The New Raith Rovers Thread

[TxRover]

51 minutes ago, ListerRRFC said:

Apparently we're signing Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts under 20s goalkeeper next week and not loaning him back as we'd be unable to use him. Wonder if that means Munro will be back to County in January with the new goalkeeper backup to Thomson presuming he's fit?

Then Thomson should start next week.

[CALDERON]

Fair play to Watson and Mckay, who did very very well after being absolutely shafted by Benedictus. 

Also great to have Hendry back. Even half fit he's the best player on the park. 

Results aren't always going our way, but you can't doubt the spirit in that side. After last seasons mess, that's great to see. 

To take 7 from 9 against Montrose, Airdrie and Falkirk is good going. 

[pub car king]

Is McKay eligible next week? I think that's a great point today in terms of the season and far more beneficial to us than Falkirk. This is peak McGlynn getting us hard to beat and grinding out results despite injuries and suspensions.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

47 minutes ago, pub car king said:

Is McKay eligible next week?

McKay has two prior bookings, one against the Shippy in the FC and the other against Peterhead in the SC.

[Starkiplier]

The fact that McGlynn has us sitting top of the league at this stage of the season, despite all of the injury and suspension problems we’ve had is nothing short of remarkable. One defeat since August in all competitions.

Doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves and indeed still gets criticised from some of the idiots in our support.

If we can finally get a wee break from the injuries after new year then it’s going to take a very good team to stop us from winning the league.

[Broken Algorithms]

1 hour ago, pub car king said:

Is McKay eligible next week? I think that's a great point today in terms of the season and far more beneficial to us than Falkirk. This is peak McGlynn getting us hard to beat and grinding out results despite injuries and suspensions.

I think this is a key difference this year. Last season at this point, we had the exact same tally of points but we were miles off the pace. No team has had a consistent run of wins like Arbroath did, but we're in a far better position at this point given how ridiculous our injuries have been. Next Saturday could see us facing a real dilemma at the back with Davidson, Benedictus and Anderson all potentially out. 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, Zen Archer Esq. said:

McKay has two prior bookings, one against the Shippy in the FC and the other against Peterhead in the SC.

Neither count for his L1 totals, right?

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

1 minute ago, TxRover said:

Neither count for his L1 totals, right?

That was my point.

[TxRover]

2 minutes ago, Zen Archer Esq. said:

That was my point.

Just making sure this is right:

Card totals: 

Keepers - None. 

Backline - Davo, 4 Y and 1 R (being served, plus 1 R already served); Bene, 6 Y (being served with extra game as last was 2Y=1R); SAndo (2 Y=R served); Miller, 2 Y; MacDonald, 2 Y; McKay, 1 Y. 

Midfield - Spencer, 1 Y (plus 6 Y served); Matthews, 2 Y and 1 R (being served); Hendry, 1 Y; GAndo, 3 Y; Dingwall, 1 Y. 

Fowards - Armstrong, 3 Y; Bowie, 1 Y.

[Paco]

I think this is a key difference this year. Last season at this point, we had the exact same tally of points but we were miles off the pace. No team has had a consistent run of wins like Arbroath did, but we're in a far better position at this point given how ridiculous our injuries have been. Next Saturday could see us facing a real dilemma at the back with Davidson, Benedictus and Anderson all potentially out. 

Anderson will hopefully be back, based on nothing more than McGlynn’s comments.

It certainly used to be the case that a player sent off for two bookings was suspended 14 days from the offence, suggesting Benedictus would miss the East Fife game, and not Dumbarton next week. Don’t know if that’s how it’ll work here, especially with the second yellow being his sixth of the season.

[Scottydog]

Gavin Ross is obviously nothing less than an attention seeking clown of a ref!

 2 games and 4 red cards, he must be in competition with that idiot Aitken from last weeks Airdrie game!

Add Lloyd Wilson to those two and you really have to ask WTF they are teaching them at the SFA, must have been Wullie Gollum that taught all 3!

Regards us though we really have to do something about the indiscipline, these type of suspensions will be even longer next time round and if they kick in come April we could well be knackered.

 

[Another The Other Chairman]

Honest question to anyone who saw all four. How many were deserved or were close enough to go either way. 

 

[fifer67]

27 minutes ago, Scottydog said:

Gavin Ross is obviously nothing less than an attention seeking clown of a ref!

 2 games and 4 red cards, he must be in competition with that idiot Aitken from last weeks Airdrie game!

Add Lloyd Wilson to those two and you really have to ask WTF they are teaching them at the SFA, must have been Wullie Gollum that taught all 3!

Regards us though we really have to do something about the indiscipline, these type of suspensions will be even longer next time round and if they kick in come April we could well be knackered.

 

Said a fortnight ago after we played Airdrie that Gavin Ross should hang his whistle up. 

[Specky Ginger]

3 minutes ago, Another The Other Chairman said:

Honest question to anyone who saw all four. How many were deserved or were close enough to go either way. 

 

Good point well made. 

I think both Aitken and Ross lost control of the games at certain points, but it's difficult to make a case for saying any of the red cards were blatantly wrong. 

[JAR]

1) The sideways passing epidemic seems to have spread to the forwards. On too many occasions, people were unwilling  to try to beat their opponent & the chance was gone.

2) When defending a corner, we have no one as an outball so the pressure stays on our defence for longer.

3) We made far too timid a start to the 2nd half & made life difficult for ourselves. We should have planned to exploit having an extra man.

[grumswall]

1) The sideways passing epidemic seems to have spread to the forwards. On too many occasions, people were unwilling  to try to beat their opponent & the chance was gone.
2) When defending a corner, we have no one as an outball so the pressure stays on our defence for longer.
3) We made far too timid a start to the 2nd half & made life difficult for ourselves. We should have planned to exploit having an extra man.

mcglynn has said in one of his interviews we were losing too many goals from set peices. We have conceded less since we started having everyone back. We also break pretty quickly and have scored from a quick counter from a corner a few times iirc.

[Paco]

3) We made far too timid a start to the 2nd half & made life difficult for ourselves. We should have planned to exploit having an extra man.

I love comments like this. Saying ‘we should have planned to exploit having an extra man’, as if what really happened was McGlynn sat there and said we’d be better off just playing shite and conceding.

Falkirk made a change at half time that helped them get up the pitch a bit, aided by a wind that appeared from nowhere and suddenly we were on the back foot a bit. Having said that, while they had a bit of pressure Falkirk hadn’t made a chance second half until Munro made a mess of dealing with a cross and the ball got bundled in. Not like we were being battered.

Had Benedictus not let the team down I’m still confident we’d have went on to win the game. MacDonald was inches away from putting us in front right before the red card, we’d responded well to the equaliser.

Disappointed not to win given the way it panned out but a draw pre-match would’ve been seen as a good result given the circumstances.

[TxRover]

4 hours ago, Another The Other Chairman said:

Honest question to anyone who saw all four. How many were deserved or were close enough to go either way. 

 

From the highlights:

Telfer’s red, yea, deserved it, and  the way he reacted, he knew it.

McKay’s yellow seemed reasonable, but how Falkirk avoided anything for running over the ref is beyond me.

Bene’s yellows were reasonable, the second one was unnecessary (in my opinion), as the attacker wasn’t through clear.

Gomis’ yellows were equally clear, and the second was much more stupid than Bene’s.

Didn’t see Bowie’s, can’t comment.

[TxRover]

So, the Falkirk AGM seems to have gone swimmingly. Per the Falkirk thread, changes on the Board, a new Chairman who castigated the fans behavior, much discussion of changes and plan, but little concrete data of their plans. It seems that there is little, if any, money for team changes in January (though there is £160,000 inbound in January for Vaulks, but they bled out almost £400,000 last year). , and the BoD is instead expecting 10-15% more effort from the players. Sounds like this may be the chance we need to take advantage of! Falkirk seem to be vulnerable this year, thanks to McKinnon’s cunning team design.

[Scottydog]

On 15/12/2019 at 11:29, JAR said:

1) The sideways passing epidemic seems to have spread to the forwards. On too many occasions, people were unwilling  to try to beat their opponent & the chance was gone.

2) When defending a corner, we have no one as an outball so the pressure stays on our defence for longer.

3) We made far too timid a start to the 2nd half & made life difficult for ourselves. We should have planned to exploit having an extra man.

2, I agree with this John, against Falkirk even when we had the man advantage we didn't leave a man on the half way line, and that makes no sense to me at all. I get there's a philosophy that you pack the box to deny space but surely we'd be better to leave someone like Dingwall or Armstrong on the half way when defending a corner, they aren't much use in man marking and it always makes the attacking team keep 2 players back and it gives you half a chance of an outball without it coming straight back at you.

3. Perhaps we did plan to exploit them, unfortunately they changed shape with the arrival of Gomes, it put us on the back foot and they capitalised until we eventually got to grips with what they'd done.

 

Point 1.

The only time I'll agree with you there John is when we have faced teams (Peterhead especially) who've played a high press and prevented us playing it out. Falkirk tried that on Saturday but the man advantage allowed us to get around it and play out.  Playing the ball on the deck and retaining possession until an opening appears is the style of football favoured by all of the great sides in the last 50 years (and I'm not suggesting we are in any way a great side as we aren't) and is a total contrast to the kick and rush (Hoofball) game that virtually every Raith fan moaned like hell about for the last 3 seasons.

I appreciate in an ideal world there would be a nice balance but at the end of the day this is the third tier in Scotland and it aint too likely, so just make your mind up John what's it to be? direct (Hoofball) or patient build up (sideways epidemic)?  

If you favour the former you'd do well to consider who the potential recipient options for the long ball are.  Gullan, Bowie, Allan, Baird, Dingwall, Armstrong or Anderson? Out of that seven only Anderson or perhaps Gullan are likely to win a header as neither Bowie nor Allan seem to be able to time a jump to successfully execute a header and the other three options are too small to out jump taller defenders. Bowie, Baird and Allan have decent body strength and can outmuscle defenders but all 3 struggle woefully under a high ball, with that in mind I see no profit from a long kick out. 

Now that Hendry is back I think we will see a shedload more creativity, hopefully we will start to reap the benefits of a fully fit again Armstrong feeding off Spencer and Hendry. The only down side is that we don't have a real finisher to get on the end of things, in that respect Baird's return has been a disappointment and I don't think Lewis Allan is a natural finisher.