Raith Against The Machine

It's not in the current "half season" commercial brochure, but I'm sure it was on offer in the initial brochure for this season, as a possible option.

Shocker.

Has there been any kind of update on how Josh Rae is getting on? Sounded like he'd taken a really nasty one but I haven't seen anything since.

Legitimately a moronic opinion.

No complaints with that starting line up. Certainly a much better balance than last week. You could make individual arguments (Vaughan over Stanton, Mullin over Connolly) but the actual roles everyone is playing look appropriate.

After recovering from an injury, Byrne went straight into the starting eleven against Arbroath, a game we lost. He then didn't start the next three, two of which we won and all three of which we kept a clean sheet in. Having now had a negative result, I expect he'll be back in contention for a starting place. I don't think we need the conspiracy theories.

You'd have to think Euan Murray misses this one after his head knock at Tannadice, so Scott Brown will continue in defence. Quite simply, Ross Matthews or Shaun Byrne must play. Nothing against Kyle Turner, but we can't just play a bunch of attacking midfielders again and expect to have any semblance of control.

I was searched on the way in, having been greeted at the turnstile by a steward asking "voluntary search?". Hard to see how anyone has foiled that system.

It's a dive, but it's a dive Moult gets to make with a huge chance of success as soon as Watson puts his arms around his waist. There's nowhere near enough force or contact to send Moult to the ground, but all the referee sees is Watson's arms around him inside the box. Can't blame the referee for giving it, and Watson has to be smarter.

Can't agree with your first point here, but wholeheartedly agree with your second. I saw no lack of effort or endeavour, but we perpetually lost two key battles all afternoon, both of which were down to players being asked to play out of position. Scott Brown at centre half and Kyle Turner were given an absolutely torrid time by the movement and physicality of Moult and Watt. They were getting change from Brown when they competed in the backline, and change from Turner when they dropped off. Ian Murray has some mitigation in playing Brown in that he's done it in more than half of our games this season, but why he thought Turner was the best option in the base of the midfield completely baffles me. And it's particularly galling that the best way to solve both of those problems only involves making one change. If Keith Watson starts that game alongside Euan Murray, and Scott Brown plays in midfield, that's a totally different game. We might still loss it, who knows, but the two key weaknesses that United exploited today disappear. The overriding emotion for me after that is disappointment. It's football, and United are a good side, so a defeat was always a distinct possibility, but the Rovers were hamstrung from the outset by the line-up and never recovered.

Oh my God, have the Police been informed?

Turner completely unsuited to the role we've asked him to play today. Madness asking him to sit and protect the defence when you've got Matthews and Byrne on the bench. He hasn't done anything actively wrong, but he just doesn't have the skillset for it. Even if you gave me this starting XI I'd be swapping Turner and Stanton and getting Stants to do the dirtier work. He's been lost in the noise. This United attack is lightyears ahead of today's United defence in terms of match fitness and ability at this level. If we're to get anything, we need to be asking questions of that defence, with the knowledge that we'll give up chances at the back. By ceding the middle, we're still giving up chances, but not giving ourselves a platform to get forward.

And how would that work, bright stuff? The players are throwing the game so they don't have to receive an "unrealistic" bonus?

Alan Temple is a real necessity in that dynamic. His presence really lifts it out of being pretty unlistenable.

Jim Goodwin shut the f**k up about Raith Rovers challenge [Impossible]