‘Darkest moment in our history’: Raith fans on David Goodwillie row

The first thing Martin Glass thought about was his daughter, when he heard the news on Monday evening that his home town team, Raith Rovers, were signing a man ruled to be a rapist by a civil court.

Lillie is just seven and a half months old but 26-year-old Glass is a first-time dad and he’s already looking forward to taking her to her first game. “I want my daughter to have good role models. If I’m part of a club that has a rapist as an idol then that’s on me.”

His second thought was to set up a fundraising page for Rape Crisis Scotland. “Let’s make a difference,” he wrote, introducing the online appeal. By Friday morning, he had raised more than £12,000.

“I needed to show Raith and football fans in general did not support this,” Glass said. “It’s a small bit of good out of the darkest moment in our club’s history.”

Raith Rovers’ decision to sign David Goodwillie, who was ordered to pay damages to the woman he was found to have raped in a landmark case in 2017, resulted in a ferocious backlash that escalated as the week progressed, with sponsorship withdrawals, multiple resignations and the women’s team moving to sever ties.

On Thursday, the Scottish Championship club announced in a contrite statement that it had “got it wrong”, would not select Goodwillie and was reviewing the 32-year-old striker’s contract.

But Glass echoes many Raith supporters whose response to the U-turn has been only a qualified welcome. “If this is all that happens, I won’t be back this season. The board should resign: they came up with this, they should take the consequences rather than the fans, volunteers and players.”

Aileen Campbell, the chief executive of Scottish Women’s Football, agreed that the statement on Thursday was “only the first