Jump to content

Mr November

Gold Members
  • Posts

    1,692
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by Mr November

  1. This might have been posted already and I’ve missed it but I was looking at the league table if games finished after 45 minutes or 75 minutes and Raith are bizarre in it. Top of the league after 45 minutes, which fits with Murray liking his teams to make fast starts, but then 8th with just 14 points after 75 minutes. The late goals happen too often to be coincidence. Having so many great attacking options helps but you need a brilliant mentality to continually pull out big results so late on. What happens during the second half though that sees Raith drop off so much?
  2. I think that’s probably why the back five looked good for us. As you say we’re generally fine defensively, have plenty of players in midfield who are decent on the ball and then one of Gallagher/Todorov up front. It’s probably the best way of fitting in our best players at the moment without being ridiculously narrow or ineffective out wide. As you say, we’re generally organised and you can tell what the plan is, I think it’s just tweaking things to best fit the squad we have at the moment.
  3. Yeah I believe he injured his heel in the warm-up at Stranraer. McGregor has his limitations but I think his pace is a real asset in quite a slow team.
  4. That’s fair. Without looking back I’d guess most of those came when Aiken or McGregor were in the team. The latter is far from perfect but I think we struggle playing so expansively without their energy. McCabe kept shouting for Frizzell to get further forward but that left a huge gap in our midfield. I think having the extra man in there allows him to do that while keeping us a lot more composed on the ball. Agreed on Todorov. He played well against Dundee United, Raith and Arbroath but I don’t think he offers anywhere near as much as Gallagher. Combine that with Gabby McGill continuing to look like a League One player playing above his level and you can see why we’re struggling a bit in front of goal. As you say, we’re not a million miles away from being a good team at this level and we’ve had a better start than I expected. Other than Arbroath away we’ve been competitive in every game and it’s fine margins that have decided things. It’s just frustrating when you have games like today, Inverness away, Ayr at home etc. where you concede an early goal and it then becomes prolonged spells of sideways passing and it being painfully obvious you’re not going to score.
  5. Played really well with a back five in the last two league games then two mixed performances in the cup with a back four since then. I think that first half shows a five is the way forward. A terrible combination of too slow and also wide open in midfield. We don’t have much pace out wide without McGregor so packing the midfield probably the better option.
  6. Ayr 1-0 Arbroath Dunfermline 2-1 Queen’s Park Morton 0-2 Dundee United Inverness 1-1 Raith Rovers Partick Thistle 2-1 Airdrie
  7. Meh. Tough but winnable game and probably not a huge travelling support compared to other top flight teams. At least it’s not a team from our league but not the best draw.
  8. Interesting month ahead for us. Two good away trips to Thistle and Ayr, a couple of home games against teams currently below us and then a trip to Queen’s Park. It’s hard to predict things in this league but I think 10 points would be a brilliant return from that. Some interesting decisions for McCabe to make too. We’ve returned to a back four for the cup games, possibly out of necessity more than anything else, but I’d like to see us go back to the three that worked so well against Raith and Arbroath. We looked very solid defensively without Fordyce in those games but it’s hard to see him dropping out again now he’s back in. Watson, Fordyce and ATS seem the most likely back three but they do lack pace and Hancock is an option there, with Megwa and Ballantyne are surely nailed on out wide. McCabe was very good against Raith bur Telfer and McMaster did well together once he moved back into defence, it’ll be interesting to see who he picks there too. Certainly plenty of options anyway.
  9. You mean you don’t remember the 1-0 defeat at home to Edinburgh City we all wasted a couple of hours watching on a stream during lockdown? A dreadful game and essentially a replica of the other 1-0 defeat earlier that season. As you say, we’re overdue a home game at this stage. We’ve had a few home games in the third round (notably the Serif Zengin Cove game) but I think the last home game we had in the fourth round was a 1-0 defeat to Dundee United in 2016, a game I think we played pretty well in. Looking back we had a decent team starting that one, Rohan Ferguson had one of his first games and was excellent, but the subs were Dylan Mackin, Adam Brown and Taylor Morgan
  10. I think Queen of the South are a great comparison. They feel very 2010s Airdrie at the moment, a club lacking structure and ambition who seem destined for a prolonged spell in League One. As you say, it wasn't that long ago we were in a similar position, even worse really since we were part-time with a very small budget. Miles ahead of that now thankfully. Unrelated but I was thinking recently about where we'd be just now if Kyle Turner hadn't fell out with Stevie Crawford. Turner played in midfield himself at times and pretty much dragged a very mediocre team to a play-off final. If he doesn't sign we possibly keep Kyle MacDonald on loan instead as originally planned, or get someone else entirely, and have a team that I don't think makes the top four/five and that probably leads to the end of Ian Murray. Who knows who we appoint as manager but McCabe, Easton, Frizzell, Agnew etc. possibly don't sign for us that summer and the foundations of the current team never happen. Very happy none of that happened!
  11. Watched the first few minutes of Bartley’s interview there and it’s remarkable. It was hard to see where he went after a result like that but a manager being so direct and open with his criticism usually only means one thing. Why on earth are the club interviewing him for 15 minutes though? I get they need to put something out but what good does it do the club to release that rather than just a standard quick interview after a defeat like most other clubs? Baffling.
  12. Is that our first 0-0 under McCabe? I wasn’t there today but always good to be in the semi-finals of a cup. It’s a tough game but equally I’m sure Raith will say the same given our performances against them so far.
  13. As comfortable a win as you’ll get at this level. Arbroath offered very little and looked particularly dodgy at the back, Frizzell, McStravick and McGregor got a lot of joy running beyond the wider centre backs. I don’t think Airdrie were fantastic but it was a very steady team performance without many of our usual daft mistakes, which is probably the most pleasing thing.
  14. If Fordyce is back I’d probably go with last week’s team with him just slotted in on the left of the back three in place of Hancock. Fordyce there isn’t ideal but I think ATS is too immobile to play that role and the shape suited us really well, so I’d be keen to give it another go.
  15. Did we know McCabe was a great free-kick taker when he signed? I can’t recall it being mentioned much and I certainly wasn’t expecting him to score that one against Motherwell. There can’t be too many players in Scotland who are better at them.
  16. Dunfermline 0-2 Dundee United Airdrie 2-1 Arbroath Inverness 1-0 Ayr Partick Thistle 3-1 Morton Queen’s Park 1-1 Raith Rovers
  17. Oh it certainly wasn’t a lack of effort, just felt they never really got near the quality they can, but that makes sense. You can see that when they do click they’ll be a handful for any team in the league.
  18. Turns out Telfer and particularly Frizzell got a lot of joy running off Todorov and the seven behind them dominated the ball for large spells in the first half. Fair play! A draw was probably about right overall but if any team deserves to win that it was Airdrie. Airdrie were excellent in the first half, maybe the best we’ve played all season. Still plenty of daft moment but a lot more intent going forward and we were very unfortunate not to open the scoring. Raith probably had the better of the second half but both teams had chances to win it. I thought Raith’s front four (plus Easton) were really poor. Connolly had one good shot, Vaughan didn’t do too much and Mullin’s only contribution of note was that bizarre swipe towards his own goal. I said it after the last game but Easton is wasted out wide, though Stanton did well and is probably a better player in there overall. Airdrie’s defence did very well though, hard to fault any of them really. McCabe in particular strolled it when he went back there and Megwa was excellent defensively once again.
  19. I think we’re unbeaten when Fordyce has been in the dugout (Peterhead 1-1, Falkirk 1-1, Edinburgh 4-1, Raith 1-1). If we ever want a draw there’s your answer.
  20. Huge improvement there. I think that first half is probably the most attacking we’ve been all season. The back five worked really well, allowed us to dominate the ball at the back and have Telfer and Frizzell running beyond Todorov, who won his fair share of headers and long balls. Fair play to McCabe for changing things and I thought he was excellent today too. We didn’t really miss Fordyce at all, McCabe strolled it and for times in the first half seemed to be in control of the full game. Hancock’s injury is a blow. He’s had a good season and adds some pace to a fairly slow defence. He did well again today and as much as I admire the big man, ATS can’t play as a wider centre back in three given his remarkable lack of pace. I’m not arsed at all about the midweek game, I’d happily play Cassidy, McStravick, McGill, O’Connor etc and give them some game time along with some of the regulars. We’re now five without a win but I think two pretty encouraging performances against the two best teams in the league.
  21. Todorov was always going to score as soon as Raith decided to bring out Iain Davidson of all people.
  22. That’s the most attacking we’ve been all season, weirdly with on paper our most defensive lineup. Been mostly Airdrie all half but when you hit the bar, have balls cleared off the line and have Dabrowski making ridiculous saves, you knew what was coming at the other end. Hancock’s injury looked a bad one, hopefully he’s alright. Moving ATS out wide isn’t ideal, he’s solid in the middle but really lacks pace out there.
  23. I thought the same but the warm up makes it look like this: Rae Ballantyne - Watson - ATS - Hancock McCabe - McMaster Megwa - Telfer - Frizzell Todorov
  24. Presuming that’s what it is, a back five with McCabe and McMaster sitting is literally the most defensive team we could have put out with this squad. Not a lot of runners around Todorov either, so we’ll see how that goes.
  25. Morton 1-1 Dunfermline Arbroath 2-1 Partick Thistle Ayr 1-1 Queen’s Park Dundee United 3-0 Inverness Raith Rovers 2-0 Airdrie
×
×
  • Create New...