The New Raith Rovers Thread

[R.R.FC]

6 minutes ago, South Stand Dynamo said:

Just seen that Ferguson has signed for Peterhead.

 

That’s a shame, he was solid at right back for Dumbarton last year by all accounts and can play anywhere along the back 4 which would be very handy.

I’d imagine another 2 will be gone from that wish list later today.

[graeme_p]

On 01/09/2019 at 13:35, Hank Scorpio said:

If we have money available to sign someone I’d really rather we signed a proper holding midfielder than Baird or Armstrong (not that he’d be signing for us anyway). I wasn’t there yesterday but from people who were, plus the highlights, it looks like we continually get caught too far up the park leaving the opposition a free run at our defence. We lost two goals at Stranraer in the same fashion. Matthews is likely going to be out for a good few months so this is a perfect opportunity to address a growing problem - if there is someone available, that is.

 

Someone sat in front of the back four allows Spencer and Hendry a bit more licence to go beyond and get forward. As it has been over the last few weeks those two plus RM have been caught way too high too many times and it means we’re really vulnerable. That coupled with both full backs playing high means it should be no surprise we’re losing goals from balls down the channels and then cut backs into the box.

 

Think about how many goals we’ve lost due to a quick transition. The holding midfielder negates that problem by a sizeable amount.

 

I think this is more to do with mcGlynns tactics than the personnell.

Having our defence pass it sideways for 2 minutes and pushing up the park inevitably leaves space in behind. Then they pass it short into a crowded midfield. If we lose possession we are always pushed up high and struggling to recover.

That only works where teams give you space. The oposition has us sussed. They just stit back and wait on us losing it. They don't even have to work hard to win it.

[basher brash]

Think most of the team couldn’t be arsed on Saturday unlike East Fife who were in our faces from kick off they gave us no time on the ball and at least they looked up for a fight well I suppose Davo was too but unfortunately it was on the East Fife goalie and was lucky not to receive another yellow card ! One of the most experienced pros who as usual has a stinking attitude think the guy is needing to look in the mirror along with his side kick benny

[sirscottyoung]

Davo spends too much time Infront of the mirror by the looks of the hair dos ,[emoji23][emoji23]

Think most of the team couldn’t be arsed on Saturday unlike East Fife who were in our faces from kick off they gave us no time on the ball and at least they looked up for a fight well I suppose Davo was too but unfortunately it was on the East Fife goalie and was lucky not to receive another yellow card ! One of the most experienced pros who as usual has a stinking attitude think the guy is needing to look in the mirror along with his side kick benny

[Michael W]

It is embarrassing that a senior pro gets rattled as easily as he does. 

Not that it's a surprise right enough. Some players never grow up. 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Michael W

[raith1974]

Davo just needs to go simple as that. He takes a wage and probably quite a good one to stroll about looking like he doesn't give a toss. 

What really gets me is how we went to a hybrid system and yet our squad is paper thin. McGurn cant be earning a huge amount, Tait and Bowie wont be on much and yet our squad is relying on a trialist to get us bums on seats. We also don't have a big coaching team either and no youth squad. Players will be available either on frees or loan and we still cant strengthen. Very poor from the Raith BOD. Begging for weeks to get season ticket sales, relying on the fan contributions to bring in one loan player. What happened to the plastic pitch which I was in favour of being used and opened up to general public use. I thought the whole idea was to generate money. 

[CALDERON]

16 minutes ago, raith1974 said:

Davo just needs to go simple as that. He takes a wage and probably quite a good one to stroll about looking like he doesn't give a toss. 

What really gets me is how we went to a hybrid system and yet our squad is paper thin. McGurn cant be earning a huge amount, Tait and Bowie wont be on much and yet our squad is relying on a trialist to get us bums on seats. We also don't have a big coaching team either and no youth squad. Players will be available either on frees or loan and we still cant strengthen. Very poor from the Raith BOD. Begging for weeks to get season ticket sales, relying on the fan contributions to bring in one loan player. What happened to the plastic pitch which I was in favour of being used and opened up to general public use. I thought the whole idea was to generate money. 

We were relying on a trialist at a time we had 4 players out injured, to be fair. 

 

[Paco]

What really gets me is how we went to a hybrid system and yet our squad is paper thin. McGurn cant be earning a huge amount, Tait and Bowie wont be on much and yet our squad is relying on a trialist to get us bums on seats. We also don't have a big coaching team either and no youth squad. Players will be available either on frees or loan and we still cant strengthen. Very poor from the Raith BOD. Begging for weeks to get season ticket sales, relying on the fan contributions to bring in one loan player. What happened to the plastic pitch which I was in favour of being used and opened up to general public use. I thought the whole idea was to generate money. 

It is a stated aim of the board to break even this season. They couldn’t have been clearer about that.

We brought in a trialist to fill the bench when we had four injuries to forwards. We could’ve had nobody? Would that have been better somehow?

Why would we just race out and sign an attacker when come Peterhead in a few weeks we’ll have seven options for four spots, rising to eight when Smith returns? So nine players for four spots in the current system if we’d signed someone else? Doesn’t seem a good use of resource. Free agents are (generally) guys that have been passed over this summer by everyone else. Loanees often have to play according to their contract - see Barjonas last season. Would you like it if Bowie couldn’t get in the team because some average Rangers youngster had to play?

Would you prefer a struggling League 1 club ran a youth team, when Easton’s double Title winners has produced Jamie Watson, who we go out of our way to avoid playing, and Dave McKay who was actually here pre-Easton? Would you be happy if we diverted money from the first team to pay for it?

‘Begging for season ticket sales’ = running an effective marketing campaign. You’d be whining if they didn’t.

‘Relying on fan contributions’ = £40k or so the club didn’t have last year. Again, great work from the club. We wouldn’t have Gullan otherwise.

The pitch is being used to raise income. This initially goes into paying for the pitch, because nothing is free.

I’m as frustrated as anybody else but there’s some utter nonsense spouted on here when we lose a game. There are valid complaints about how we perform on a Saturday, but there’s no need for absolutely ridiculous complaints about youth teams and y we no sign anyone. We have a squad of 22 currently. Barring injuries, that’s plenty, so it makes sense to hold off until if/when the injuries arrive - like we did with Gullan, like we may do with Matthews depending on how long he’s expected to be out.

[basher brash]

11 minutes ago, Paco said:

 

It is a stated aim of the board to break even this season. They couldn’t have been clearer about that.

We brought in a trialist to fill the bench when we had four injuries to forwards. We could’ve had nobody? Would that have been better somehow?

Why would we just race out and sign an attacker when come Peterhead in a few weeks we’ll have seven options for four spots, rising to eight when Smith returns? So nine players for four spots in the current system if we’d signed someone else? Doesn’t seem a good use of resource. Free agents are (generally) guys that have been passed over this summer by everyone else. Loanees often have to play according to their contract - see Barjonas last season. Would you like it if Bowie couldn’t get in the team because some average Rangers youngster had to play?

Would you prefer a struggling League 1 club ran a youth team, when Easton’s double Title winners has produced Jamie Watson, who we go out of our way to avoid playing, and Dave McKay who was actually here pre-Easton? Would you be happy if we diverted money from the first team to pay for it?

‘Begging for season ticket sales’ = running an effective marketing campaign. You’d be whining if they didn’t.

‘Relying on fan contributions’ = £40k or so the club didn’t have last year. Again, great work from the club. We wouldn’t have Gullan otherwise.

The pitch is being used to raise income. This initially goes into paying for the pitch, because nothing is free.

I’m as frustrated as anybody else but there’s some utter nonsense spouted on here when we lose a game. There are valid complaints about how we perform on a Saturday, but there’s no need for absolutely ridiculous complaints about youth teams and y we no sign anyone. We have a squad of 22 currently. Barring injuries, that’s plenty, so it makes sense to hold off until if/when the injuries arrive - like we did with Gullan, like we may do with Matthews depending on how long he’s expected to be out.

 

Totally agree Paco with the above as I both contribute via season ticket / player fund in which I’ve increased my donation from the previous development fund but I think the main gripe with some fans is the re signing of Davo and keeping on Benny when clearly they have both been poor from the outset and the signing of Mendy hasn’t filled a lot of people with confidence however looking at other squads I don’t think other teams apart from Falkirk can cope with long term injuries

[Michael W]

If nothing else we shouldn't be using budget on Baird if indeed we do have anything left. 

We now have no proper right back. Again. 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Michael W

[Paco]

Totally agree Paco with the above as I both contribute via season ticket / player fund in which I’ve increased my donation from the previous development fund but I think the main gripe with some fans is the re signing of Davo and keeping on Benny when clearly they have both been poor from the outset and the signing of Mendy hasn’t filled a lot of people with confidence however looking at other squads I don’t think other teams apart from Falkirk can cope with long term injuries

No issue with those complaints. We’re exactly the same away from home this season as last. Not convinced a change of centre backs would solve everything but it’s very hard to see why we kept Davidson with Benedictus already signed up.

Mendy might yet come good... maybe. We’ll have a clearer idea on Saturday.

[CALDERON]

It's certainly not as simple as blaming the centre backs, but I can't think of any team who defend well and do so with pish centre halfs.

Defending as a team is certainly part of the game, but if you persist with a keech centre half pairing it's not unrelated if you leak daft goals regularly. 

[Michael W]

The organisation in the highlights just looked shambolic. Like no one knew where they were supposed to be or what they were doing.

Who is supposed to be organising the defence? Questions RE ability aside, we have our most experienced outfield player and also our captain at CB. If that wasn't enough our most experienced player is behind them in goal. Somewhere, there is a massive gap in management or organisation.

[TxRover]

41 minutes ago, basher brash said:

 ...the signing of Mendy hasn’t filled a lot of people with confidence...

Honestly, Mendy hasn’t had a chance. Let’s see him run out while fully healthy, then we can start griping. I was on that bandwagon too, until the concussion news came out, and now I regret it (go figure, regretting postings on social media, there’s a first, eh?).

The simple fact is that, on the road (at a minimum), Bene and Davo are shambolic together. The question is why, and is it their fault or are there other factors? We have McKay and Mendy as options, it’s time to test them out...maybe not together at the same time, but lets put McKay in with Davo for Falkirk (yea, it’s at home, but it’s also meaningless), and perhaps use Mendy as a later sub to see him too. If we really want to fight for promotion, these Cups are a distraction, so an excellent chance to experiment. Hell, why not toss in McKay AND Mendy?

We either have the depth to rest Davo and Bene and hope they improve with lower playing time, or we need to know now and try to figure a way out of this box. If we find that a change makes no difference, then let’s look at the other factors that might be in play.

[King Kebab]

Genuine question, but are the FT players in your “Hybrid” set-up just the ones you couldn’t offload from last season???

[Hank Scorpio]

Paco with a telling we’ll be telling our grandchildren about. Superb stuff.

[RaithRover123]

Vaughan will sort out our defensive issues, we concede less when he plays.

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, King Kebab said:

Genuine question, but are the FT players in your “Hybrid” set-up just the ones you couldn’t offload from last season???

Current team, (pt) is part-time.

Goalie: Munro (loaned till Dec), Thomson (inj-Dec/Jan) and McGurn(pt player/coach) 

Defense: Watson, McKay, Davidson, Benedictus, Mendy, MacDonald (pt) and Miller (pt) 

Midfield: Tait(ma), Hendry, Matthews (inj-Late Oct), Spencer, Anderson (pt), Victoria (pt) (inj-Mid Sept) and Dingwall (inj-Late Sept) 

Forwards: Bowie(ma), Smith (inj- late Oct), Allan, Gullan (loaned until Jan) and Vaughan (inj-Late Sept) 
 

So it’s more of a full-time core with 5 part-time, 2 modern apprentice and the 15 full-time. Of course, we’re now also carrying six injured players out of that 22, and two of those 22 are loans that disappear in Jan. Several of the signings were for players (Davo [no contract] and Bene [had contract, but was mooted to be dropped])  that a lot of us now are feeling regret about, Vaughan and Dingwall were already signed for the year and we extended several of the young lads.

Edited September 3, 2019 by TxRover
Clarifying some status

[tiggerbounce]

Take the captaincy of Bene. He’s never been the same since getting it. Same happened with Alan Walker. Just let him concentrate on defending.

[Wardy]

Hope Matthews recovers well and quickly.

Will we ever have a full squad to choose from this season? We always seem to to have someone bloody injured. Decent argument to suggest if we had a full squad last season, or the one before that we might have been up in the championship already. 

Last few years have been an absolute disaster regarding them. It’s the risk at this level of course. 

Always seems to be our better performing players at the time that end up injured as well.

Cuthbert, Bene (when he was actually our best defender), Craig Barr, Vaughan (twice) , Dingwall. 

Not trying to deflect from the utter ineptitude of the team at the weekend, or away from home in general, but the injuries really are quite a massive reason why we are still down here. 

Edited September 3, 2019 by Wardy