The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Ro Sham Bo]

Joao Vitoria apparently set to sign for us according to today's Courier.

[Wee Jockie]

Joining the part timers soon methinks?

[Raith Against The Machine]

Joao Vitoria apparently set to sign for us according to today's Courier.

I'm fully on board with this, just to hear the South Stand singing The Fall.

Yes!

[Raithie]

Joao Victoria worth a punt? Thought he always looked a handful against us last season.

Done deal. Just seen him driving down Pratt Street, welcome aboard [emoji106]

Joao Vitoria apparently set to sign for us according to today's Courier.

Courier must be reading P&B

[GhostZapper]

18 hours ago, Hottoddy22 said:

Mcglynn was yet again the wrong choice considering Sunderland’s Jack Ross was interviewed for the position when Barry Smith walked we were only a few points behind Arbroath in comes Mcglynn and the team went backwards it’s as simple as that , just proves it when Davo is offered a new deal and Grant Anderson at 33 are both finished

What utter mince. Jack Ross wasn't interviewed at the same time as McGlynn.

[Hank Scorpio]

Victoria will be a good signing, I think. Scored three times against us last season for two different clubs and looked dangerous each time. He’s big and quick but quite raw. Definitely one that McGlynn will be able to mould into a good asset.

 

[++Ammo - Airdrie++]

Victoria is in the category of "match winner".
When he's on his game, he looks very, very dangerous, as you've seen.
But very early in the season last time out, IMO he was found out, and went quietly out the back door to Stranraer.
Got a decent return goals wise early doors for us, but (again imo) other teams sussed out his one dimensional attacking play, and nullified it, meaning too many games he looked as if he had no ideas what to do when defenders " doubled up" on him.
If he's on form, he'll do a decent turn for you.

[renton]

1 hour ago, Raithie said:

 

 

 

Courier must be reading P&B

 

 

 

Yeah, P+B seems to have supplanted most reporters actual legwork and contacts. Much easier to trawl here and report whatever you find, no one will remember if your wrong....

[Big Fifer]

Can only remember seeing Victoria once this year at the away game at Stranraer, we ended up winning but he was absolutely bodying our back line for the first half. Definitely a player in there. 

[R.R.FC]

Would be happy with that. Not great that he was deemed not good enough for Airdrie so was moved on to Stranraer. However, as I said in the team of the season thread he’s been one of it not the best opposition player against us this season for both Airdrie and Stranraer.

[EFFC1938]

Pipe doon with your rumours. The facts are out there. And the situation is slowly improving. Sensible in the transfer market is essential though, rather than waste cash on haddies like Johnny Court, eh?

Raging...

[Rover the Moon]

Would be happy with that. Not great that he was deemed not good enough for Airdrie so was moved on to Stranraer. However, as I said in the team of the season thread he’s been one of it not the best opposition player against us this season for both Airdrie and Stranraer.

Tadé MkII. McGlynn kens.

[Been going too long]

6 hours ago, EFFC1938 said:

I think some Raith supporters need a reality check, another season in league 1 and with the rumoured levels of debt yer club will have to be very sensible in the transfer market! It can't be easy

Majority of the debt is our shiny new pitch, keep your celebrations on hold for our imminent demise;-)

[Been going too long]

3 hours ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

Joao Vitoria apparently set to sign for us according to today's Courier.

Caused us quite a few problems this season, could be a shrewd bit of business 

[GhostZapper]

17 minutes ago, Been going too long said:

Majority of the debt is our shiny new pitch, keep your celebrations on hold for our imminent demise;-)

SPP paid for the pitch did they not?

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

Cannae wait for a season's worth of posts about Joe Victoria. 

Fairly happy if we're signing him though. 

[ewan_fife]

Virgin

[mealsonwheels]

5 minutes ago, ewan_fife said:

Virgin

Here's a rumour your maw has nae teeth! 

[ewan_fife]

Here's a rumour your maw has nae teeth! 

She’s got 2

[airdrieman]

This is what I posted on the Stranraer thread when they signed Joao Victoria. Think it still summates my thoughts well. 

When we signed Joao I think there was almost no expectation at all of him amounting to anything at Airdrie. A bonafide lower league jobber that hadn't made the cut with bottom of the league Albion Rovers the year before, it seemed a really odd and out of place signing. Especially since we were signing players left, right and centre at that point. 

But he came off the bench against Hamilton Accies in the League Cup and scored an equaliser to take the game to penalties which kicked off a tremendous run of form for the first 2-3 months of the season. He was scoring goals (he scored 8 in total for us last season and a few more for Stranraer), assisting, creating chances and just being a general menace to the opposing defence. An exciting, unpredictable flair player at this level? It was remarkable, especially since as mentioned above there was little to no expectation of him performing when we signed him. He was playing with confidence and freedom that he never seemed to have before earlier in his career. 

But, as happens, teams became wise to him (and cynical) and his form dipped, although he still contributed. As when I say a form dip he was genuinely putting in man of the match performances every week so it would have been remarkable if he'd kept up that form. 

Things went really downhill for Joao though when Stevie Findlay left and Ian Murray took over. Murray's main task was to solidify us and make us harder to beat which saw Joao drop out the team for a more narrow midfield and wing backs. It was a fair enough call. As exciting as he was going forward he wasn't really cutting it when it came to defensive duties and indeed was probably a bit of a liability in that regard. But hey you still need your attacking players and, just like earlier in the season, maybe Joao could be an effective match winner coming off the bench? But it was clear for a while that Murray did not fancy Joao at all. He's not the hardest worker which means he doesn't really fit into the system Murray wants to play. I don't get to every game because of work but I genuinely can't remember the last time Joao was on the park for any meaningful amount of time. Before going out on loan he was lucky to get a cameo off the bench and a couple of times didn't even make the bench at all. There were rumours he had a bad attitude too. 

What sort of player will you get? It seemed like Joao reverted back to the mean (lower league jobber) based on his form before he left us but that is probably harsh based on the fact he didn't much game time. He seemed to do okay at Stranraer too. Get him confident and playing like he was at the start of last season and you'll have a genuine game changer on your hands. The fact he faded badly with us though and was deemed surplus to requirements should probably be cause for concern though too. 

I've seen you linked with Kieran MacDonald (who's definitely leaving us) and Leighton McIntosh too. 

MacDonald makes some great driving runs forward with the ball but has no end product. I've always found him to be positionally suspect. He gets caught out a lot both in open play and at set pieces. He's a good athlete though so he can sometimes get away with it. Can also play left centre-half in a back three and to be fair to him, he was part of a defence that was solid and organised under Murray and that had one of the best defensive records in the league. That was maybe the best backline he'd been a part of since he joined us so maybe he's better beside more organised and competent players. He's rarely injured or suspended so he's a very reliable player. Don't think he'll ever be the best left-back in this league but he's probably 'fine'. Don't think he'd be able to make the step up though. 

McIntosh works hard and puts himself about. He's generally a handful for defenders and he scored 17 goals last season which was a decent return for a team that was so crap. His finishing is very erratic though. He fluffed his lines on many occasions last season and I've never seen a player hit so many one-on-ones straight at the keeper. Generally, he always needs a handful of chances before he scores. I think most Airdrie fans aren't bothered about losing him (likewise with Victoria and MacDonald) but I'd have been happy enough for him to stay as a backup option as would most Airdrie fans I think.