RiG

I see the commentator got some stick on social media. In fairness I've no idea how good or bad he may have been as I turned it off so I could hear folk chatting in the Zoom call however if the person is struggling then maybe getting a second body alongside him would help out. Bring in some extra knowledge about ICT (and their opposition) and give the guy a bit of a confidence boost and the two could play off each other. The Raith duo the other night weren't perfect but they worked well together.

Ah I've got commentary turned off.

So far the camera has been much, MUCH better than the first two outings...

The number of votes in the Player of the Year is way down which suggests less people are watching the streams than would normally go to a game. In another thread one poster isn't bothering with the stream today because they are going to watch rugby instead and there seems to be less and less discussion pre and post match than last season. Even before the pandemic our crowds were heading in a downward trajectory. It certainly seems like some supporters are losing interest and as we've seen it's hard to get them back through the gate. Maybe I am putting 2 + 2 together and getting 5 but looking at all of that it's hard not to feel like interest is waning badly. The sooner we get back into grounds the better.

We're out of the competition, Robbo, even before this tie, was making no secret he wasn't bothered about it and now we're treating it as some kind of super friendly, the streaming experience so far has been rotten... I can see why there isn't much excitement for this one. In general I do fear a further drop off in attendances as people find something else to do with their Saturday's instead of going to the football. We've never had the most committed fan base at the best of times and the longer we go on without getting fans into grounds the more likely it is even more of our support will drift away.

Game tomorrow is free so that's something.

Out of interest, what made the suggestion of Steve Aitken for manager back in 2017 so funny?

And rightly so as the price was ridiculous although I believe the Hearts PPV offering was of very good quality. Looking back at those highlights you can see why Robbo was straight on the pitch at the final whistle to remonstrate with the referee. Three blatant penalties for handball not given in our favour although the one we did get was arguably the weakest shout of them all and it was still a good claim.

Excellent highlights package from Raith available now.

Cracking nights entertainment and well worth £10. Raith TV was by some distance the best PPV setup I've experienced so far this season. One stutter just before the opening goal and that was it. No problems casting to the TV and the commentary team, whilst slightly biased towards RR as you'd expect, were good fun to listen to. "Has a ball ever hit a train here do you know?" Raith definitely the better team in the first half and I think we were on top for most of the second half save for a frantic final 10 minutes or so when Raith almost equalised on a couple of occasions before the finally did. Some pretty obvious penalty shouts for us turned down by a laughably bad referee though I can just about see why some Rovers fans would be clamouring for a red for us in the first half. Slack defending by Devine to allow Duku wrestle the ball off him and score the opener. Kennedy, who was superb throughout the game for us last night, sent in a wonderful cross from the right to find Sutherland peeling off his marker to head in the equaliser. It looked like Thomson seemed to misjudge the ball when it was headed towards him or it didn't bounce off the astro but I thought he should really have saved it. Wasn't absolutely convinced about the Raith penalty as I thought that Duffy got to the ball to poke it away but regardless it was ballooned high into the Fife sky by Armstrong. I felt we took control of the game in the second half and were well on top and Doran almost put us ahead when he broke into the box and lashed a shot wide. But then, against the run of play, Ethan Ross broke into the ICT penalty area and cut the ball back from the goal line where it thumped off Devine and past a stranded Ridgers. We then had the first of around 3 penalty claims for handball when Kennedy tried to send a cross into the box but it was blocked by the hand of a Raith defender. Fortunately we got back on level terms only a few minutes later. Not completely sure what the penalty was given for but someone I was watching the match with said there might have been a possible push on Keatings? Anyway, we took advantage of this good fortune when Keatings scored from the spot and only a few minutes later he had a hand in the ICT 3rd goal as his free kick cracked off the post and MacGregor followed it in to poke the ball in from close range. There were a couple more penalty appeals for ICT before Raith suddenly sparked back into life again creating some good chances as we headed into the final 10 minutes or so before they finally drew level. Devine seemed to lose the ball in the air and another ICT defender (possibly Harper) didn't follow Duku who lashed in a late equaliser. Yet we almost had a 4th when Allardice lifted a lovely through ball to Keatings who attempted an acrobatic shot at goal but completely fluffed his effort and then Thomson pulled off a superb double save at close range to keep the sides level. The ICT penalties in the shoot out were poor. A little bit concerning when a CB takes the best spot kick for your side.

Raith Rovers fans on P & B have provided the following advice when watching Raith TV.

No time to rest, we're back in action in the League Cup tomorrow night against Raith Rovers! Match day PPV passes are available from the Raith TV site and are (apparently) priced at a mere £9.99 which is pretty decent after Hearts shocking price for Saturday's game.

I'm now getting a message about a "configuration server error has occurred" and the website appears all distorted. However if I click on the links I still get taken onto CTO as normal. Very weird.

The email is telling you your copy is ready to collect from the stadium so all you need to d is collect it from the stadium.

One for @aaroncoganshogun to listen to this weekend:

Ah slow day! I've just clicked and remembered the fans that would be getting in would be ST holders rather than PATG fans so no additional income to cover the stewarding costs. Whoops!

Very kind of you to offer but hopefully I'll be up before too long to get my hands on it. Thanks though

Why will we be out of pocket WRT the cost of stewarding? Surely they can reduce the numbers of stewards that are required to cover 300 folk split between a couple of stands to minimise costs.

Got an email saying my copy is ready for collection at the stadium. Not a great time to be stuck in a Tier 3 area of the country...

£18.50!

I don't know about you but I am truly listless ahead of this weekends game against Heart of Midlothian Football Club! The streaming experience is garbage. Watching your team play on a wee screen and shouting over your pals on a Zoom call doesn't compare to the real thing. We should be looking forward to a pint in Bensons, chatting with friends and opposition fans, getting irate over a Hearts player moving 3 yards too far forward to take a throw in and shouting abuse at Liam Boyce for his time OTB. All the same, we press on... I guess we are looking at roughly the same side that started against Arbroath? I haven't seen much in the way of updates on players coming back from injury though I would be tempted to swap Mckay out for Devine. No information that I have seen regarding streaming operations from Tynecastle though Hearts did promise a multi camera setup so that sounds promising. Maybe.

Whilst Alloa are using Pixellot cameras it's their own setup so they can do what they want with them. We on the other hand have left it all down to the SPFL who are using the same tech. Hopefully we can get them to use a manual controller for future broadcasts. ETA: Here is a test stream for Alloa which, I believe, is the first one they used a manual controller for the camera(s).

It's an absolutely dreadful website. Not like the SPFL haven't had months to get something ready either.

Evening folks. The latest episode of The Wyness Shuffle is out now and we talk about the recent games, lookahead to the matches coming up, interview Wallace Duffy, Nightmare XI returns and there is the small matter of who won Sean Welsh's shirt... Available from Podbean and all your other usual podcasty places like Apple, Google and Spotify.

Alloa have had, IIRC, similar issues but they are getting manual control of the Pixellot system which will, hopefully as far as they are concerned, address the issues with the camera moving to where it shouldn't be. Something for ICT to consider perhaps.