Football has a habit of creating perfect storms at times - and as the sun started to appear in Kirkcaldy, dark clouds began to drift towards Motherwell.
'Would it be a shock?' That was a question posed from the Raith Rovers camp when asked about eliminating the Steelmen from the Scottish Cup at round five. There was cautionary optimism around a side who'd booked an SPFL Trust Trophy final place just days earlier and were looking to go unbeaten in 12. Fans on the opposite side of Stark's Park had asked their players to show some passion for the badge on their shirt. That blunt demand was just the first punch in a week full of uppercuts for Motherwell, who came to Fife in their thousands, some in hope rather than expectation. What they would eventually be served was a cold dish of what may have been.
Back in the Rovers club shop, Raith officials are on hand keen to show off their beloved team in the best light. Much of them are volunteers and much of them have been there through the best of times and the worst.
"Oh God, I couldn't tell you how many Scottish Cup ties I have seen here," said Jim McIntosh, who's into his 72nd year of coming to watch the Rovers. "Money-wise this means a lot, we'd like to win it and meet Celtic and Rangers and get more money."
A realistic outlook from someone who's been through it all at Raith. Few clubs of their size have seen the attention that signing David Goodwillie - convicted of rape in a civil court - brought to their door in the January transfer window of 2022. The matter reached Holyrood with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon urging them to think twice, sponsors stepping back. It was a costly mistake on a number of fronts.
That chapter is a tough subject to look back on and there's been plenty of time for reflection. A game against Hamilton last season brought media from up and down the UK to report on what had unfolded in the build-up to the match but the feeling this time around when Lanarkshire opposition made its way to Stark's Park was one of hopeful optimism.
There's talk of ownership changes too just to add a fresh ingredient into the mix of connecting a football club with its town again. But the right people are there to ensure a long-term future punters can get behind. "It's been very up and down, and it has been difficult to get supporters back onside," explained supporters director Dorothy Wilson. "But the Raith Rovers supporters have generally got the club at their heart and have been coming for many years, so gradually as the team gets better on the park, it's got better off it as well. The current ownership have the club at heart too going forward and they want the best for the club. There's a lot of due diligence being done and it won't just be handed to anyone."
At the heart of supporter matters, supporters liaison officer David Findlay acknowledges that "it certainly has been a turbulent year" and that "this is just the end result of a hard year for a lot of the fans." It's a sentiment held in the chairman's office. "It's been difficult as it takes quite a lot to run the club. The folk work behind the scenes incredibly hard for the betterment of Raith Rovers, I think fans are realising that we are working hard to make this a better place to support."
The line is drawn under that and it's easy to see a far brighter mood around the Stark's Park walls. Within them, talk begins to murmur of what it will take to get a result, the word "fragile" heard more than once when it comes to their opposition. Are Motherwell better player for player? Perhaps, but a good start and a perfect performance could see them on their way to victory, and they probably can't believe how right they were by half-time alone looking back.
Players, followed by management, followed by the press and then the slow procession of fans began to enter the stands. And already some were talking about a last claret and amber stand for a side struggling in confidence. This spiral to joint-bottom of the Premiership didn't start this season, rather January 2022. A strong first half to the 21/22 campaign under Graham Alexander was enough to clinch European football, but three wins in the second half of the Premiership season prompted fears for the following term.
Elimination from Europe against Sligo Rovers compounded them. And despite a bright start under Hammell as caretaker then permanent gaffer, things quickly fell away, and suddenly they came to their latest cup tie with no league wins since Halloween and their only game of maximum joy being in the last round of this tournament against part-time Arbroath.
Team news that included one natural centre-back and five attack-minded players was already sparking fear of imbalance and a humbling that would lead to the outcome they feared. "Why are we playing a right back at left back when there's a left-back on the bench' one asked?" one asked. "Can’t work out the formation," another said.
In fairness, most were pleased to see Hammell going all-out in pursuit of victory. But a lack of homegrown Stuart McKinstry - a bright spark in a drab campaign for Motherwell - proved a head-scratcher for some.
Cheap goals have been a theme of late for the Steelmen and as they came out onto the park and started off in a cagey manner, it was going to be interesting to see what the answer was to Raith's first big question. And as it arrived, Jamie Gullan was given all the time in the world to try and pick his spot, and Callum Slattery's arm was the last barrier before goalkeeper Liam Kelly was tested.
Up the former Hibs man stepped to score, and gallingly for Motherwell, it felt like a long way back already. "I can think of two good performances all season" one fan told us pre-match, and it was hard to see another arriving just 20 minutes into the game. Dylan Easton then narrowly missed a spectacular second and it began to look like whenever navy blue shirts flooded forward, those in white retreated. Liam Dick had ran past Easton and took the ball of his teammates toes before any 'Well players could get near to it, and Sam Stanton didn't stop to make sure Kelly dropped a looping shot.
"That's that" was heard nearby. In saying that, "we're in trouble now" from someone in the Raith end when Kevin Van Veen pulled one back played into that Scottish football scepticism that no matter how well something appears to be going, it can change so quickly. But this tide did not look like turning, the fate of this cup tie looked long out to sea and there was no lifeboat coming to collect Motherwell off choppy waters. Boos at half-time turned to apathy by the final whistle as the stand where thousands once were lay three-quarters empty as players offered up more hands of apology, but they weren't enough this time.
"Is that it" was a question being banded around the press box and when Hammell didn't appear for post-match duties, the writing was on the wall. Isamel Goncalves didn't even know his teammates names when coming on to the park to score the winner on his debut after joining from Livingston, but he more aware of what was going on than the Motherwell defence who went to sleep as he ghosted past their offside trap.
The lights went out at the end of a bright day for Rovers and one that ended with their fallen foes managerless. And on February 27th, they will also be without a chief executive with Alan Burrows on the way to Aberdeen. "The manager is a really good guy and we have let him down massively," captain Kelly said before the news of his manager's exit broke. "He has done everything he could for us. He prepared us right, we knew how big a game it was - we are grown men and we knew how much this meant to the club to get to a quarter. We have let him down massively."
And that is the crux of it. Some players at the club are going onto their fourth manager and some fans don't expect the exit of one of their greats to be a silver bullet fixing all ills. As one brutally put it - "Sick of football, guy left hung out to dry".
This was grim watch from a claret and amber perspective. It was Mr Motherwell, a man a generation of fans only know their club with, getting put through the wringer, chants of sacked in the morning from fans a division below while sinking to a 3-1 loss a sorry sight for those on the other end of the ground. For those staying in Fife, there's now real hope of a good season turning memorable. They are one of four lower league teams set to be in the last eight draw and chances of them booking a memorable Hampden trip are higher than ever.
Even if a big Premiership away day is bagged, it's still mission accomplished. Scenes of players dancing in front of a full stand was probably an image that was as far away as the nations reporting on their turmoil. They've made their way out of the mire and while not out the woods yet, Raith Rovers seem on the cusp and looking up. No manager, soon to be no CEO, embarrassed by cup dismay and in the dogfight, Motherwell don't know where to look for the light.
