The New Raith Rovers Thread

[roman_bairn]

Bottled it. [emoji16]

[HoBNob]

4 hours ago, Zen Archer Esq. said:

 

I remember him actually, he was hilariously bad at league 1 (as it was named at that time) level, like a speedboat, driven by a blind man, unsure as to what he was doing. 

Not in the good way that Tade would do it either, Weir rivalled Jamie Mole as strikers you were quite sure, probably wouldn't score. 

[San Starko Rover]

If we go up with you I say the first game next year between the clubs should be a ‘winner takes all claims the League One title retrospectively’.
Are you in?…[emoji6]

Next year! I like your optimism

[roverthemoon]

1 hour ago, Grant228 said:

I remember him actually, he was hilariously bad at league 1 (as it was named at that time) level, like a speedboat, driven by a blind man, unsure as to what he was doing. 

Not in the good way that Tade would do it either, Weir rivalled Jamie Mole as strikers you were quite sure, probably wouldn't score. 

What Graham Weir lacked in ability he made up for on effort. Great, honest player at his level and scored us the goal that got us promoted. Would take him over a Declan McManus or a Joe Cardle any day of the week. 

[HoBNob]

1 minute ago, roverthemoon said:

What Graham Weir lacked in ability he made up for on effort. Great, honest player at his level and scored us the goal that got us promoted. Would take him over a Declan McManus or a Joe Cardle any day of the week. 

Funnily enough for both those players I'd say that there highest qualities would be effort, even when it wasn't coming off for either you'd still be guaranteed 100%. Of course both on there day are very good footballers at championship level. 

 

[roverthemoon]

27 minutes ago, Grant228 said:

Funnily enough for both those players I'd say that there highest qualities would be effort, even when it wasn't coming off for either you'd still be guaranteed 100%. Of course both on there day are very good footballers at championship level. 

 

“On their day” is the key phrase here. Both are talented footballers but completely inconsistent.  For Raith at least, their bad days far outnumbered their good days. McManus in particular was the ultimate head goes down and blames everyone else if things don’t go right 

As things stand, reconstruction permitting, they are both in League One next season. 

Edited April 24, 2020 by roverthemoon

[Ro Sham Bo]

Weir did well for us in the 3rd tier but failed to score a single goal in the 2nd tier. He was less effective than Jamie Mole at that level. 

Edited April 24, 2020 by Ro Sham Bo

[renton]

Worth noting that McManus' main attribute is his sheer work rate. He's fast, tall and strong which gives defenders a real headache. However, he tends to play a fine line in terms of bullying defenders, and if he is frustrated or not quite at it, it trips into giving away niggling fouls.

In league 1 he tends to have a decisive advantage over most defenders, but that advantage diminishes when he plays in the league above.

Still, for Rovers it's not really his fault that neither Hughes or Locked dropped him when he looked well off form, nor that in loaning out Vuaghan, the absolute fuckup wasters on our management and board took away what was the only natural strike partner McManus had.

[Airdrie76]

Do you think the Annals of history will record SPFL1 winners 2020/21 with an asterisk stating that?

Regardless, he’s right.

[Jilted John]

Did Ilian Kiriakov ever play a game for us? On trial 2001 but I'm he didn't play. Wiki says 17 games I hear - but no chance. Anybody settle this?

Speak of things like this, wiki has Peter Heatherston down as playing 32 games for us between 1999-2001. I can’t remember this at all. I thought he was only ever the assistant and then the manager?

[roverthemoon]

2 minutes ago, Jilted John said:

Speak of things like this, wiki has Peter Heatherston down as playing 32 games for us between 1999-2001. I can’t remember this at all. I thought he was only ever the assistant and then the manager?

Not sure this happened. If it did I’ve blanked it out.  Was it not his brother Brian that turned out for us in that period? 

[Hank Scorpio]

The Heatherston one was a discussion on twitter recently. It was concluded that Wikipedia is talking shite and he never played for us in that time. 

[Yoss]

As others have said, Weir was excellent in the promotion season but tailed right off after that and couldn't recover it. No idea what happened: the difference in standard between the two leagues isn't nearly enough to explain it, and there were other players - Allan Walker, for one - who looked less likely to be able to make the step up but thrived, at least for a year or two.

[renton]

28 minutes ago, Yoss said:

As others have said, Weir was excellent in the promotion season but tailed right off after that and couldn't recover it. No idea what happened: the difference in standard between the two leagues isn't nearly enough to explain it, and there were other players - Allan Walker, for one - who looked less likely to be able to make the step up but thrived, at least for a year or two.

I suppose another part of it is if you look beyond the one on one interactions of Weir vs. A defender, the team in its first season in the championship generally had less of the ball.

So Weir, who's game relied on hassling defenders, playing channels and basically trying to win the ball further up the park so that he could then feed off the recycled ball into the box had far less opportunity to do so with the midfield sitting deeper and with us generally trying to play a lone striker. 

[HoBNob]

9 hours ago, roverthemoon said:

 

As things stand, reconstruction permitting, they are both in League One next season. 

I reckon McManus will be in the championship, even if reconstruction doesn't happen. 

[Hank Scorpio]

I think McManus is a stick on to sign for Ayr.

[Yoss]

3 hours ago, renton said:

I suppose another part of it is if you look beyond the one on one interactions of Weir vs. A defender, the team in its first season in the championship generally had less of the ball.

So Weir, who's game relied on hassling defenders, playing channels and basically trying to win the ball further up the park so that he could then feed off the recycled ball into the box had far less opportunity to do so with the midfield sitting deeper and with us generally trying to play a lone striker. 

Might be something in that.

Though in general there's a danger of reading too much into such things. Players have good seasons or bad seasons in the normal course of things for all kinds of reasons - when it happens to involve a change of division there's a tendency to look for some such narrative to explain it.

[D'Jaffo]

I think McManus is a stick on to sign for Ayr.

Hope not.

[pub car king]

When are we getting the trophy so Roary Rover can be driven round Falkirk in an open top bus with it. 

[Wee Sandy]

On 24/04/2020 at 12:24, Hank Scorpio said:

I think McManus is a stick on to sign for Ayr.

Oh, definitely a "stick oot"...........................ear, ear.....

ETA; Mcmanus should not ride a bike in a high wind