R.R.FC

People also said Reece Donaldson, Lee Bryce and Colin Wilson should be getting more game time and look where they are now. You assume playing a young player every week will automatically make them better, that is not the case. Exposing players to a level they’re clearly not ready for does absolutely nothing for their development. Watson would benefit greatly from a spell away on loan at a lower level where he can get regular games and develop at a level he is ready for. Hopefully if we get a right back in he is allowed to do that. In saying that and going against popular opinion, I actually think Murray has been fine at right back in recent weeks. He’s clearly not the long term solution but I think he has actually been the better of our two full backs recently. Crane has been nowhere near as good as I was expecting.

Watson has been given plenty chances this season and he’s shown he’s clearly not ready. Would agree on McKay though.

Good interview with Lewis Vaughan up on the website discussing his Rovers career so far. My hearing must be going because I can swear he said Joe Hamill is the best player he has ever played with.

Would disagree with this thought we were pretty solid at the back yesterday. Bene in particular but everyone played their part. For all the possession they had Thomson only really made one save so credit has to go to the defence for that even though the Pars were toothless. Davo had his moments but gets automatic passmarks for that block in the second half at 0-0 which was just as important as Thomson’s save though it’s been overlooked. Stll have concerns about Davo going forward but he was fine for the most part yesterday.

I assume that’s what they mean when saying a decision on a cash gate has been delayed due to the levels of current demand. I’d imagine if the Pars sell out their allocation there won’t be a cash gate to ensure they don’t try to turn up in the Rovers end on the day.

I had blocked Bayview from my mind to be fair! Couldn’t remember them playing together. Can understand why they wouldn’t work as a partnership though, they are both very similar types of player. Usually in a partnership each player brings different qualities.

On this note, where do we think we need to strengthen with the loans? One will be a winger to replace Armstrong. That leaves 2 available. I’d still like to see a natural RB brought in. Murray has settled into a game there recently but it’s clearly not his natural position. If JM isn’t going to give McKay a chance I’d be happy with a Murray and Bene centre back partnership. I would hazard a guess we may also be in for a creative central midfielder. We’re pretty strong in there with Gillespie, Wedderburn and Matthews but probably lack a bit of creativity. The fact we were looking to extend Hendry’s deal before the news about his injury suggests we may try to add someone else. Obviously just because we have 3 loans free doesn’t mean we’ll use them but McGlynn tends to use the loan market and has made reference to freeing up his loans by sending the 2 keepers back.

I had assumed any keeper we got in would be back up to Thomson but Lyness seemed to do pretty well at St Mirren and was playing ahead of Danny Rogers. Can’t see him dropping 2 divisions to be back up.

Dean Lyness any good? Local journo reporting he is about to sign for us. I had assumed the goalkeeper we signed would be back up to Robbie Thomson but I thought Lyness was decent for you? Can’t imagine him signing to be back up in League 1.

I’d imagine it’ll just be some jobber back up goalkeeper. My guess would be someone like Leo Fasan from Falkirk. Hopefully it’s someone on a permanent deal to the end of the season to free up a couple of loans.

Jeezo, the tannoy announcer and now the highlights guy? What is it with Alloa and having, what appear to be, complete zoomers involved with their club? Strange considering all the Alloa posters not involved with the club come across as a very decent bunch.

Good point, that’s 6 players signed up next year already isn’t it? From my memory we have: Nisbet, Flanagan, Vaughan, Benedictus, Dingwall and Gillespie already contracted for next season. The basis of a decent squad but I’d imagine if we stay down we’ll be going to a FT/PT hybrid, so we’d probably be unlikely to see too many full time players added to those currently retained. ETA: Just checked and Thomson, Murray and Watson all appear to be signed up next year also. Can’t ever remember us handing out so many two year deals.

I think he’s been signed as a wide player. JM said he wanted to add a wide player to the squad and 2 if Armstrong leaves. I imagine if Armstrong was going to stay he’d have signed up by now unfortunately. Would expect him to leave after the Pars game and wouldn’t be surprised if there was something to the Anthony McDonald rumour coming in on loan to replace him.

Euan Valentine away on loan to Berwick Rangers. Good move for his development, will be interesting to see how he gets on.

McGlynn’s pre match interview on the website pretty much confirms Tony Dingwall will sign shortly now his release from Ross County has been sorted.

I think Crawford will do a decent job, was warming to the idea of him getting the Rovers job when he was linked. However, still think Petrie would have been the better option, he has worked wonders at Montrose and is a Pars legend. Is it possible there was no money after sacking AJ to pay compensation to another club? If so, Crawford seems the sensible choice in those circumstances. Hopefully his new manager bounce is all used up after Saturday!

2 year extension for Vaughan? That is sensational business. Hopefully the two operations have cleared up his issues and he can get a real run of games under his belt. He’d be nowhere near this level without injuries.

TOB is great business. Best centre half in the league and will cope with the step up next season quite comfortably you’d imagine.

I think it’ll just be the straight swap from Saturday, Duggan in for Nisbet. McGlynn rarely changes a winning team. I think Buchanan’s anger was directed at Armstrong rather than the bench. Armstrong was too greedy when he should have cut it back to Buchanan for a shot and I’d imagine goal from around 6 yards. He was going mental at Armstrong then turned round to see his number go up confirming it was his last chance for a goal. Been underwhelmed by Duggan in the glimpses i’ve seen so far but Saturday was much better. Can’t disagree with anything he said in his post match interview, the stop start nature of his season so far will have made things difficult. Hopefully with a run of games under his belt we start to see the best of him.

McGlynn’s preference was a permanent goalkeeper to free up the 4 loans for outfield players but from his most recent interview it seems that nobody of the appropriate standard was available as he was discussing a loan goalkeeper again. I would be happy with Ross back, he’ll have learnt from his time at Hibs and he showed flashes with us (mainly at Easter Road funnily enough) that he could develop into a decent ‘keeper.

There was a time in his first spell where Spence looked like he could develop into a very good Championship/lower level Premier League striker. Pretty sure it was just after Brian Graham left us. Unfortunately, he went backwards from that point and never developed the way we’d all hoped. When we got him back last year I thought with the goals scored elsewhere we’d be getting an improved more mature player. Despite a drop in division from his last spell, all the same flaws were still there. Wouldn’t take him back at the Rovers and he’s clearly not good enough for the Championship. However, as you say his record with part time teams in this league is good so he’s probably worth a punt. In his defence, it can’t have been much fun playing as a striker in our team last year.

Andy Ryan would be a great signing, miles better than somebody like Spence who has also been mentioned.

Exactly this, he’d have been slaughtered if he made any changes after Arbroath. Looking for consistency in results needs consistency in the selection which is what he was trying. Before Saturday we’d won 5 out of the last 6. He was correct to choose the same team on Saturday. People saying the inconsistency in performances and players not being bothered are a fault of McGlynn is only partly true. Any manager would struggle working with someone else’s players. In the top 3 leagues in Scotland; Dundee, St Mirren, Dundee United, Partick, Morton, Falkirk, Airdrie, Dumbarton, Brechin and Stenny have all changed their managers during the season. Not one has made massive improvements under the new manager (barring possibly Airdrie) and all are waiting on the January window to shape their season. The difficulties in working with someone else’s (extremely unbalanced) squad are severely underestimated. Even someone like Jack Ross struggled at St Mirren until he got a transfer window. He had some very good players already but needed to shape it to what suited his style. He got rid of Hardie and Shankland and replaced them with Loy which sounds fucking nuts now but they weren’t pulling their weight or performing for him. People are entitled to be let down after Saturday and ask certain questions but we won’t have any idea whether McGlynn Mark II will be a success until the window has closed then will be the correct time to start judging.

Would agree it has not gone exactly the way we’d all hoped under McGlynn but let’s see how we look after January when has been able to make a few changes. Let’s not forget this side had already scraped draws against Montrose and East Fife at home and lost against Cove Rangers and Cowdenbeath before he had taken over. He inherited a squad with no full backs, one winger and no creativity in central midfield. If we’re being honest, none of us were confident we’d assembled a league winning squad pre season with many thinking Dumbarton and Arbroath looked stronger. He had less than a week to address these weaknesses before the loan window shut and then his only option was free agents who were still available 4 months into the season. His signings so far Crane, Armstrong and Hendry are very encouraging and if he can bring anything close to the same quality in January then things will start to look up. With regards to the Vaughan substitution, I thought it was fairly obvious one to make. We had no creativity in the middle of the park and when you’re 2 nil down at half time at home, you should get as many match winners on as possible to turn it around. If he’d made a like for like change with Flanagan or Buchanan he’d have been hounded.

I was of the view McGlynn had made a mistake in signing a left back when Murray was solid there last season and we didn't know how he'd be at right back which was the glaring missing link in the squad. Although I understood the logic of him being right footed allowing a fairly easy transition. However, Murray has been poor at left back since he went back there and if we didn't have Crane I'd be saying we need a right back and left back.