IF the Raith Rovers board thinks it has drawn a curtain on what must be among the four most unedifying days in Scottish football history then they have another think coming.

This "unfortunate episode", as the Fife football club called it, has far from concluded with the decision yesterday to part ways with rapist David Goodwillie.

Immediately following the announcement of his signing to Raith came the steady sound of footsteps as one associate after another walked away. Its director and former chairman, Bill Clark; the Raith women and girl's team; Raith TV team; its announcer; Marie Penman of Raith Rovers Community Foundation, to name a very few.

The charge was led by the unbridled and unequivocal fury of Val McDermid, whose sighs of frustration and sadness as she was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour spoke more than any words could.

McDermid used her celebrity power and reach to elevate Raith Rovers, bringing her star quality to her team, and that's exactly what she's used to hold them to account over this dreadful decision, no doubt giving courage to others to be forthright in challenging Goodwillie's signing.

Now, with the club u-turn, that force has achieved a positive aim – but at what cost? And what now?

The Welsh footballer Ched Evans successfully challenged a conviction for rape in 2016 and was eventually awarded £800,000 in damages by the legal firm that originally represented him.

In 2014, when he was released on licence after serving the remand part of his sentence, there was a national outcry that he might be signed by Sheffield United. The Yorkshire side passed him up and then a series of other clubs showed an interest then pivoted as, each time, there was pushback from fans.

At the same time, and I should say again for clarity that Evans was found not guilty at his second trial, there were plenty of media and public voices who defended the idea of a convicted rapist playing for a high profile football team and there was much discussion of the moral quagmire of what to do with a sportsman with a criminal conviction.

Closer to home, and more recently, the signing of Jon Flanagan to Rangers in 2018 prompted far more mixed a response. Flanagan had been convicted of domestic assault against his girlfriend. As Raith Rovers did in its earlier statement of support for Goodwillie this week, Flanagan was defended vehemently by football fans due to his ball skills.

In the intervening 10 years since Ched Evans's first trial, a great deal of feminist campaigning, the MeToo movement, changing understanding of the cause and effect of violence against women and girls, and changing attitudes have made the response to Goodwillie's move from Clyde FC to Raith Rovers far more united.

There is a marked change, even, from the reaction to Jon Flanagan just four years ago to now.

It is difficult to talk about positives in a case like this because there is a victim, and it is not for columnists or anyone else to talk about wider upsides that, ultimately, stem from her pain.

With that caveat, however, it has been striking to see how many men have spoken out unequivocally to say, "Not on our team, not under any circumstances". While Twitter is often a pit of ill informed, contrarian opinions, even that platform was awash with largely unchallenged condemnation of Raith Rovers's actions.

There were think pieces around the time of Ched Evans's initial conviction pooh-poohing the idea that footballers might be expected to be without reproach but that take would be easily dismissed as nonsense now.

Fans cleave to football clubs, their teams are part of their identity. The behaviour of footballers reflects as much on the club as it does on the sense of self of fans. Young children go to games and look up to the men and women on the pitch as heroes. It's not possible to separate the behaviour of sportsmen and women within the stadium and outwith.

Now we have aspirational players like Marcus Rashford, there's a new gold standard to be set.

Raith Rovers, again, in its statement earlier this week referenced Goodwillie as being part of the Raith family. The doublethink of that: on one hand, acknowledgement that the club is a community; on the other hand, the emphasis on mere machine-like goal scoring.

The question of rehabilitation can't be ignored. It can't be the case that football, or sport generally, should be exempt from providing space for people with convictions to try again and to flourish. You can be a role model who's turned their life around. Some have said that those who have committed crimes should be excluded from football due to the fame and riches associated but this also simply doesn't hold - you can't put an earnings cap on a person due to their past deeds.

In Goodwillie's case, the problem is the lack of admission and contrition. He claims to be not guilty and so has shown no remorse for his actions and no attempt to atone. It puts him in a stalemate that only he can resolve.

To Raith Rovers and the chairman's statement offers a "wholehearted" apology but fails to couple these words with meaningful action. It fails to mention Goodwillie's actions or to centre the victim in this situation.

If the club truly recognises the "anguish and anger" caused by its actions, as its statement says, then its management must know that some sort of restorative steps should be offered to mitigate the damage done.

The statement makes no mention of why anguish was felt at the signing of Goodwillie, nor offers any sense of understanding.

The charge of "too little, too late" can't be applied here because the club has, at least, moved with relative swiftness, although it could have moved far swifter. It could also, it emerged, have avoided the whole mess in the first place if it had listened to Val McDermid who has said she warned the club away from Goodwillie in January.

In Scots law there is no right of anonymity for a sexual assault victim, rather there is a convention, a gentleman's agreement, if you will, among publications to cloak the identity of victims.

It is, for many obviously understandable reasons, unusual for a victim in such a case to speak publicly and ask for her identity to be made public. In this instance, Denise Clair, the survivor of Goodwillie's violence, chose to place herself in the limelight in order to ensure justice was done for her, and in the hope it would help others like her.

That choice should be honoured, not smeared as Raith Rovers has done.

What a decent bunch are Raith's fans, in contrast to the men in charge of their club. A fundraiser for Rape Crisis Scotland, set up by one supporter, had generated more than £10,000 at last check.

Raith Rovers's board could take heed. What steps, if any, will it take to make this up to fans and to everyone else involved? Goodwillie still has a contract and who will have to foot the bill for that?

And who will have to foot the non-financial bill, that of crushing disappointment and a community shattered. It should not be the club's family of fans, however many of them are left.

A standing ovation then, for Val McDermid and all those who banded together. Hopefully the message has been strong enough this time to cease needing repeated.