David Goodwillie might break all identified scoring information between now and Might and it would not come near justifying the grief Raith Rovers have delivered to their very own door.
When a board of administrators feels the necessity to take a vote on a brand new signing, it says a lot in regards to the baggage hooked up to the participant in query.
Certainly, Goodwillie - who was ordered to pay damages after a civil courtroom determined he was a rapist in 2017 - comes with a suitcase so full they'd battle to sneak it previous the gates of Downing Avenue for a lockdown knees-up.
Raith Rovers at all times knew the risks of signing him. But by Tuesday morning they had been embroiled in a public relations disaster of their very own making and ignorance was no defence.
A vocal and beneficiant membership sponsor - to not point out a lifelong supporter - crime writer Val McDermid, had been warning them for weeks. Say howdy to the previous Scotland striker and so they might wave farewell to her monetary backing.
At a board assembly on Monday afternoon, the administrators of Raith took a present of arms on whether or not Goodwillie was a match and correct determine to play for the membership.
Invoice Clark, a former membership chairman, adopted the comprehensible view that he wasn't and followers' director Andy Mill agreed. Outvoted by the opposite 4 administrators - chairman John Sim operates from a base in Thailand - the board reached a 'football-related resolution'.
Goodwillie signed from Clyde earlier than the switch deadline, with Rovers seeing off competitors for his providers from League One Falkirk. That one Scottish crew did not learn the room is outstanding sufficient. That two had been daft sufficient to assume they may journey out the storm beggars perception.
Any satisfaction or vindication Raith felt at profitable the race for Goodwillie's providers was short-lived. McDermid confirmed that she could be ending her shirt sponsorship cope with the membership.
A collection of posts on Twitter learn: 'I've cancelled subsequent season's shirt sponsorship over this disgusting and despicable transfer. This shatters any declare to be a group or household membership.
'Goodwillie has by no means expressed a shred of regret for the rape he dedicated. His presence at Stark's Park is a stain on the membership. I will be tearing up my season ticket, too. This can be a heartbreaker for me and plenty of different followers I do know.
'The considered the rapist David Goodwillie operating out on the pitch at Stark's Park in a Raith Rovers shirt with my title on the again makes me really feel bodily sick.'
The floodgates had been fast to open. Captain of the membership's ladies's crew, Tyler Rattray, shortly stop in protest.
'After 10 lengthy years taking part in for Raith,' she tweeted, 'it is gutting I've given up now as a result of they've signed somebody like this and I need nothing to do with it. It was good being captain of Raith whereas it lasted.'
The membership's supporter liaison officer, Margie Robertson, tendered her resignation on social media shortly after, writing: 'My values and that of the membership are actually on a divergent path.'
Towards this backdrop of group revulsion and nationwide condemnation, Clark felt he might now not proceed after his views had been ignored at Monday's board assembly.
'My job has been youth growth and group growth since I stepped down as chairman,' he advised Sportsmail.
'I simply assume that my credibility going on the market and attempting to encourage younger individuals and so forth - and particularly ladies to the ladies's crew - has gone down the pan with this resolution. It could make my life very, very tough to attempt to go on the market and persuade individuals we're a real group membership.'
Requested if his views had been listened to or taken on board, he added curtly: 'No.'
If the technique of Raith Rovers was to show a rubber ear to the criticism, hearth out a tone-deaf assertion and journey out the pile-on, it shortly ceased to be an possibility. Fellow authors Ian Rankin, Liam McIlvanney and Richard Osman supplied their help to McDermid on Twitter.
Rape Disaster Scotland wrote of the necessity for 'zero tolerance' of sexual violence. The story transcended the boundaries usually constraining a Scottish soccer story when First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expressed help for the stance of McDermid and Ms Rattray.
Applauding them for being 'principled', she added: 'The actual fact they're on this place in any respect reminds us that our society nonetheless has a strategy to go to make zero tolerance of sexual violence a actuality.'
Launched by Plymouth Argyle after he and former Dundee United team-mate David Robertson had been accused of raping Denise Clair, Goodwillie was thrown a lifeline by Clyde. The striker has performed there with barely a peep for the final 5 years and plenty of will ask what's modified now.
Had the participant himself ever owned as much as making errors or proven the slightest little bit of sorrow or contrition over what occurred that evening, it is perhaps somewhat simpler to maneuver on. Each sinner has a proper to redemption and rehabilitation, be it David Martindale or David Goodwillie.
Jailed for six-and-a-half years in 2006 when he was caught by an undercover police operation taking a hands-on position in one in every of Britain's biggest-ever cocaine gangs, Livingston supervisor Martindale was disarmingly sincere on his guilt and his motivations. He reinvented himself.
Whereas on bail, he enrolled in a building venture administration diploma at Heriot-Watt College, rising eight years later with a 2:1 with honours.
He started serving to out Livingston, served a punishment proportionate to the crime and has now emerged as a extremely efficient and clever soccer supervisor. He paid his debt to society.
Goodwillie was ordered to pay £100k in reparation to his sufferer. He may also argue that he paid a heavy value for an offence he was by no means convicted of in a felony courtroom when he misplaced his profession, home, automobile and really practically his household.
The difficulty is that it is arduous to point out a lot forgiveness for the person who will not express regret or settle for a level of wrongdoing established on the stability of chance in a civil courtroom by Lord Armstrong.
Soccer supporters are a fickle bunch. However this striker may lead one of many nation's oldest soccer golf equipment to the Scottish Premiership and there could be no dancing on the streets of Raith. Solely the swish of tumbleweed blowing by as sponsors and supporters depart them to it.
