The New Raith Rovers Thread

[D'Jaffo]

In all honesty Raith aren’t a great side but they’ve made it hard for us and had opportunities to win the league so credit to them for that.

This was mainly down to them being pretty solid at the back and relying on individuals to get a goal or two. This worked until their defence turned to shit (strangely coincided with Benedictus coming back) and Vaughan wasn’t producing.

If you compare the two squads we have a much stronger squad and I’m struggling to think of any Raith players that would start a game for us. Vaughan is highly rated but I’ve not seen him have one good game this season and he’ll be well out his depth if he goes to the Premiership in the summer.

All in all no one can argue we don’t deserve to win the league and if Raith don’t go up then Barry Smith will have a lot to answer for. As much as McCall might not be popular with some sections of our support he’s done a pretty good job this season and you couldn’t criticise him for much. Smith on the other hand has made an arse of it.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

10 minutes ago, ayrmad said:

Shows you how little I've been  bothered about you/

You can't even do 'indifferent' properly.

[Frank conner]

It really is bad when the best Ayr team (That's not been bankrolled) for generations gets excited and gloats over us. It will change I'm sure.

[ayrmad]

4 minutes ago, Frank conner said:

It really is bad when the best Ayr team (That's not been bankrolled) for generations gets excited and gloats over us. It will change I'm sure.

Excited, our defence has been woeful for large chunks of the season, I have never watched an Ayr side that gifted the opposition so many goals in all my years watching them, I'm not gloating but you and some others certainly can't moan  as you have been in Ayr threads gloating at every opportunity throughout the season.

[ayrmad]

15 minutes ago, Zen Archer said:

You can't even 'party' properly.

Of course I can.

[Michael W]

Ayr have only conceded 6 more goals than we have. Over a season that's insignificant. 

They have scored 25 more and that's the difference. Comfortably dispatched teams whilst we struggled, and when Ayr concede 1 or even 2 there were still more than a few wins in there. Indeed, Ayr have come back from being behind on many occasions this season. 

We gambled on our strikers and it has clearly failed. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by Michael W

[UpInTheAyr]

16 minutes ago, Frank conner said:

It really is bad when the best Ayr team (That's not been bankrolled) for generations gets excited and gloats over us. It will change I'm sure.

I'm sure you'll come #RoaringBack.

[Frank conner]

This sad thing is that it's fucking Ayr don't worry they will be back down again as usual. 

[Broken Algorithms]

Our three forwards don't fit into the system.  Spence doesn't seem to be favoured over Buchanan, and was dropped today despite having a solid game. We've had far too much of a tendancy to smash it long, which has ultimately been useless. 

[D'Jaffo]

It really is bad when the best Ayr team (That's not been bankrolled) for generations gets excited and gloats over us. It will change I'm sure.

Yeah it’ll likely be Airdrie fans gloating over you next season.

#roaringback

[Poet of the Macabre]

Hope you guys win the play-offs as Rovers in the Championship under Barry Smith sounds just lovely.

[Ro Sham Bo]

7 hours ago, UpInTheAyr said:

I'm sure you'll come #RoaringBack.

I'm already looking forward to next season's hashtag.

#thistimewemeanit

[Scary Bear]

1 hour ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

I'm already looking forward to next season's hashtag.

#thistimewemeanit

This is the burning question, what will next season’s hashtag be?

#bepartofit - relegated

#roaringback - longtime trophy dodgers Ayr win the league. Longtime play-off disasters Rovers have to settle for the play-offs.

#roversreturn - Starks Park burns to the ground. Rovers go bust. Only cockroaches remain.

[Scary Bear]

9 hours ago, Poet of the Macabre said:

Hope you guys win the play-offs as Rovers in the Championship under Barry Smith sounds just lovely.

It sounds better than Rovers in League 1 under Barry Smith. Surely we couldn’t do much worse than Brechin? Surely?

[North Terrace Gazza]

No hard feelings but to avoid a relegation dog fight with you guys I hope Arbroath win the playoffs.

[CALDERON]

I thought Ayr would win the league before a ball was kicked so I'm not surprised it's transpired like that.

The frustrating thing is that we were 8 points clear in February and even allowing for an Ayr win in the head to head game that was still an excellent position to be in.

The four points thrown away in the dying minutes against Albion and Arbroath absolutely fucked things up and highlights the massive issue with this side. Getting our noses in front and desperately trying to cling on and shitfest our way to points rather than kill games off.

It worked well for us at times this season but as soon as the defence starting creaking that was it. There is nowhere near enough in this side to make up for that. Smith built the team around being difficult to break down, and soon as that goes there is nothing separating us from the other sides in this league. There was no need to throw Benedictus back into a defence that was absolutely settled and doing absolutely fine.  Don't know if that's the reason things went wrong at the back but there has been a huge difference since he came back in.

We relied on Vaughan, and it is probably turning out that whilst still our best player, Vaughan isn't as good as some make out. He has played much of this season out of position, but teams have sussed him out and marked him out of the game, and he hasn't been able to deal with that. Is also incredibly greedy. It's not Vaughans fault we are where we are, but he's not the ultimate solution to any problem.

Buchanan has been shite. Mega disappointment. Spence hasn't featured enough but hasn't impressed enough. Biggest dissapointment has been Matthews though. I don't actually know what he is meant to be doing each game he plays. Had such high hopes for him too.

I'd say only Davidson, Mackay, Murray and Robertson can say they've played with any real consistency this season and is be happy to see them at the club next season. Obviously same for Vaughan as he is clearly our best player, but we need to find a way to get the most out of him without relying on him totally. He'll be away anyway if we are in this league. We will be fucking desperate for the cash. Benedictus id keep too as with a full pre season he will improve. Hendry has done well but will be back to Celtic.

Nobody else has done enough. Thomson has stayed a season too long and looks past it. Mchattie is just Mchattie. Barr is actually not that good a footballer even before you take his attitude issues into the equation. Both goalkeepers have had absolute howlers at times. Makes you appreciate how good Cuthbert was. Herron looked better since coming back from injury but is nothing more than a tidy player.

The most concerning thing this season has been that as a team we don't actually look any more skillful than most other teams in this league. Take Vaughan out the equation like yesterday and we are just another decent League 1 side.

Regardless of what league we are in we will need a significant overhaul, that is for sure. 

There's still of course the playoffs to look forward to, but we all know how we do with playoffs.

At the end of the day, Ayr thoroughly deserve the league. Best team always wins over 36 games. But we had a very good chance going into the run in and absolutely blew it.

 

[Scary Bear]

3 hours ago, North Terrace Gazza said:

No hard feelings but to avoid a relegation dog fight with you guys I hope Arbroath win the playoffs.

Even though we are a no frills side I still have a feeling this could be our year for the play-offs.

[Rovers1992/1993]

Shows you how little I've been  bothered about you.

Not looking to gloat but you really aren't that great a side, I think 12 home wins is exceptional for an ok team.

Excited, our defence has been woeful for large chunks of the season, I have never watched an Ayr side that gifted the opposition so many goals in all my years watching them, I'm not gloating but you and some others certainly can't moan  as you have been in Ayr threads gloating at every opportunity throughout the season.

Of course I can.

Seriously? [emoji23]

[ayrmad]

1 minute ago, Rovers1992/1993 said:

 

 

 

Seriously?

 

 

 

I've not rated Raith all season, any concerns I've had were centred around our generosity at the back.

Go back to the 1st game against you at Somerset and read what I said pre match, something along the lines of "if we turn up we'll hammer them", we turned up for the 1st half an hour then happily took the easy win.

Every time I've mentioned to a non Ayr fan that Arbroath are a better side than Raith, the response has always been the same, "someone else has said that as well".

[basher brash]

1 hour ago, CALDERON said:

I thought Ayr would win the league before a ball was kicked so I'm not surprised it's transpired like that.

The frustrating thing is that we were 8 points clear in February and even allowing for an Ayr win in the head to head game that was still an excellent position to be in.

The four points thrown away in the dying minutes against Albion and Arbroath absolutely fucked things up and highlights the massive issue with this side. Getting our noses in front and desperately trying to cling on and shitfest our way to points rather than kill games off.

It worked well for us at times this season but as soon as the defence starting creaking that was it. There is nowhere near enough in this side to make up for that. Smith built the team around being difficult to break down, and soon as that goes there is nothing separating us from the other sides in this league. There was no need to throw Benedictus back into a defence that was absolutely settled and doing absolutely fine.  Don't know if that's the reason things went wrong at the back but there has been a huge difference since he came back in.

We relied on Vaughan, and it is probably turning out that whilst still our best player, Vaughan isn't as good as some make out. He has played much of this season out of position, but teams have sussed him out and marked him out of the game, and he hasn't been able to deal with that. Is also incredibly greedy. It's not Vaughans fault we are where we are, but he's not the ultimate solution to any problem.

Buchanan has been shite. Mega disappointment. Spence hasn't featured enough but hasn't impressed enough. Biggest dissapointment has been Matthews though. I don't actually know what he is meant to be doing each game he plays. Had such high hopes for him too.

I'd say only Davidson, Mackay, Murray and Robertson can say they've played with any real consistency this season and is be happy to see them at the club next season. Obviously same for Vaughan as he is clearly our best player, but we need to find a way to get the most out of him without relying on him totally. He'll be away anyway if we are in this league. We will be fucking desperate for the cash. Benedictus id keep too as with a full pre season he will improve. Hendry has done well but will be back to Celtic.

Nobody else has done enough. Thomson has stayed a season too long and looks past it. Mchattie is just Mchattie. Barr is actually not that good a footballer even before you take his attitude issues into the equation. Both goalkeepers have had absolute howlers at times. Makes you appreciate how good Cuthbert was. Herron looked better since coming back from injury but is nothing more than a tidy player.

The most concerning thing this season has been that as a team we don't actually look any more skillful than most other teams in this league. Take Vaughan out the equation like yesterday and we are just another decent League 1 side.

Regardless of what league we are in we will need a significant overhaul, that is for sure. 

There's still of course the playoffs to look forward to, but we all know how we do with playoffs.

At the end of the day, Ayr thoroughly deserve the league. Best team always wins over 36 games. But we had a very good chance going into the run in and absolutely blew it.

 

Excellent post Calderon

One of the points you made regarding us looking like any other team in the league is 100% correct which is really worrying for me considering we are a full time outfit. 

It may come across being big headed but the training facilities playing budget etc  doesn’t guarantee Success  however it will give you the edge over the part time teams and we should be at least doing what Ayr have been doing which is killing games off early and with ease at times but to be frank we have been out played by part time outfits for most of the season and only our fitness has seen us until the end when we have managed late goals. Sadly the buck stops with the manager regarding his boring, negative football tactics , his loyalty to his best buddies Benedictus and Barr for starters. Benedictus has been excellent in the past but is clearly unfit and to be honest the defence has been a shambles since he’s came back in as for Dave McKay feel sorry for the guy considering his lack of experience I thought hes  been excellent and I firmly believe we would have lost a lot less games if he hadn’t been dropped, as for Bobby Barr a great talent  but a waste of a talent at the same time  you can see why he’s a man of many clubs pity he’s done more with his mouth than his feet because in my opinion he’s a bad egg and whether you love him or loathe him yogi Hughes was right about Barr hence why he’s played at so many clubs.