Kuma Power

On Dylan Corr, to an extent he's been a victim of circumstance. He absolutely needs to play more senior football and I wouldn't want to be relying on him as a first choice right now. However, the fact he was signed so quickly in the summer tends to suggest that Murray and Potter think there's something there. Had he not gotten injured right before the league season started, then he might have got some Challenge Cup games and/or a run out after Watson went off against Airdrie. As it was, by the time he came back Scott Brown was established as the de facto stand-in CB, and then Dan O'Reilly came along. Thereafter, if Lee Ashcroft hadn't gone down injured within hours of arriving in February, then I do wonder if we'd have sent Dylan out on loan somewhere to get experience? If we do keep Corr for next season, I expect we'll loan him out for the first few months at least to get some games under his belt.

Was thinking about this earlier. We've managed 5 clean sheets in the last 10 games and 3 0-0 draws over the same period, which is a really decent return. James Brown coming in, plus Watson and Matthews coming back, has really shored up the defence. The downside, however, is that we are creating a lot less going forwards and scoring far fewer goals...

I'd agree with that. Looking back on it now, it wasn't long after Sam Stanton got injured that we set the wheels in motion to bring Turner in, at a point where we didn't really know how long Stanton would be out for or how long it would take him to get back to full fitness. The expectation, to me at least, seemed to be that Turner would be a like-for-like replacement for Stanton. Stanton then made a much faster and fuller recovery than expected, which kind of left Turner surplus to requirements or having to play out of his most effective position. We've definitely seen flickers and flashes of what a good player Kyle Turner can be, but it does feel like we're having to shoehorn him into the team a lot of the time.

The last few posts have got me thinking how important it is we get a good result, and put in a good performance, against Airdrie midweek - and not just because it's our game in hand over Dundee Utd. If we do fall short and finish second, then there's a strong possibility that we'll face either Partick or Airdrie in the playoff semi-final. Our record against Airdrie has been, ahem less than stellar this season - over four games this season so far we've scored once and kept no clean sheets. The playoffs will be tough no matter who the opponents are and how good our record has been against them, but psychologically if nothing else, we really don't want to go into the playoffs facing a team we haven't beaten all season. Still a long way to go before we have to think about that though. Like everyone else, I was much happier with how we set up yesterday and hope that can set a template for how we line up for the rest of the matches. Tough on those that can't start or don't get on, but having that bit more control at the base of midfield seems important. On that note, let's hope that all parties can sit down and agree on a contract extension for Ross Matthews soon.

One thing you can never accuse Dabrowski of is letting a bad game get into his head. On more than one occasion this season, we've seen him have a howler and then come back with a massive performance the following game (funnily enough, usually against the Pars...) - and so it was today too. That wasn't pretty, but was exactly what we needed after last week. A clean sheet, holding onto a lead, and actually looking more confident, in control and like adding to our lead after going two up. Really pleased for Dylan Easton getting a goal as well, hopefully that will give his confidence a bit of a boost after a tough few weeks. Hopefully last week can be a red line and we can kick on for the rest of the season. Lastly - after everything he's been through in the last couple of seasons, how good was it to see Ross Matthews out there winning a Fife Derby at Stark's Park?

Yuya Osako with one of the worst penalties I've ever seen today for Vissel Kobe against FC Tokyo. He did at least redeem himself by scoring the winning free kick for Kobe though!

Iwaki FC vs Fagiano Okayama in the Japanese J2 (second division). Much less jet-lagged and much warmer than last week, had been really looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. Iwaki are the team I look out for in Japan as I spend a fair bit of time in the area for work. Iwaki is on the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, which was affected pretty badly by the tsunami and nuclear accident in 2011. Iwaki FC was set up in 2012 to give the area hope, and the team promptly started climbing the divisions, reaching the second tier of Japanese football the season before last. There's a good bit of money behind the project, however it is mainly going into getting the infrastructure in place, developing youth and building a club and fan base that the community can get behind and be proud of. With that in mind, the playing budget isn't huge and the squad mainly consists of players signed from university or out of other teams' youth systems, with an average age of 22.9 years. Iwaki play at the Hawaiians Stadium. Iwaki was a big coal mining region until the mines closed in the 1970s, when a Hawaii-themed resort was set up using the area's hot spring water to provide alternative jobs outside of the coal industry for young people. That's why behind the goal at the home end, there are big flags displaying two symbols of the city: a coal miner and a hula dancer. The game itself was good fun too. Iwaki play fast, expansive football, with pace to burn down the wings and the capability to zip the ball about on the deck as well. Despite going behind early on, Iwaki kept pushing, and got their equaliser in the 97th minute when the goalie (who had come up for the last free kick) knocked down an inswinging ball for his team-mate to backheel into the net. Brilliant effort from the home fans too, who sang and sang from an hour before kick-off until the final whistle!

Normally I am firmly at the ‘happy clapper’ end of the spectrum, and like to try to see the good even in a bad performance. So it takes a lot to make me angry, but yesterday’s performance managed that. It’s not a defeat or bad result in isolation that gets me, more that we have seen every single aspect of this before multiple times in the season: -throwing away a lead; -struggling to deal with crosses; -conceding multiple goals in quick succession; -and, to add insult to injury, a centre-back going off injured. We’ve now dropped 17 points from games where we’ve been leading at one stage or another. I’ve said this before, but it’s mindblowing that a team with so many players who have won leagues and cups, and seemingly contains so many ‘big characters’, can be so panicky, fragile and careless. Notably, 10 of those points were dropped to teams at the bottom end of the table, which may or may not tell us something. I’m really hesitant to stick the boot into individual players or the management seeing as they’ve given us so many great performances this season, but it is very frustrating to see that after nearly two whole seasons, we’re seeing the same game management issues coming up time and time again. Granted, Watson going off didn’t help, and it’s no coincidence we defend better and are stronger with him on the pitch. But the other players have to use their experience and step up in his absence, and at least see games like this out. My fear is that this is now ‘baked in’, and that every time we get the slightest pushback from the opposition while we're cruising, the deer-in-headlights mode is going to kick in and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s deep-seated for sure, and is something we really need to get to the bottom of in the summer if not sooner. Will leave it there and step away from the keyboard before I become even more incoherent with rage…

You've just come off a 14 hour flight. It's 10:30am, and you can't check into your digs until 3pm. Do you: (a) find a cafe to hang out in until check-in time; (b) crash out in the airport or hotel lobby; (c) drop your luggage in a locker and head straight to a third-division football match? I chose Option (c) and hence found myself at one of the coldest football matches I have ever been at: YSCC vs Kataller Toyama, in Japan's J3 league in Yokohama. I have some family connections to Toyama, so have always had a bit of a soft spot for Kataller even though they're not my Japanese team - so with that in mind, I headed round to the away end and joined the travelling support. About 300 supporters had made the journey over from Toyama, and sang for the full 90 mins in the pishing rain and freezing cold complete with drums and massive banners. As a few of us have said on the J.League thread, one of the great things about Japanese games is that there's always a good atmosphere but without any aggro...although the fact there were guys in just their Kataller tops, with no jackets or umbrellas, getting frozen and soaked as they sang makes me think that every team in the world is going to have one or two nutters in their support! Game itself finished 1-1...I missed the first 15 mins coming from the airport and so missed the YSCC goalie being caught 40 yards outside his box, but saw YSCC take their equaliser very well with a diving header on the end of a cross. Toyama came into it and were maybe unlucky not to win it. Fun wee day out though!

The other advantage with having Ashcroft is it means we have an extra option at centre-back, and don't have to take Scott Brown out of midfield if someone picks up an injury or suspension. We discussed it a bit on the podcast, but the Dunfermline and Dundee Utd games really showed the value of being able to play Scott Brown further up the park.

My mistake - thanks for clarifying that. Hope it doesn't give Ian Murray any ideas...

The other thing to note with James Brown is that he can - according to his interview on Raith TV - play on the left of the defence too. Although it's not optimal, that does give us an extra option of moving Dick into the centre if someone picks up an injury or suspension, and still being able to have an experienced defender at left-back. The more time we're able to spend with actual experienced defenders in defensive positions, the better. On Turner, I agree he's not had a great start at the Rovers, and also that it's not entirely his fault he's come into a team struggling for form. Hopefully, in the nicest way possible, the return of Stanton will give him a wee kick up the bum. A great asset to have if we can rediscover our confidence and get him firing.

Seems there will be live J.League games on Youtube at weekends this season too. The league also released their promo video for the 2024 season which is a good watch. Fixture list is looking good for when I'm out there later this month, hoping to get to an Iwaki FC game!

Clearly there were aggravating circumstances at play which we all know about and don't need to discuss, but the run in the 2021-22 season under McGlynn from when we lost in the fog at Firhill in December up to when we won at Firhill in April was really horrible. We did win the Challenge Cup, but also managed to win 1 league game in 16.

It’s worth remembering we’re still scoring a decent number of goals. Nine goals in our last four home games is a good return – indeed, we scored two great goals yesterday. I don’t disagree that we could and should sometimes be a bit more clinical, but by the same token we shouldn’t need to be on track to break the post-war British scoring record to be able to get nine points over four games against sides in the bottom three places in the league. What’s rapidly becoming a huge concern for me is not just how often we concede, but also how often we concede multiple goals in quick succession. Yesterday we let in 3 in 10 minutes. Against Arbroath 2 in 5 mins. Ayr 2 in 8 mins. Seven points chucked away in less than 25 minutes of football. Even when you go back to when we were winning, it was happening: Partick 2 in 8 mins. Queen’s Park 2 in 9 mins, and 2 in 4 mins. This points to a big problem with mentality and organisation. I really don’t want to stick the boot in given how well we’ve done and how many results the players have pulled out across the season, but for a team that supposedly has so many proven league-winners and ‘big characters’, we are so fragile, panicky and careless at times. Glad to hear the 3-6-1 is likely to be shelved, as we simply don’t have the personnel to make it work sensibly and sustainably. Let’s get back to a back four, with people playing in the right positions and a clear hierarchy of who steps in where if someone drops out injured. I’d like to think that having a bit of stability at the back will help with the coordination and with responding to setbacks. If that means we have to make tough decisions about leaving players on the bench, then so be it.