(30/7/05)

Bell's Cup Exit
Rovers lost 4-0 at Palmerston this afternoon to first division Queen of the South. It was nice to know players names when watching them unlike pre-season matches when most were listed as trialist. Jamie Ewings stood out and prevented several more goals being scored by the Doonhamers.

A full report with a pic or two will be on the site tomorrow.

Supporters' Trust
The Trust page has been updated

Chairman Resigns
As reported in today's Herald newspaper Rovers' chairman Andrew Dick has resigned. This should come as no surprise to fans as it had previously been announced that he'd step down at the next A.G.M. which has not yet been announced or held. No replacement has been appointed and the board of directors shall take time to decide who should fill the position, one possibility is that the successful candidate shall come from outwith the current board.

Mr. Dick said he was stepping down after 10 years on the board to let someone else take the club forward and the board thanked him for his contribution.

(28/7/05)

Chappie's Chat
In the first of a regular weekly column Jim Chapman talks directly to Rovers fans. Not since Chas McLean's articles have we had such direct input from the other side of the fence, I'm suspect Jim's columns will not go off at a political tangent as Chas's did!

It's intended that once a month there will be an opportunity for fans to submit questions for Chappie to answer through the website.

(26/7/05)

40!
Jim Chapman turned 40 today - to mark the event Lew McWilliam on behalf of the supporters' trust presented the head-coach with a bottle of Champagne. See the trust page for a pic.

Rovers Lose To United
Rovers lost 3-0 to Airdrie United at Cliftonhill tonight, despite starting strongly United's 1st division side were too strong. A match report with a couple of mini-videos will be on the site on Wednesday.

(25/7/05)

Supporters Bus
As expected the Supporters' Trust has stepped in on a strictly one-off basis to arrange a bus for the Bell's Cup match at Dumfries this Saturday. A 24 seater has been booked and it shall leave at 12.30pm sharp from Owen's. Prices are expected to be £10 adults and £5 concessions.

The bus is open to all fans whether members of the trust or not!

(23/7/05)

Stranraer Match
Rovers first public outing of pre-season ended in Stranraer winning 2 - 1 with both visitors goals coming in the last few minutes. Although mostly signed players the Rovers line-up was quoted as 1. Ewings, 2. Lennox and the others all trialists. Jim Chapman explained that this was because the SFA hadn't yet confirmed registration on the players. Inevitably it was a trialist (No. 9) who scored Rovers goal early in the match.

After the match Jim Chapman met supporters to set out his strategy for the coming months and years. He encouraged the fans to get behind the team and not to criticize players as he and they would know what they've done wrong.

A more elaborate match report shall be on the website tomorrow.

Supporters Bus
As the usual bus arranger JJ can't manage next Saturday your supporters trust is laying on a bus to Dumfries for the QOS Bell's cup game. This is strictly a one-off for the trust as we thought it important to encourage fans to travel to this match, especially as it's the first competitive one under the stewardship of Jim Chapman. We shall confirm details soon although leaving at 12.30 from Owen's with £10 for adults and £5 for concessions being the costs seems likely. A 24 seat bus is the likely transport!

(21/7/05)

Rovers Wins
Rovers beat Raith Rovers 4-0 in a closed-door bounce match at Bellshill tonight, coincidentally they beat Troon by the same amount in a similar match on Tuesday evening.

Chapman To Meet Fans
Head-coach Jim Chapman has said that he shall be holding an informal discussion with fans after the Stranraer friendly this Saturday.

(20/7/05)

Gretna Match
The Gretna CIS cup match shall be played on Wednesday 10th August with a 7.30pm kick-off. Admission prices are £10 and £5 with season tickets being valid.

(19/7/05)

Interview
The much vaunted first interview with head-coach Jim Chapman has now been put on his profile page.

CIS Cup Drawn
The draw for the first round of the CIS Cup was made this afternoon and Rovers were drawn against Gretna. The match will be at Cliftonhill and will be played on Tuesday 9th August or possibly Wednesday August 10th.

Jetting Off
Jimmy Lindsay and his 1st year youngsters jetted off to Cyprus today for a period of 3 weeks, they will be based in the Limassol area. As happened last year in Turkey the trip is paid for by Leonardo Da Vinci who died in 1519. The great man left money in trust to pay for things that were beneficial to people after his death.

Friendlies
The admission prices for the Stranraer and Airdrie United friendlies has been confirmed as £5 for adults and £2 concessions.

Signed Players
The players signed to date are as follows

Scott Friel and Lee Wilson have re-signed.

Philip Creaney (22) midfield ex-Falkirk
Thomas Franch(22) forward ex- Symington Tinto
George Wallace(23) forward ex- Auchinleck Talbot
Jamie Ewings(21) goalkeeper ex-Motherwell
Tommy Lennox(22) midfield ex-Q.O.S.
Martin Bonnar(25) midfield ex- Hamilton/Queen's Park.

(15/7/05)

Drumchapel
The scheduled friendly against Drumchapel arranged for tomorrow (Saturday) has been cancelled.

Players Signed
Jim Chapman has had some players put pen to paper, a goalkeeper and a couple of strikers are amongst them. Regrettably one of the new boys was injured during the closed-door match in Hamilton on Thursday. Jim was kind enough to give your webmaster an interview today which shall be on the website on Sunday. 

(14/7/05)

Accies
A Rovers side lost 2-0 at New Douglas Park tonight, as it was the first time the players had played together it's certain Jim Chapman wont be worried by the defeat. It wasn't an exciting spectacle but was no doubt a valuable tool for the Rovers gaffer to assess the approximate 20 players who took to the pitch in Rovers jerseys during the 90 minutes.

(13/7/05)

Friendlies
Jim Chapman has lined up the following pre-season matches as he finalises his signing targets.

Saturday 16th v Drumchapel Amateurs, venue to be advised but at Cliftonhill.

Saturday 23rd v Stranraer at Cliftonhill with a 3pm kick-off

Tuesday 26th v Airdrie United at Cliftonhill with a 7.30pm kick-off.

The only other match arranged so far is away from Cliftonhill but is certainly closed door.

Admission for the home games shall be £5 adults. Whether season tickets are valid shall be found out soon, but it seems unlikely!

Season Tickets
General manager John Reynolds has taken delivery of the season tickets so fans can now get them on Thursday evening or anytime John is at the ground (between 10am to 2pm being safe times to find him there Mon -Fri).

"News" Coverage
Today's editions of The Sun and The Daily Record had articles which were basically having a go at Rovers, the Supporters' Trust and the fans in general.

The article takes without permission a photo of fans painting the fence at the far side of the ground, they shall be hearing from me about that (proceeds to the trust). They then claim that the club were ordered to carry out a lot of work by North Lanarkshire Council or lose their safety certificate which is completely untrue, there was only one such request by the council. It claims the fans took down the flagpole, again untrue as it was a contractor who did it. They claim the last flag to fly on it was the 2nd division championship flag from 1988 when in fact it was 1989.

It claims the club had to "cordon off" the north stand, as fans will know this has been unused for a couple of years. The alleged request by the council for a structural engineers inspection of steelwork is again a fabrication. Mentions of "crumbling Cliftonhill" and the now infamous kettle of many years ago were also in the articles.

The club have in fact received a letter from the council stating they shall be granted a safety certificate!

The article goes on to claim that the club was hit with a bill for £150 of calls to sex lines from the press-box 2 months ago, more like 5 years ago Mr. so called journalist Robert McAulay! Note - this is not possible anymore as the lines require security codes before working now.

This is a positive story, fans turning out to make the place look better but as that wouldn't get any press coverage and therefore cash for it's writer they've done the usual hatchet job.

The suggestion that the fans only turned out after the council threatened to close the place is laughable as we have been there every Saturday and many Thursdays since the season ended. They quote an "unnamed fan", quite possibly unnamed because they didn't exist in the first place.

This "reporter" was at Cliftonhill yesterday with a photographer taking pics of work being done but decided not to use them.

(8/7/05)

New Director
Chairman of the supporters' trust Lew McWilliam has been appointed to the board of the football club. Lew who is retired (early retirement he's at pains to make clear).

Accounts Released
Accounts for years ending June 2001 and June 2002 have now been signed off by the board of directors. Any shareholder purchasing their season ticket from Frank Meade will be given a copy of them.

"Season Ticket Sales are an important source of funding to the Club and while the tickets themselves will not be available from the printers for a couple of weeks yet, I would encourage supporters to consider early purchase if at all possible. Supporters who do this will be given a receipt and will be able to collect their ticket at the first match of the season or by arrangement with John Reynolds at the ground.

John will be on holiday until 11th July but in the interim Frank Meade will be more than happy to accept payments and issue receipts. He can be contacted on 0141 632 9501."

Trust
An update has been placed on the trust page about the groundforce effort and the match programme.

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