A good game for the neutrals in which the referee (no surprises here) failed to take a decent level control over the game. We went ahead after a good goal from David Goodwilliw who finished very well. Peterhead equaliser was odd, the ball wasn't in the "d" but it went ahead anyway, however i must say it was a good cross. Both Peterhead goals came against the run of play, but Peterhead did play some decent football getting the ball from one end to the other. Again, their second goal was very poor defending by Rovers but still a good strike.

Then the game proceeded to turn into a boxing match after Davo (this may need edited later, it may have been Goodwillie) attempted to kick the ball home when Kula had collected it but was on the ground. The Peterhead no3 then ran in swinging punches, only for Davo to grab him by the neck/throat and threaten him at the back of the net. Scenes like these have no place in football, but neither should the referee, who then after an explaination from the linesman, decided to book the Peterhead player. Fair enough, he may not have seen the punches being thrown, but then surely Davo would be sent off, but seemingly it is ok to start viciously threatening people by grabbing them round the throat. personally, i want to see Davo dropped. He is a good footballer but needs to learn to keep his temper in check.

After that, the crowd, as always, seemed to get more and more impatient with the players who played some decent football. It was only when Goodwillie scored a very good header that the fans started to get behind the players, after which we started to play very good football until we began to rush. I think Peterhead played well but we probably shaded the game and should have buried our chances. Overall, brilliant to see us go top of the league at christmas even though we're there due to the misfortune of others.

Some of the ref's decisions were laughable. At least twice Peterhead got free kicks for their players tripping up or slipping.
Peterhead showed wee glimpses of being a decent side and I thought we looked quite good in spells today too. How we didnt score a third, I dont know, but shit happens.
I'd have taken top of the league by Christmas so I'm not too bothered, the impetus is on Ross County and Alloa to get results to take us back over so well done lads.

Also, well done to the Peterhead fans for making a hellish journey in what could very easily have become brutal weather. Smaller football teams like us can only benefit from having fans like that.

*Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to top the league on Christmas day.*

fair assesment there, it was a case of what ifs today. Despite controlling the game for long spells and arguably playing some nice football in the final third we end up dropping two points. The ref, of course, ends up taking a lot of heat from today. Obviously, even if the ball was re-spotted into the Dee it might not of made a difference but still, it shouldn't have gone ahead. Fair play to Lumsden, he was trying to deal with a wicked cross - looked to do the simple thing, probably made the right decision, and ended up buggering us up. It's no wonder he was rusty given tat we lack for a reserve side etc. That Marv wasn't playing becasue he is superstitous (that was the rumour doing the rounds up the back of the S.stand anyhoo)strikes me as unprofessional in the extreme and I cannot believe that to be the sole reason...

As for our disallowed goal, it was tight and there was no way that the ref could have any hope of calling it, thus, to over rule his linesman (who was pathetic) chalk off a legit goal and then to see P'heid run up the other end and score is just one more kick in the teeth.

regarding the fight, both davo and their No3 should have walked, so should their No8 who threw some punches and got completely overlooked. The ref showed how little control he had over the game, this was followed by a string of strange decisions until the final whistle.

Goodwillie should easily had a hat trick today, walker should have done better with the goal gaping in front of him too.... all in all a frustrating day. Still, it may be a false position - RC and Alloa may go off and win their games in hand to leave us trailing badly, but at this moment I'm going to enjoy the fact that we're top of the fucking league!

Marvin had a calf strain today.

Agree with that. I think Hissy managed to con us 2 corners too during the game.

Aye, the one he tried to flick around the player but it flicked out?
Hissy ran into the box laughing along with the rest of the South Stand.

I dont like putting refs down because they do have a hard job but the ref today had a shocker.

I said it last week, and I will say i again. Davidson is an animal who should never be allowed to pull on a rovers shirt again. He could easily have been booked twice before the stramash and his contribton to that should have been a straight red.

That said, 2 Peterhead players threw punches - with the No3 in particular acting like a Cowden street brawler after a Black Friday bevvy session.

We created enough chances to win several games today - even with Walker and Davidson being absent from midfield. I'd love to see Hyslop and Goodwillie being supplied by Borris and Carcary. I think we could score for fun with that combination.

Posted this on Fantalk, turned into a total rant but it's all true. The referee was unbelievably bad today, genuinley the worst I've ever seen.


How on earth didn't we win that match?

So, so many chances, and yet again it's points dropped. The team played very well, much better than I've seen us play for a while, and without trying to shove the blame on someone I think we probably would have won had Andrews been playing, and not Lumsden.

First goal came after Hislop had hit the bar with a bullet header and the rebound well saved. A good finsih from Goodwillie, who had an absolute stormer today. The equaliser was so cheap to lose, especially just 10 minutes after we'd taken the lead. The ball wasn't in the 'D' though, and the clown who called himself a referee had a right good look at it before letting them swing it in. It's nit-picking, but it's rule-breaking at the same time! Lumsden was fairly unlucky in fairness.

We pressed to go in the lead but to no avail before, genuinley, the strangest decision I've ever witnessed denied us the lead. Goodwillie came one on one with the Peterhead goalie, was denied before the rebound fell to Sloan. The linesman, who I believe was a Peterhead official (?), didn't put his flag up, so goal? No, that would be too simple. The referee (yes, the ref) decided the give an offside decision, despite his assistant not raising his flag! What the hell's the point in having an assistant if you don't even listen to him? This was swiftly followed by the linesman awarding Raith a corner, the ref giving a goal kick and after about 10 seconds of confusion, ourselves eventually getting the corner.

Peterhead's second goal was terrible defending from our point of view. Lumsden failed to stick a foot in and we paid the price, and in fairness it was an excellent finish by the lad.

We had a few great chances, most notably through Goodwillie who despite playing wonderfully well and scoring twice missed about three others which should have hit the net. Eventually though, a great run and cross from Hislop found him unmarked at the back post and he nodded home. The roar from the South Stand was deafening as we tried to sook the ball into the net.

Somehow an incredible goalmouth scramble which involved two goaline clearences and numerous last ditch blocks ended up as a corner which we failed to capitalise on. We were getting desperate towards the end, yet our long balls were being poorly dealt with by their defence. About a minute before the final whistle, Carcary broke through in the box, the Peterhead defender left trailing in his wake lost his footing and, somewhat predictably given his horrendous display, the referee blew for a free kick. Just as we thought he couldn't give a worse decision, he did. Hislop chased a long ball over the top, the Peterhead number five realised the ball was going over his head to Hissy so decided to take a desperate fall in an attempt to con the ref. Needless to say, it worked.

Onto the fight in the goalmouth, have footballing rules changed since the last time I looked? After another goalmouth scramble, the Peterhead goalie spilled the ball out towards the lurking Davidson, who went in hard and fair in a 50/50 tackle withe the goalie. The goalkeeper evetually got a hold of the ball before all the drama started. Peterhead's number 3 (Mackay?) ran to the grounded Davidson and hit him in the face. Almost everyone but Fahey scrambled into the six yard box and there was a bit of pushing and shoving, including Davidson grabbing Mackay by his shirt. The referee, no more than 5 yards away from the incident(s) inexplicably decided to go to his linesman who was more than 50 yards away to tell him what had happened. After a long pause, he booked Davidson and somehow thought a punch in the face was a bookable offence.

I realise this post has turned into a rant, and for that I apologise. I just really can't believe how bad today's ref was, even note Hislop obviuosly booting the ball out of play only for us to get a corner. We without question should have won the match, but the lads will have to go to Berwick in a few days time with the game forgotton.

Spot on there mate. The Referee had a shocker. The fact that Davidson and their No 3 remained on the pitch proves that the referee was incompetent to the extreme. Davidson thinks hes some sort of superstar, and John Mglynn needs to take him aside and kick his arse. Hard. Hes a thug and a liability.

Also, the Raith fans who booed Peterheads keeper are a disgrace. All he did was hold on to the ball, and Davidson started laying into him. Disgraceful attitude from the fans.

I stuck up for Davo last week and gave him the benefit of the doubt but cannot anymore, he is a total liability. He made a genuine effort for the ball in the stramash then followed up with random swipes at he keeper's head, McGlynn needs to get a grip of him.

Gutted we never won today as I thought we totally deserved it but all in all an exciting game. Ref got so many desicions wrong it was untrue.

Spot on with the assessment of the referee. From where I was, I saw nothing wrong with the goal that was chopped off and I found out later the linesman running the far side was a Peterhead man brought in after the original linesman was injured at half time.

In any case, what's the point of getting him involved then not paying attention to him?

The game itself was quite entertaining, as a neutral and I felt there was only one team in it for large parts of the match. Goodwillie was superb, but I've got to give equal credit to Peterhead keeper Michal Kula, who, perhaps, should have been picking the ball out of the net more often than he actually did.

The last half hour in particular was excellent stuff and Raith should have got the points.

Raith fans beware though, those dropped points could cost you later on.

Craigy

Exactly the words I said to my pal!

Good to see even the neutrals agree with me today and it wasn't the blinkers again!

It was Davidson rather than Sloan who had the goal disallowed wasn't it?

Correct. That's who I had it down as

Craigy

Anyway, a cracking afternoon's entertainment that. Annoyed not to have won, certainly, but at least we didn't lose it.

Usual pattern for the home games, played reasonably well, had the majority of possession and chances (or half-chances at least) but couldn't make it count. We can't keep just putting it down to bad luck when it keeps happening.

Regular readers will know I rarely criticise refs, and I didn't envy him his job in the second half this afternoon. Certainly not going to criticise him for his decisions after the goalmouth melee, it wasn't at all clear to me who'd done what, and although he's closer it doesn't mean he's got a great view from ground level, and he's similtaneously trying to keep order and prevent the situation escalating. Personally, I thought it was a storm in a tea cup, I didn't see anything that looked serious enough to warrant red cards - but that doesn't mean I'm saying nothing like it took place, just that I didn't see it.

I would have to say, however, that the disallowed goal was a real clanger whoever it was that made the decision. But shit happens, and to paraphrase someone else's comment this afternoon, if our players made as few mistakes as referees do, we'd win the SPL every season. If we're looking at why we dropped two points, we need to look at our defending and our failure to take chances rather than at the ref.

Oh yeah, and it should go without saying that Goodwillie was easily motm today and had his best game for us, even apart from the goals. But I meant to say it anyway.

Agree 100%
Davidson is an utter thug. He almost took the keepers head off, even though he clearly had the ball in his hands (it was an incredible save as well). I had to laugh when the fans started booing the keeper, these folk do not have a clue.

As for the game itself, we just weren't clinical enough up front, and but for some poor finishing and good goalkeeping we could easily haven scored 6 or 7 goals. The biggest disappointment for me was that we continued to leak stupid goals at home. 2 goals should still be enough to win our home games but its not looking that way for us this season.
The ref had a shocker as well, with the offside decision being really strange, as it looked as though he awarded the decision and not the linesman. I'd also like to know whether it was Goodwillie or the other player (Sloan?) who was given offside because Sloan was definitely behind Goodwillie and therefore couldn't possibly have been offside.

A few points about your post.

1) Bollox. Davidson is a commited player with a lot of talent who has the potential to be a very good player for us. He battles for the cause the whole game, and because of one incedent where he waspunched in the face, and in return he grabbed the other lads shirt, he's a 'thug'. Also, saying that people don't have a clue. Pot. Kettle. Black.

2) I was booing the 'keeper because he was lying sprawled out on the ground like a dying swan, making the most of the situation to say the least, and then within 20 seconds he was back up jumping about in his goalmouth whilst the cards were being given.

3) It was Davidson that scraped the ball into the goal after Goodwillie had missed the sitter of the season when he hit it straight at the 'keeper from 5 yards. Taking nothing away from Goodwillie yesterday, he was excellent. Although you were correct in saying that Davo was behind Goodwillie when Goodwillie hit the shot. Therefore how can he possibly be offside?

Still really disappointed about the game yesterday. It was there for the taking and once again at home, we couldn't do it. It's like a different 11 players that turn up for home games compared to away. I actually hate going to home games now. The crowd getting restless at 1-1 and booing at half time. What the f**k is that all about? We had played well in the first half and were only drawing due to 1 silly error from Lumsden. Hardly incentive for booing. But naw, the South Stand arseholes were in fine voice again. I've said it before and i'll say it again. GET A FUCKING GRIP!

I totally agree, yesterday when Lumsden headed the ball in, you could sense the moaners rubbing their hands with joyful glee and getting ready for their usual barrage of abuse. The worst part was Joe Dingwall who hadn`t put a foot wrong in the first 20-25 mins but as soon as he tried to pass the ball up the wing and it went out , all you could hear were moans, groans and shouts of " for f**k sake Joe, thats pish".....it`s no wonder players at home are scared to make mistakes when the so called "support" do nothing but heckle them.
Some people need to remember that we`re on a shoestring budget and have no right to win any match in this division. If people want to watch teams winning most weekends then get along to Parkhead or Ibrox with the rest of the gloryhunters.

Agree about Dingwall. He has been as good, if not better than any other leftback in the division and has been brilliant for a player thrown in at the deep-end. Made some fantastic challenges yesterday and has began to push forward and take people on yet people still moan if he loses the ball. BEst one is Mark Campbell though, he had a few off games the start of the season, crowd on his back and he has been playing brilliant so far. I'd say we just need a few things tweaked, such as finishing chances more at home, making sure we can get a grip of the game and then we'd be a formidable force.

I'm not sure what games you've been watching for the last 3 seasons. Davidson disciplinary record is nothing short of a disgrace. His kick at the keeper yesterday came only 7 days after a SHOCKER at Ayr where he could have ended a decent players career.

The excuse that he is a commited player can only hold water for a limited number of incidents before its no longer valid. How many such incidents are you going to defend before you see this guy for what he really is?

Another fustrating day at the office where we could and should of scored at least another 2 goals but with a combination of some poor passing from us and some laughable reffing we had to settle for our 2nd draw of the season.

With regards to the Davo situation, i completely agree he was v lucky to stay on the park as he again went in for one of his trademark challenges with the keeper and was lucky again later not to be booked for a 2 footed challenge in the middle of the park afterwards. Im not sure what McGlynn sees in Davo that i dont but he is becoming a liability in the team now and i would rather see walker and Sloan in the middle with Cacary and Borris out wide.

The ref was a joke, the goal was valid and even the linesman agreed but he thought he knew better from behind the play. Gave up shouting at him, if he wont listen to his linesman he sure as hell wont listen to the abuse he was getting from the south stand.

Just like to say well done to Hislop who another another good game yesterday and has been pretty consistant the last few games. I was one of his biggest critics early in the season but he know looks like he could hit his 15 goals for the season he told me he would score.

I got the impression that the ref acted in spite quite a few times yesterday too.
Did anybody else get that impression?

Jesus! If I read the nonsense about 'booing' one more time, i'll end up screaming and worrying the relations.

The players are evidently mince because a vocal minority boo sometimes. Give us a break.

Dingwall is a young player and deserves backing and I would never boo our young players. However, yesterday he was playing left back and kept getting dragged into the centre. He didn't have a particluarly good game, leaving gaps which Peterhead exploited. It could be argued he was having to come infield because Peterhead could run through the centre of our team at will, but it still meant the team lost all semblence of shape and discipline. It would help if we had a leader on the field who could organise the team and help youngsters like Joe, but we don't appear to.

As for us having no right to expect to win every game, that may be the case. However, we are essentially one of the better supported teams in this league. Only ourselves, Airdrie and Ayr will ever have the support to be a big 'diddy' team. The rest are wee diddy teams who can't muster more than 400-500 fans. So we should be able to attract better players.

The forwards had plenty chances to win the game and couldn't. The fact that we had so many chances, leads me to presume that I should expect us to win these games. Yesterday it was mainly due to poor finishing that we didn't.

Yeah it seemed to be the case

And like Scary Bear has said Dingwall has to work on his positioning, he isn't playing on the left side of a back three but as a left-back and was always going into the centre leaving loads of space for the Peterhead right winger time and time again.

I dont think its right to blame a young player who was trying to do his job and the job of our "experienced" cente backs. I think he deserves even more credit for his performance as the fact that he provided this cover probably earned us a pont from a game we dominated.

Wen pelosi is back, I'd like to see Joe play at CB along with Marv.

That's up to McGlynn to sort out. He should concentrate on playing in the position he was allocated.

Nonsense. He stood on his cock when he was in the shower.

But by drifting into the centre he wasn't doing his job and was leaving a whole load of space free on the right,

It's not about appointing blame it's called constructive criticism and he needs to learn to stay into the position the manager has put him in.



Exactly and that's one of our problems as players are playing all over the place leaving big gaps that other teams are taking advantage of time and time again, if somebody was covering for them fair enough but usually it just leaves big gaps (Usually in our defence)

Not sure what you want here? Joe Dingwall was covering - for which you are berating him.

I have no doubts that if Dingwall did not do what he did yesterday we would have conceded more goals as both Campbell and Lumsden had poor games and were exposed for pace.

It sounds like you would rather Dingwall held his position and we lost the game? I thought football was supposed to be a team game where players support and cover for each other?

So who was covering for Dingwall?

Did you want him to stand back and watch the game? We already had Davidson, Walker and Sloan doing that?

AS I keep saying nearly every week, Davo is a liability. But yesterday the real bogie man was Lumsden, who along with the ref cost us two points. HTF does he get put into central defence when we've got Tod, who's a hundred times the player Lumsden is??

No point keeping Tod as he is obviously not fancied anymore for some reason

Was playing well in both defence and upfront (scoring for fun at the start of the season) also when a game is crying out for Tod to comes on he only gets on with 4 or 5 minutes to go (Brechin game for example)

As for the earlier point about Dingwall he was playing in the middle for most of the game, even when it wasn't needed (and indeed not the only one going out of position either)

Now considering there are only Raith fans on here talking about the game, and that you are the only one sticking up for 'Davo' for apparently nearly taking our keepers head off, and then grabbing a player by the throat, maybe you can go back and revise without the Raith blinkers on.

Sounds like we got a good point in the game today. Maybe not deserved but that is the kind of result that will keep us in the right playoff chase instead of down the bottom. Also it wasn't 1-0 (although it cost me 0 points with my joker on the Peterhead site)

Give Lumsden a break. Hes been out since the start of the season and almost scored a goal at the Peterhead end in the 2nd half.

I really can't believe there are some jokers on here criticising Joe's postioning
I had a perfect view of the left hand side of the pitch in the first half and Joe was always on the left hand side, maybe the second half he was more inside (I can't comment because of my positioning) but first half he was consistently in the right position. I can guarantee you this guy is an exceptioanl player and will only get better!
Again for the Davo incident I again had a really good view of the incident, Davo went in for the ball legitamely, kicked the ball, then the keeper collected the ball and Davo again went for a kick and looked to have kicked the keeper in the hands rather than in the head The Peterhead number3 then proceded into Davo while he was on the deck and punched Davo twice, Davo was still down and got up and grabbed the boy by the trhoat and pushed him into the goals, IMO it was 2 red cards for the players. Davo takes alot of stick from people for the way he plays but he easily has the potential to be a very good player and can step upto a higher level if he can get his temper in check. All those who want him dropped and don't think he has quality really do get me worried about their state of mind
The referee had NO control of the game at all and consistently overuled his linesman of the railway stand side (Who I will comment about in a minute)
Tod Lumsden had a poor game, but he is lacking alot of match practise and will need time to adjust again remember how good he was at the end of last season, it will come back, although Marv/Mark seems to be working so I would personally prefer to see them continuing to play together in the central defence.
Now as we all know the second hald was delayed for a further 15 minutes at half-time for the search for a replacement linesman - In the papers today it was saying the guy who came on was allegedly "connected" with Peterhead Should this have been allowed to happen if its true? Although lets be honest he did appear to be alot more competent than the referee and his 2 normal linesman, didn't make any mistakes and was overruled 3/4 times by the referee...so the guy should be applauded.

He was probably the only option available, and it was either that or abandon the match. Good to see you aren't blaming him for anything however. He was probably told to be cautious about flagging for anything, and the ref would make the most of any decisions.

(IIRC the same thing happened against East Fife in 2003, where an "East Fife" person replaced the injured linesman, and had a similar game.)

If hes that short of match fitness then thats all the more reason Tod should have been on instead.

To be fair, he was a similar standard to any other SFA official, which is a complement. Just annoying that the referee was of a worse standard



Tod is more the type of player who is brought on with 30/20 mins to go or for injuries.

I worry about your state of mind if you think Davo can step up to a higher level

No, absolutely not.

It's hardly one incident with Davidson though is it? Almost every other week he's flying into dangerous challenges or talking back to the ref or picking a fight with the opposition. If you are happy to put up with that sort of twat in the team then good for you but I'm sick of watching him. I hope that when Silvestro regains his fitness Davidson gets dropped and never plays for us again.

If Davidson's attitude does not improve dramatically in the next few games, I would be happy to see him go.

Id rather see a committed young guy out there than that clown.

Even on a yellow card, he was still flying into challenges. Hes going to end up getting sent off in a big match (eg, Against Alloa or County) and is just a liability IMO.

Davidson needs to cut out the 2 footed challenges end of, Its happened one too many times and we all know it. But we can't deny he has quality, how many times last season did his free-kicks, corners etc get us goals...i'll tell you now there was alot!
If we can get some sort of return like that from him again we will have a gem of a player on our hands (Although yes we have Sloan to deliver dead balls now.)
Yesterday on 5/6 different occasions he did what all players get told to do when there growing up...Switch the play, spread the ball. No-one else in the team did that.
If, and its a big If, we can cut out his reckless challenges, cut out his temperament and cut out his backchat then we will benefit. When he times his challenges properly he's as good as anyone IMO.
His challenge on the keeper was reckless, his first one he was perfectly entitled to go for the keeper spilled the ball and Davo slid in and got on the end of it cleanly, the keeper grabbed it at the second attempt and Davo kicked the keepers hands twice...he shouldn't of done it (its that simple), but in his defence how would any of us react to being punched in the face

There are times when he's just too much of a liability in his current ways, McGlynn needs to take him aside and take some tough action.

Davidson had a horrendous karate-type kick at one of our players in the last game at Starks. Also an incident with the Cowden goalie which sound similar to the incident yesterday.
It really is a shame he lets himself (and the team) down like this. He is a good player and could play at a much higher level if this could be sorted out. The manager should be doing something about this - someone is going to get badly injured.

Obviously you werent at the game so it's probably best that you dont tell someone who was at the game that they are wrong.
I personally felt that Davo gave back as good as he was getting.
If someone was pushing me about in a threatening manner I'd probably take them by the throat too.

Just shows why you're not a football manager. As for the question earlier as to what John McGlynn sees in Davidson, probably the same as other managers who rate Davo. And I know for a fact that there are at least two SPL clubs who rate Davidson highly and are keeping tabs on him

I can remember one incident when the crowd were singing *You dont know what you're doing* and were right on his back. One of our players fouled a Peterhead player and you knew straight away that the ref was going to book him even though it wasnt a heavy challenge.

You could almost see him thinking "I'll show you b*****ds the now".

I sound like a paranoid crackpot but thats the impression I got.