Ongenda 79)

Attendance: 1,534

As June ended, we said hello to our Bosman signings of Wijnand De Jong, Alejandro Mendoza, Antonio Pinto and Uallison Henrique. They arrived at training and joined in with the squad and the returning Euro 2020 players after their holidays for the final friendly of our trip before we headed home.

Friday 3rd July, 2020

FC Atlantic Vevey 0

Raith Rovers 11 (De Jong 15, 25, 28, Wallace 42, Mango 44, Henrique 45+1, Teixeira 62, 81, Crawford 67, Noble 69, W.Diallo 87)

Attendance: 814

A resounding result to send us back to Scotland in great spirits. We arrived home to a ringing phone from Anderlecht with a bid...

[Gary_Parker]

All, apologies, not updated in a wee while as i'm on holiday for a few days. Will be back into the story come Monday.

[Gary_Parker]

Anderlecht had rung to enquire about Soma Novothny and offered us a fee of £8.5m for his services. Reluctantly, I accepted this request and allowed Soma to leave. His departure was followed by Paul Robertson, a youth player to Wolverhampton for £64k, Mikhail Ozerov to Luzern for £235k, Serge Gnabry to Inverness for £165k and Eoghan Mahon to West Ham for £475k.

As soon as the ink had dried on those deals, we signed free transfers Chris Keane, a 22 year old defensive midfielder released from Blackpool and Alessio Novello, a 21 year old attacking midfielder released from AC Milan.

Business was resumed on the playing front with a friendly against amateur side Lothian Thistle to boost fitness and familiarity.

Monday 6th July, 2020

Raith Rovers 8 (Noble 2, 15, 47, Pinto 36, De Jong 49, Mazarekic 69, Ainsworth 84, Crawford90+1)

Lothian Thistle 0

Attendance: 2,395

A good exercise for us as a team and a fantastic performance throughout. We didn't have long to wait until our next game either, with a busy schedule still far from over.

Thursday 9th July, 2020

Raith Rovers 9 (De Jong 3, 11, 65, Noble 12, W. Diallo 17, Henrique 18, Ainsworth 71, pen 83, Crawford 81)

Craigroyston 1

Attendance: 2,381

Sunday 12th July, 2020

Raith Rovers 9 (De Jong 4, Henrique 10, Mango 12, Marcelinho 23, Novello pen 24, Ainsworth 71, 73, Crawford 75, Teixeira 78)

Arbroath CSC 0

Attendance: 2,384

We finished off our practice matches vs the amateur sides with a game against Heriott Watt University.

Wednesday 15th July, 2020

Raith Rovers 8 (De Jong 9, Noble 12, Ongenda 15, 31, pen 63, W. Diallo 27, Crawford 54, Novello 69)

Herriot Watt Uni 0

Attendance: 2,379

With these games out the way, we could concentrate on playing teams we needed to emulate to progress in Europe. It started with Gent and would end with our parent club, Dortmund.

[Gary_Parker]

Saturday 18th July, 2020

Raith Rovers 2 (Crawford 81, Noble 86)

AA Gent 1

Attendance: 2,404

A good comeback against a decent Gent side gave us victory with substitutes Crawford and Noble scoring late on. We then welcomed Anderlecht to Starks Park and a quick return for Soma Novothny

Tuesday 21st July, 2020

Raith Rovers 3 (Ongenda 16, Crawford 90, Mango 90+2)

Anderlecht 1

Attendance: 4,301

Another late surge gave us victory in a game we dominated but never closed out. We next welcomed French champions AS Monaco to Starks Park for a challenge match before we hosted a cup tournament.

Thursday 23rd July, 2020

Raith Rovers 6 (De Jong 9, Ainsworth 13, 26, pen 77, Wallace 25, Novello 37)

AS Monaco 1

Attendance: 5,073

A thumping win against a team who, in fairness, were only starting their pre-season. Their goal was scored by a transfer listed Enrico Prosdocimi, a 21 year old right winger who would be equally adept anywhere along the right flank or as a striker if needed. His transfer value was £4.1m, which would be a club record. A bid was made right after the game finished. Enrico happily agreed to join us for the price quoted and very decent wages of £3,000 per week. He would become our joint highest earner.

He would go straight into the squad for one of the weekend games, the first of which was against Sunderland in the semi final, the other game was between Standard Liege and sc Heerenveen.

Saturday 25th July, 2020

Raith Rovers 2 (Mendoza 16, Noble 17)

Sunderland 5

Attendance: 4,522

A complete second half collapse highlighted just how bad a dip in form could be for us as Sunderland punished us with 5 quick, punishing goals after we raced into a 2 goal lead. Our 3rd place opponents would be Heerenveen. A complete swap of players with those substitute in the first match would all start the second.

Sunday 26th July, 2020

Raith Rovers 2 (Devlin 38, Noble 53)

sc Heerenveen 1

Attendance: 3,011

Sunderland won our tournament with a 3-1 win over Standard in the final. We couldn't grudge them the win as we finished pre-season with a game against parent club Dortmund.

Wednesday 29th July, 2020

Raith Rovers 3 (Noble 24, Ongenda 49, Paco 71)

Dortmund 1

Attendance: 7,426

Once we had finished pre-season I had decided to allow players out on loan for the season to trim the squad and give max playing time to as many people as possible. Out went Paul Robertson to Kilmarnock, Karl McGlue to Everton, Øystein Koppegodt to Maccabi Haifa, Jos Prins to Wolves and Peter Crawford to Aston Villa and Alun Ainsworth to Fulham. The latter two were more surprising given their club history but I felt given the influx of talent this year, both would be limited to their game time here. The league would begin with a trip to Motherwell in 3 days. I felt we were ready to defend our title again.

[Gary_Parker]

Ever since they had taken the club over, the board had been quiet. I was wary still as they were new. I didn't know if this was how they did their business or whether they had something up their sleeve. It left me a bit on edge. However, they had supported me in my transfer dealings, though to be fair, with the finances I'd pulled into the club through player sales alone, a bit of leeway was sort of expected.

In truth I really should have been looking at this from the opposite perspective, I was being given the free reign to work in whichever way I wanted to and that was good.

My first major interaction with the board was on August 1st when I asked to increase my staff levels to bring in some additional support for my expanding number of players. They were amicable in agreeing outright and increased my coach numbers.

That day saw the start of the Premier League, in a bit of a twist on regular seasons, we were away in the first game, visiting Motherwell.

Saturday 1st August, 2020

Motherwell 1

Raith Rovers 4 (De Jong 12, Ongenda 41, Teixeira 43, 73)

Attendance: 7,161

A resounding opening day win indicated to everyone that we were back for more this year. The main fear in football is becoming stale, too much of the same thing is not good at times. We were managing to keep things fresh and focus was not solely on Europe. We didn't have the qualification distraction this year either, it was nice to have a rest between league games. This must be how the big clubs felt. We followed up our great opening win with a home match vs Partick Thistle.

Saturday 8th August, 2020

Raith Rovers 5 (De Jong 16, 29, Teixeira 28, 62, Ongenda 68)

Partick Thistle 0

Attendance: 8,020

A sense of deja vu crept in with the same goalscorers as last week. It was nice to see players settling and hitting the ground running. We were in top form so early, could we keep it up. An unbeaten season was always the dream. The invincibles...well, in Scotland anyway.

Tuesday 11th August, 2020

St. Mirren 1

Raith Rovers 1 (Ongenda 75)

Attendance: 7,337

Scraped a draw, maybe my confidence was overstepping the mark...? We'd need a good performance on the weekend vs Rangers

Saturday 15th August, 2020

Rangers 1

Raith Rovers 4 (De Jong 14, Murua 20, 49, van den Boomen 57)

Attendance: 35,767

That was more like it. I had made a few changes to the team to allow players to get game time and others to rest and it paid off with a fantastic display.

[Gary_Parker]

Two home games completed August, starting with Hibernian.

Sunday 23rd August, 2020

Raith Rovers 1 (Fielding o/g 42)

Hibernian 0

Attendance: 8,473

A game we struggled in but pulled out a win regardless. It was settled by Hibernians keeper throwing the ball into his own net.

Our final game was Dundee United. The game was preceded by news of our Champions League opponents for this year. Shockingly, FC Porto were again a team we needed to beat to progress. They were joined by Inter Milan and Valencia, not the easiest of groups for us. Oh well, can only beat who's in front of you.

Sunday 30th August, 2020

Raith Rovers 2 (De Jong 59, Schwab 90+2)

Dundee United 1

Attendance: 7,463

Another unconvincing performance, but a favourable result none the less. The transfer window closed without us making a signing, my two targets, both transfer listed by their clubs were being banded about for £9m each, fees i'd not want to pay, but we allowed reserve Jason Smith to return to Australia with Melbourne for a fee of £25.5k + 20% sell on.

The closure of the window brought some interesting behaviour from my transfer targets. Both Manchester United midfielder Phil Marriott and Sporting CP left back Gonzalo Guerra were released from their contracts and became free agents. This meant I could sign them both for no fee, my speciality.

Neither player would be included for Europe though, sadly.

The two week break for internationals went by without incident. New caps were given to Dutchman Wijnand De Jong and Brazilians Uallison Henrique and Marcelinho.

We returned to action by welcoming Inverness to town.

Saturday 12th September, 2020

Raith Rovers 5 (De Jong 19, 48, pen 52, Paco 44, 89)

Inverness 0

Attendance: 8,098

A wonderful return to form in the league saw us demolish Inverness completely. Setting us up nicely for a trip to Italy to kick off the Champions League.

Tuesday 15th September, 2020

Champions League Group D. Game 1

Inter Milan 1

Raith Rovers 4 (De Jong 18, Paco 42, Ongenda 71, 90)

Attendance: 56,233

The scoreline was not in any way flattering as we produced a performance that was on par, if not better, than the previous seasons trip to Madrid. After Inter took the lead in the 5th minute, we dominated the game, Paco carving them open from the right and Ongenda scoring the goal of the match with a well taken finish. It is entirely times like this that I wish the youtube link actually worked.

[RaithRovers]

Enjoying this as you might imagine:D

I started a Rovers save when the game first came out last year and got a few seasons in but it never quite took hold with me and I now dip in and out. I'm going to go back and stick with it though as I had a takeover so there's a fair bit of money by SPFL standards.

As if it's not enough of a challenge all ready, FM15 should be fun trying to get out of the league...

[Gary_Parker]

I cannot wait for the next one, the league will be so good to play in I think. Glad you're enjoying it so far.

We landed back in Scotland, well the plane did anyway. We were still in the clouds after a fantastic result in Italy. We had Hearts to focus on now though.

Saturday 19th September, 2020

Raith Rovers 3 (Pinto 25, Ongenda 34, Paco 42)

Hearts 1

Attendance: 8,473

A good result to keep us in form and top of the league. We had a League Cup tie against Montrose to play before a final league game of the month and our home Champions League tie against FC Porto.

Tuesday 22nd September, 2020

Scottish League Cup 3rd Round

Montrose 0

Raith Rovers 9 (Henrique 13, Novello 15, 39, Noble 21, 46, Devlin 26, 42, Marriott 28, Teixeira 49)

Attendance: 590

Well, that was a good result, a lot of players got a run out that deserved game time and Marriott, being trained to be a sweeper pushed looked excellent. The win set up a quarter final tie with Dundee United in October.

Saturday 26th September, 2020

Ross County 1

Raith Rovers 1 (Hodge o/g 84)

Attendance: 4,474

The result was lucky but a point was the minimum we deserved from our chances. It was 84 minutes before we equalised with a fortunate own goal. Still, its a point i'd accept any day. It left us with a game against frequent rivals FC Porto to end the month.

Wednesday 30th September, 2020

Champions League Group D. Game 2

Raith Rovers 3 (Ongenda 5, De Jong 56, A.Diallo 90)

FC Porto 1

Attendance: 8,010

Porto set up using their normal 4-2-3-1 formation and expected to beat us by playing through the middle. Their mistake was allowing both of their wider players to drift inside and allow my wingbacks to get forward often and create chances. It worked a treat as Alexander Diallo set up 2 goals and scored the final one himself.

[Gary_Parker]

We began October unbeaten in all competitions, well, if you excluded a friendly cup competition which anyone totally would. Our big test to begin the month was a trip to Celtic Park to play our title rivals. It was nice being able to call a team 'our title rivals', usually this was reserved for the Old Firm sides to battle it out themselves, but we had upset that apple-cart and had no intention of stopping now.

Sunday 4th October, 2020

Celtic 0

Raith Rovers 3 (Pinto 47, Ongenda 52, Marcelinho 78)

Attendance: 48,403

We exuded confidence all match and dominated Celtic in the own ground. Ongenda scoring the pick with another long range free kick. It was a perfect start to the month, which wound down for 2 weeks for internationals. Nothing major happened there, apart from Hervin Ongenda receiving a call up to the French national team for the first time.

Saturday 17th October, 2020

Raith Rovers 3 (Prosdocimi 8, 28, Schwab 10)

Dundee 1

Attendance: 8175

Another good win set us up nicely for the trip to Valencia in the Champions League.

Wednesday 21st October, 2020

Champions League Group D. Game 3

Valencia 2

Raith Rovers 2 (Teixeira pen 7, Paco 28)

Attendance: 51,278

Oh I was disappointed, we had a 2 goal lead early on and didn't manage to keep it. It was tough to take as we had played fantastically well until they equalised in the 84th minute. Still, 7 points from 9 in a tough group was good. There was no real complaints here.

[Gary_Parker]

Saturday 24th October, 2020

Raith Rovers 2 (W. Diallo 13, Prosdocimi 46)

Motherwell 0

Attendance: 8,096

Another decent win for us in a game we dominated but didn't get the scoreline we maybe deserved. Still, it was all about points and thats what we got.

Tuesday 27th October, 2020

Scottish League Cup Quarter Final

Dundee United 0

Raith Rovers 1 (Noble 78)

Attendance: 10,892

A scrappy cup win resulted in a Semi Final tie against Celtic in February. We had navigated the majority of October well, the downside was Valencia and even then, a 2-2 draw in Spain is hardly a bad result. We had one game left in the month, on the final day, away in Glasgow.

Saturday 31st October, 2020

Partick Thistle 0

Raith Rovers 1 (Novello 51)

Attendance: 6,787

Beautiful.

[Gary_Parker]

Valencia arrived in Kirkcaldy at the beginning of November for the return tie in the Champions League. Our 2-2 draw in the previous game was tough to take as we had played exceptionally well only to fade away. Ideally this would be different.

Tuesday 3rd November, 2020

Champions League Group D. Game 4

Raith Rovers 4 (Mazarekic 28, Mendoza 48, Pinto 63, Willy Diallo 81)

Valencia 1

Attendance: 8,089

Yep, different. We took the game to them from the start, using the whole pitch to stretch them until they broke. It was a very dominant win in the end. It meant we had qualified from the group already on 10 points. Two games to go to win the group. We had a nice rest until Monday nights league game, a TV tie, we loved those.

Monday 9th November, 2020

Raith Rovers 7 (Prosdocimi 1, 84, Mendoza 12, A. Diallo 21, 76, Murua 71, De Jong 88)

St. Mirren 1

Attendance: 8,283

Oh how we loved them. The team were on a great run of form, it was momentum we needed to keep going too as the fixtures would keep coming, well, after the international break that is.

Saturday 21st November, 2020

Hibernian 1

Raith Rovers 4 (De Jong 2, Mendoza 51, 73, Henrique 60)

Attendance: 9,629

Alejandro Mendoza had started life as a left wingback and was being converted into a fantastic ball playing defender. He was also becoming a goal threat with 4 goals in the last 3 matches he started. Fantastic.

Wednesday 25th November, 2020

Champions League Group D. Game 5

Raith Rovers 1 (Marcelinho 56)

Inter Milan 0

Attendance: 8,316

Another fantastic win saw us winning the group with a game to spare. It meant our final game of the group would allow us to play a changed side in Portugal.

Saturday 28th November, 2020

Scottish FA Cup 4th Round

Rangers 1

Raith Rovers 4 (De Jong 7, 39, 64, Wallace 71)

Attendance: 26,319

Our month ended with a cup win away to Rangers. A very low crowd suggested both the optimism of their fans and also the decrease of their stature. How the once almost mighty had fallen.

[Jogo Bonito]

Gary, I've just read this from start to finish. I don't think I ever looked in this section of the forum before, but this is a brilliant story. The way you mix the football parts with the 'relationship' parts - e.g. the chairmen (new and old), and the little humurous bits - top stuff.

Interesting to see that you had signed Teddy Mezague earlier on (an icon for me at four or five clubs on FM13 but probably untouched by anybody else) and Momar Bangoura, who I acquired a couple of times before too.

Good luck and well done so far with Raith Rovers!

[Gary_Parker]

Thanks Jogo. You should get yourself in here more often. I've seen some of the saves you've posted up in the club areas before, they'd make for some good stories of their own.

It was December again, which meant the usual bad weather, Christmas shopping, cold nights and of course, loads of Scottish football. Because summer leagues are for losers I guess...

My December started with a rumour in the papers about FC Bayern wanting to interview me for their managers position. A certain Pep Guardiola had lost his job in November following a poor start to the season, they were 2nd and 3 points behind rivals and my parent club Dortmund. I couldn't help but think of the phrase "1st world problems" when I read about it. Now they wanted me and I had to make a decision.

Of course, the world of football wouldn't be what it was if people didn't throw comments around without your knowledge or agreement. A response from the club about this "offer" was quickly given with the chairman stating that there had been no Bayern contact at all. I didn't mind that, I was with the club I wanted to be with. Even thinking about another club felt a little like cheating, well, ok maybe not like that at all but something similar?

We had the final game of the Champions League group stage to kick off the football for the month, a nice December trip to Portugal. Sadly we weren't there for the weather, or golf but to play FC Porto, again.

Tuesday 1st December, 2020

Champions League Group D. Game 6

FC Porto 1

Raith Rovers 0

Attendance: 45,546

So maybe some of the lads thought we were there for the golf, but in the end it didn't matter. We were top of the group and FC Porto finished 2nd. We had a few weeks to wait to see who we would face this year. We headed home as the league games wouldn't wait.

Saturday 5th December, 2020

Raith Rovers 3 (Novello 54, Noble 64, Mazarekic 82)

Rangers 0

Attendance: 8,473

I really enjoyed playing Rangers these days. They were a team who believed they were the bigger side and played like they would win, which always left them there for the taking. Fantastic.

The day after, the Bayern approach came, they offered me the chance to interview for the job. I declined it. What felt like almost immediately after doing so, the chairman called.

"Gary, how are you?" Vladimir said to start the conversation.

"Morning Vladimir, I'm well, yourself?" I replied, because conversation was key to any relationship.

"I'm well my friend. I hear Bayern asked to talk to you? I also hear you said no outright?" He said making it sound like he didn't really know already. I knew Vlad though, he had his ear to the ground and he probably knew the minute I had said no.

"I did indeed Vladimir, I didn't want to entertain it from the start. I've got a job here to complete." I said forthrightly.

"Good my friend, good." He said. "I want to talk to you about extending your deal with us."

"I'd be delighted, lets talk." I said and we arranged to discuss an extension to my contract, but first, we had to go to Dundee.

[Jogo Bonito]

Thanks Jogo. You should get yourself in here more often. I've seen some of the saves you've posted up in the club areas before, they'd make for some good stories of their own.

"Cheers Gary" he replied, as if in reply...(see, I'm learning!!).

I once considered starting something on the FMCU forum, but didn't try it as I don't do journeyman saves. I'm confident writing (and my posts on GPTG are akin to mini novels, I suppose), but possibly not creative enough to make an interesting story linked to FM - especially without pictures. I'll have to give it some thought as I'm kind of caught between the three choices.

[Gary_Parker]

I don't know if anyone has ever ventured into Dundee before, but its hardly the most picturesque place around. Sure they're trying, but you know the phrase about polished turds right? Its even worse in December at night, when its cold, miserable and dark. Dundee is home to two clubs, who reside right next to each other, literally. Dundee United were tonights opponents for us and we'd be back here before new year to play the other team, simply called Dundee.

Tuesday 8th December, 2020

Dundee United 1

Raith Rovers 1 (Novello 81)

Attendance: 13,712

We scraped a result in the end, but I was OK with the performance overall, just needed to finish our chances better. Still, next game was on TV, after a longer trip north to Inverness.

I tied up my new 4 year contract the day after, still being less than half my players though, something wasn't right there...

Sunday 13th December, 2020

Inverness CT 2

Raith Rovers 3 (Henrique 13, Marcelinho 59, 67)

Attendance: 4,064

We gave Inverness a glimpse of our Brazilians in this close shave...and edged out a good away win against a side who looked good on the break and played well throughout. We headed home for our next match against Ross County.

Wednesday 16th December, 2020

Raith Rovers 4 (De Jong pen 13, 67, Murua 16, Paco 70)

Ross County 0

Attendance: 8,060

This season has proven the merits of a deep squad as our much changed side breathed life into this game with Wijnand De Jong scoring another 2 goals for the season. The attacking midfielder was proving to be a very good weapon in the hole.

Our last match pre Christmas was another home game, live on TV against main rivals Celtic.

Sunday 20th December, 2020

Raith Rovers 4 (De Jong 27, 37, Willy Diallo 59, Marcelinho 80)

Celtic 2

Attendance: 8,473

We could celebrate a good Christmas, clear at the top of the league and facing Paris St. Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League. Of course, Christmas in Scotland meant two more games before the new year, so celebrations were small.

[Gary_Parker]

Christmas day passed without any unwanted gifts thankfully and we made the trip to Edinburgh on Boxing Day to visit Hearts.

Saturday 26th December, 2020

Hearts 1

Raith Rovers 3 (De Jong 37, Schwab 56, Ongenda 78)

Attendance: 12,930

Another goal from Wijnand De Jong made it 15 league goals from the midfielder before the new year. A fantastic debut season in Scotland from the Dutchman.

We rounded off 2020 with a return trip to Dundee to face Dundee FC.

Wednesday 30th December, 2020

Dundee 0

Raith Rovers 2 (Ongenda 38, 48)

Attendance: 8,743

A tidy win took us 13 points clear of Celtic going into January. A very happy new year for us.

[Gary_Parker]

January in Scotland is a unique experience. We have two holidays to start the month, 1st of January is New Years Day of course and the 2nd is unofficially called "Hangover Day" for many obvious reasons. Its also the day where most people decide to ignore the resolutions they made the previous day, while drunk, in favour of drinking again already.

January 2nd for us was the first league game of 2021, a trip west to Motherwell. We had aims to start the year in the same way we ended the last year.

Saturday 2nd January, 2021

Motherwell 0

Raith Rovers 3 (Aiardi o/g 28, A.Diallo 45, Paco 50)

Attendance: 6,398

With the festive period over, it meant two weeks off from any football, which was a nice break for the team. It meant batteries could be recharged, renewed deals signed and tactics worked on. With luck it also meant no players leaving.

All contracts were renewed for players and staff, even with our new found status in the league, I was reluctant to offer big deals wherever possible. Certain players deserved it though, Uallison Henrique, Hervin Ongenda and Alexander Diallo were the notable exceptions and were all offered 4 year deals. All accepted their terms before our next match began

Saturday 16th January, 2021

Raith Rovers 4(De Jong pen 2, 57, 68, Ongenda 9)

Partick Thistle 1

Attendance: 8,218

With the transfer window nearing an end, we were hopeful to have no movement either way as we had a nicely settled squad. So far so good with no offers coming in and no players jumping out at me to purchase.

Tuesday 19th January 2021

St. Mirren 1

Raith Rovers 1 (Henrique 12)

Attendance: 7,184

After their 7 goal mauling last time we played, St Mirren looked a much better outfit this time and caused us some problems. We were in truth, lucky to escape with the point. Our final league game of January was home to Hibs on Monday night before we closed off the month with a cup game against Falkirk.

Monday 25th January, 2021

Raith Rovers 5 (Murua 1, Teixeira 5, Schwab 24, Anderson 42, Mazarekic 69)

Hibernian 1

Attendance: 8,473

A fantastic win from start to finish with fantastic goals from each player to set us up nicely for the trip to Falkirk in the Scottish Cup.

Saturday 30th January, 2021

Scottish FA Cup 5th Round

Falkirk 0

Raith Rovers 4 (Henrique 15, 53, Novello 60, Mendoza 87)

Attendance: 7,180

Another great win for us against our rivals. It set up another away cup tie against Inverness at the end of February.

The transfer window closed without incident for us as February kicked off another busy month, starting with a Scottish League cup semi final and the 2nd round of the Champions League.

[Gary_Parker]

And so February of 2021 started like all Februarys have done in the past in Scotland, with rain and generally bad weather. The only thing to not be damp in this country was our spirits as we headed to Hampden Park, the national stadium, to play Celtic in the League Cup semi final.

Wednesday 3rd February, 2021

Scottish League Cup Semi Final

Celtic 0

Raith Rovers 2 (Murua 1, Wallace 84)

Attendance: 52,025

A full house for the game saw us win with what was relative ease at the end of the day. It meant another cup final against Falkirk in March.

We stayed in Glasgow until the weekend as we had a league game with Rangers to play.

Saturday 6th February, 2021

Rangers 2

Raith Rovers 4 (Marcelinho 9, Teixeira 21, 61, 69)

Attendance: 35,692

Another great performance saw us victorious in Glasgow again as Rangers found Joào Teixeira in fantastic form with a great hat-trick. We had one game to play before we welcomed PSG to town for our 2nd round Champions Cup tie.

Sunday 14th February, 2021

Raith Rovers 3 (Henrique 40, De Jong pen 51, pen 62)

Dundee United 0

Attendance: 8,473

The win set us up nicely for PSGs arrival and meant we were unbeaten and heading towards another Scottish title. However, even though our transfer window was closed for business, the Russian market was still open. A bid came in and was accepted for Marcelinho from Zenit St. Petersburg who offered £16.5m for his services. The pacy left winger left with our blessing before the game.

Tuesday 16th February, 2021

Champions League Knockout Stage, First Leg

Raith Rovers 7 (Paco 19, 55, Jean o/g 28, Teixeira 35, 38, Mendoza 40, Henrique 44)

PSG 0

Attendance: 8,066

And what a game it was. No one in football expected this result, not even us and we had prepared and knew how we could exploit PSG. Even in our wildest dreams we didn't expect to put 6 goals passed them before half time. We felt we had stunned the footballing world in this game, even our wins in Milan and Madrid in previous seasons paled in comparison to this result. We had to be through to the Quarter Finals already.

[nico_france]

Nice story mate, keep it up ! And what a win against PSG !!

[neilhoskins77]

I haven't read any of this for a while, because I wanted a block of updates to read in one go. Fantastic story, and amazing progress Gary. Story of the Year 2014....simply has to be!

[Gary_Parker]

Thanks for the words guys.

After the fantastic game against PSG, we needed to come back to earth quickly with a league game against Inverness. We had to make sure the focus wasn't lost. Thankfully our game against Inverness was on a Monday night.

Monday 22nd February, 2021

Raith Rovers 2 (Henrique 11, Anderson 29)

Inverness CT 0

Attendance: 8,029

We had a fantastic performance that pushed us closer to the title. We may as well have followed Inverness north as we had to play them again at the weekend in the Scottish Cup.

Saturday 27th February, 2021

Scottish Cup Quarter Final

Inverness CT 1

Raith Rovers 6 (De Jong 7, Henrique 30, Paco 42, Pears o/g 54, Pinto 72, Wallace 90)

Attendance: 5,216

February finished with a fantastic cup result. It was another outstanding performance from the team. A semi final date against Hearts was our reward.

[Gary_Parker]

There were rumblings of discontent around Starks Park as once again the rumours of departure were mooted. Mooted by the media, I have to say, I was not instigating any of the offers that had come my way, from Ajax again and Everton.

"Mr Parker, you've been suggested as a possible next manager for Ajax, what do you think of that?" I was asked at my weekly press conference.

"Obviously I'm flattered by the offer, but I've got a job here and I want to finish it" I replied in a generally modest tone.

"What about Everton?"

"Again, flattered but still have a job to do here" I repeated. With the return fixture with PSG coming up, I wanted to have full focus on the task ahead. Whilst both clubs were certainly attractive prospects, they weren't calling me to them right now. Press conferences seemed infinitely smaller affairs these days, maybe I was used to them, or maybe the questions were being handled by my assistant, but whatever.

Saturday 6th March, 2021

Ross County 0

Raith Rovers 1 (Pritchard o/g 55)

Attendance: 4,322

A rather nervy win from us that relied on an own goal to settle the tie. Still, it pushed us closer to our goal of an unbeaten season and another league title. I couldn't complain. We left the next day for Paris, with a 7 goal advantage, it would take a defensive failure of almost Arsenal like proportions to lose this tie.

Tuesday 9th March, 2021

Champions League Knockout Stage, Second Leg

PSG 2

Raith Rovers 1 (A. Diallo 7)

Attendance: 20,084

While we threw away a lead against a much better PSG side, we looked confident and booked our Quarter Final place comfortably. Chelsea would be our next opponent. As we flew home, we had little time to rest before we played the League Cup final against Falkirk.

Sunday 14th March, 2021

Scottish League Cup Final

Falkirk 0

Raith Rovers 4 (Wallace 16, 64, Paco 19, 70)

Attendance: 33,848

A game that was rarely competitive for a final was won with ease as we hit Falkirk for 4. Another trophy in our ever expanding cabinet. We'd need a new room at this pace...ok, a bit over confident there but still...

[Gary_Parker]

With the League Cup now won, we had to focus on the League before we headed to London to play Chelsea in the Champions League. Our final game of March was a trip to 2nd place Celtic. Nothing less than a win would give us the title so we had to focus. It was slightly incredible that Celtic had almost matched us this season, we were unbeaten and with only 7 games to go, they were still in the chase.

Saturday 20th March, 2021

Celtic 2

Raith Rovers 2 (Teixeira 28, Pinto 43)

Attendance: 47,393

A last minute Jordan Rhodes equaliser dented our title winning performance for another week at least. It was such a tough blow but Celtic fought back well to equalise. It meant we had a winnable home game against Dundee in 2 weeks to wrap up the league before the split. The rest of March was taken up by an international friendly. Brazilian keeper Jaja surprised everyone by accepting his part German roots to play for their national team. It was a great accolade for the player. It meant we now had 16 international players in our squad. Though only 2 of them Scottish in Murray Wallace and John Noble.

The international break gave us one injury as Welsh regista Phil Marriott picked up a thigh strain to keep him out of action for a while. The rest of the squad were happy and fit and ready to win the league. This sentiment was made apparent by Joào Teixeira in the press as he called for focus on the game.

Saturday 3rd April, 2021

Raith Rovers 4 (Pinto 6, 49, Wallace 27, O'Sullivan o/g 88)

Dundee 1

Attendance: 8,267

The title was ours again. In a season where we had remained unbeaten until now and had a hard Champions League campaign, we had remained on top domestically. Our focus could switch to Chelsea now as we played our first Champions League quarter final tie ever.

Tuesday 6th April, 2021

Champions League Quarter Final First Leg

Chelsea 1

Raith Rovers 2 (Henrique 22, Pinto 49)

Attendance: 40,651

A resounding win in London gave us a great advantage and two away goals to take back to Kirkcaldy for the 2nd leg. I'd yet to see a better performance from us than that and I include Paris, Madrid and Milan in that. As we returned to Scotland for the Scottish Cup Semi Final and the 2nd leg of the European tie, the league split had occurred, giving us home ties against Dundee United, Dundee and Ross County and away trips to Celtic and Hibernian. 5 games to remain unbeaten and become the Scottish Invincibles. It started, of course, at Celtic because, of course it did...

[Gary_Parker]

Saturday 10th April, 2021

Scottish Cup Semi Final

Hearts 0

Raith Rovers 1 (Teixeira 81)

Attendance: 26,529

It was a very tough match for us, Hearts were fresher, fitter and capable of causing an upset. It took substitute Joào Teixeira to break the deadlock near the end with a wonderful flicked goal. It meant we would face Dundee United in the cup final to end the season.

Wednesday 14th April, 2021

Champions League Quarter Final Second Leg

Raith Rovers 2 (Henrique 63, 83)

Chelsea 1

Attendance: 8,120

Another fantastic performance from us as we responded to an early goal from Chelsea to win the tie 4-2 on aggregate. It meant a semi final tie against English Champions and tournament favourites Manchester City. We'd come this far, could we now go all the way?

Saturday 17th April, 2021

Celtic 0

Raith Rovers 3 (de Jong 40, Paco 60, Henrique 89)

Attendance: 48,546

With all the league pressure off, we went to Celtic Park and dominated from start to finish. Celtic couldn't contain us in any area of the pitch. It was a great game for us and meant 4 games left to remain unbeaten in the league. Of course, the league took 2nd place again as Manchester City came to town for the Cup semi final.

Tuesday 20th April, 2021

Champions League Semi Final First Leg

Raith Rovers 0

Manchester City 0

Attendance: 8,473

"We should have won" I told the accumulated press after the game. "We had two disallowed goals and a penalty turned down.". I was quite irate at this, knowing realistically that a 0-0 at home to such a big side was not really what we needed. It meant a stellar performance in Manchester was required if we wanted to progress.

Saturday 24th April, 2021

Raith Rovers 4 (Mendoza 17, Pinto 23, 34, Mazarekic 69)

Dundee United 0

Attendance: 8,473

Our minds were placated by this dominant win against our Cup Final opponents Dundee United. 3 games until an unbeaten season was ours. Still, more importantly, we had to head to Manchester for the game of the season.

Wednesday 28th April, 2021

Champions League Semi Final Second Leg

Manchester City 1 (Nasri 90+3)

Raith Rovers 0

Attendance: 45,409

Heartbreak, it was the only word that could describe my feeling after the game. Granted, Man City pushed us for most of the game, but we felt we could do something on the counter attack. It wasn't to be though as Samir Nasri pounced on a fortuitous rebound to score with the last kick of the game. I told the players after the game that they had made me, themselves and the fans proud with this performance and that seemed to go down well. We had two goals left to focus on, the Scottish Cup Final and remaining unbeaten in the league.

[Gary_Parker]

Saturday 1st May, 2021

Hibernian 2

Raith Rovers 4 (Murua 21, 33, 79, Mazarekic 88)

Attendance: 11,112

Argentinean striker Jose Murua showed why he was a squad member with a fantastic performance to win us the match, two games left to be unbeaten.

Saturday 8th May, 2021

Raith Rovers 3 (Mazarekic 50, Pinto 76, Paco 80)

Dundee 0

Attendance: 8,271

We left it late to seal it, but two goals in the final 15 minutes gave us a resounding win over a stubborn Dundee side. One final game to remain unbeaten for the season...

Sunday 16th May, 2021

Raith Rovers 4 (Tansey o/g 33, Schwab 37, Ongenda 46, Marriott 51)

Ross County 1

Attendance: 8,066

And there it was, a great way to end the season, champions and invincibles of the Scottish Premier League. We now just had our domestic treble to retain, Dundee United standing in our way.

Sunday 23rd May, 2021

Scottish Cup Final

Raith Rovers 3 (Mango 21, Henrique 36, Ongenda 69)

Dundee United 0

Attendance: 52,025

A full house witnessed a changed Raith Rovers side beat Dundee United 3-0. A few knocks and injuries meant Senah Mango started in defence, netting the first goal of the game in the process to lead us to victory. With the domestic treble in the bag, we could head off for the summer in great spirits and look forward to the new season. I hadn't planned a lot of business this year and before I left for a holiday, the chairman wanted to discuss a new contract and put forward some suggested philosophies.