Queen of the South vs Raith Rovers, 24/10/2020

[palmy_cammy]

44 minutes ago, mrpaddyx said:

With a record like that I can see why Partick Thistle we so aggrieved at their demotion last season!

Whilst I can't imagine Thistle's record over the same period makes for much better reading , none of our support are under any illusions how fortunate we were last season.  We won a watch no two ways about it.  Despite the media largely focussing on Hearts and Kelty I think Partick probably suffered the largest "injustice" out of everyone.

[Ro Sham Bo]

4 minutes ago, palmy_cammy said:

Whilst I can't imagine Thistle's record over the same period makes for much better reading , none of our support are under any illusions how fortunate we were last season.  We won a watch no two ways about it.  Despite the media largely focussing on Hearts and Kelty I think Partick probably suffered the largest "injustice" out of everyone.

I'm sure most Rovers fans can relate. I know I was far from confident of us going on to win the league from the position we were in although I'm fairly confident it would have come down to the final game of the season at Grangemouth.

In fact there was a reasonable chance that if the Saturday fixtures had gone ahead instead of being cancelled at 24 hours notice we would have lost top spot to Falkirk.

It's still funny though, injustice or not....

 

[palmy_cammy]

7 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

I'm sure most Rovers fans can relate. I know I was far from confident of us going on to win the league from the position we were in although I'm fairly confident it would have come down to the final game of the season at Grangemouth.

In fact there was a reasonable chance that if the Saturday fixtures had gone ahead instead of being cancelled at 24 hours notice we would have lost top spot to Falkirk.

It's still funny though, injustice or not....

 

Oh yeah, absolutely hilarious.  The fact our bacon was saved at the expense of Falkirk and an Ian McCall led Partick was delightful.

[Skyline Drifter]

1 hour ago, Grant228 said:

Surely allot of goals at this level come from crosses, or set pieces? 3 of the 4 goals in our game on Saturday were from crosses, 2 out of the 2 goals against Falkirk were from crosses... 

 

At this level where tika taka football and 30 yard screamers are quite rare, getting the ball into the box/getting to the byline and cutting it back is a very effective method against all defences. How do you specifically train against it? A good ball into the box will have you in danger. 

This.

We've not been great at defending crosses for a few years, probably since the Higgins and Dowie pairing, although the first part of last season where Brownlie was pretty dominant in the air was ok, but 19QOS19 has a tendency to fixate on it endlessly to the extent as above he's counting crosshots fizzed along the ground as extra evidence of it. It's a bit early to condemn the current defence for it to be honest. Indeed the current defence has been pretty dominant in the air and hasn't largely been troubled by an open play cross yet. W've had issues at set pieces, particularly two very cheap ones on Saturday but it wasn't really the defenders at fault, more midfielders who didn't do their job when added to the mix.

55 minutes ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

I think having a player like Dom Thomas, whose delivery is so good, is possibly skewing your findings a little. 

This Rovers side finds it's width from its fullbacks and although Manny Duku is a big unit, we haven't spent much time whipping crosses into him. Rather we're using him as a point man and playing three mobile midfielders off him. 

We scored three against Arbroath on Saturday; an inverted wide midfielder cutting inside and shooting, a ball over the top for an overlapping fullback, and a penalty. 

Given the strength of Arbroath's central defence, and the alleged weakness of Queen of the South's, I'm interested to see how much that focus changes. I think at a minimum we'll see Saturday's short corners swapped out for some balls into the box. I wonder how much the likes of Ethan Ross and Dan Armstrong will look to deliver crosses to Duku instead of being more direct themselves. 

Unless Dom Thomas has radically changed his style since his two loan spells with us he tends to play on the right and cut inside onto his left to fire balls at goal. He's not a get to the byeline and hang up a cross type winger. Contrary to the fear above I'd be delighted if Raith throw in crosses from open play all day. Pretty confident the centre backs will deal with them. It's set pieces that are the issue, not open play crosses. We lack height in the squad outwith the two centre backs.

34 minutes ago, palmy_cammy said:

Whilst I can't imagine Thistle's record over the same period makes for much better reading , none of our support are under any illusions how fortunate we were last season.  We won a watch no two ways about it.  Despite the media largely focussing on Hearts and Kelty I think Partick probably suffered the largest "injustice" out of everyone.

Did they? I barely read anything about the undeniably harsh injustice Kelty had. Hearts got lots of column inches but they are the 4th biggest club in the country probably and made their own publicity. I saw a lot more about Thistle than was ever written about Stranraer and Kelty, especially once they joined the joint legal action with Hearts.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Skyline Drifter

[19QOS19]

Did they? I barely read anything about the undeniably harsh injustice Kelty had. Hearts got lots of column inches but they are the 4th biggest club in the country probably and made their own publicity. I saw a lot more about Thistle than was ever written about Stranraer and Kelty, especially once they joined the joint legal action with Hearts.

So a cross is only a cross if it's in the air? A cross is a cross, you defend it the same way, the only different being whether you use your head or feet. I fixate on it because it's quite clearly a massive issue for us. I haven't blamed the defenders, I've already questioned what the issue is if it keeps happening even with a new team.

[Guest Flash]

Was Morton’s first goal not from open play? It was a long throw-in that was cleared and then crossed back in.
Anyway, I think 3 out of the 6 we have conceded have been shocking and the other 3 are probably just run of the mill rubbish defending you can expect from a below average team at this level.
Morton’s first, the guy ran along the edge of the 6 yard box, totally unmarked and headed in without having to jump
St.Mirren’s first was a free-kick from the touchline that went straight in. 
Ayr’s second from a corner was worse than pub team level of embarrassing.

[palmy_cammy]

47 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

This.

We've not been great at defending crosses for a few years, probably since the Higgins and Dowie pairing, although the first part of last season where Brownlie was pretty dominant in the air was ok, but 19QOS19 has a tendency to fixate on it endlessly to the extent as above he's counting crosshots fizzed along the ground as extra evidence of it. It's a bit early to condemn the current defence for it to be honest. Indeed the current defence has been pretty dominant in the air and hasn't largely been troubled by an open play cross yet. W've had issues at set pieces, particularly two very cheap ones on Saturday but it wasn't really the defenders at fault, more midfielders who didn't do their job when added to the mix.

Unless Dom Thomas has radically changed his style since his two loan spells with us he tends to play on the right and cut inside onto his left to fire balls at goal. He's not a get to the byeline and hang up a cross type winger. Contrary to the fear above I'd be delighted if Raith throw in crosses from open play all day. Pretty confident the centre backs will deal with them. It's set pieces that are the issue, not open play crosses. We lack height in the squad outwith the two centre backs.

Did they? I barely read anything about the undeniably harsh injustice Kelty had. Hearts got lots of column inches but they are the 4th biggest club in the country probably and made their own publicity. I saw a lot more about Thistle than was ever written about Stranraer and Kelty, especially once they joined the joint legal action with Hearts.

I'll confess I didn't follow the fallout all that closely, once the decision was made all the talk became rather tedious and futile, but I know radio Scotland kept banging the drum for Kelty with the argument that it was making a mockery of the newly introduced pyramid system. 

It was a shitty situation all round that we undoubtedly benefitted from while others were undoubtedly hard done by but I thought the hard luck story about Kelty was out of proportion considering what they were "robbed of" was a chance to play a two legged tie, for the right to play another two-legged tie, which may have seen them promoted.  It's not quite as harsh as Partick being a point behind us with a game in hand, or the Raith/Falkirk scenario discussed above.

[Skyline Drifter]

8 minutes ago, Flash said:

Was Morton’s first goal not from open play? It was a long throw-in that was cleared and then crossed back in.
Anyway, I think 3 out of the 6 we have conceded have been shocking and the other 3 are probably just run of the mill rubbish defending you can expect from a below average team at this level.
Morton’s first, the guy ran along the edge of the 6 yard box, totally unmarked and headed in without having to jump
St.Mirren’s first was a free-kick from the touchline that went straight in. 
Ayr’s second from a corner was worse than pub team level of embarrassing.

Yes, I'd agree it was from open play. I'm not agreeing it was a "cross" though. Well it was crossed from one side of the park to the other but they then produced a clever bit of play and what I thought was a shot tipped away by Ferguson to where Nesbitt turned it in.

I'd agree the two goals Ayr got were shockingly bad defending and so was the 1st Morton goal. The 2nd Morton goal was constructed well enough though nobody followed Nesbitt's run. The 2nd St Mirren goal came in too easily and probably there should have been a better backpost challenge on the scorer but they weren't remotely as bad to lose. The 1st St Mirren one was a bit of a freak. It's one of those where everyone anticipates a touch and the ball just ended up drifting in without one. If the keeper goes for it he looks daft when someone prods it into the empty net before it reaches him. Someone needs to get across the line of the ball and get something on it but that kind of freak goal will happen from time to time unfortunately.

For our part, the 1st goal against Morton and the one against Ayr were from badly defended corners too. The 2nd Morton one was a terrific goal as was the 2nd St Mirren one. The opener v St Mirren was a good finish too but St Mirren wouldn't be happy with the space Shields was able to motor into.

[Skyline Drifter]

1 minute ago, palmy_cammy said:

It's not quite as harsh as Partick being a point behind us with a game in hand, or the Raith/Falkirk scenario discussed above.

Two points behind.

[Guest Flash]

11 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Yes, I'd agree it was from open play. I'm not agreeing it was a "cross" though. Well it was crossed from one side of the park to the other but they then produced a clever bit of play and what I thought was a shot tipped away by Ferguson to where Nesbitt turned it in.

I'd agree the two goals Ayr got were shockingly bad defending and so was the 1st Morton goal. The 2nd Morton goal was constructed well enough though nobody followed Nesbitt's run. The 2nd St Mirren goal came in too easily and probably there should have been a better backpost challenge on the scorer but they weren't remotely as bad to lose. The 1st St Mirren one was a bit of a freak. It's one of those where everyone anticipates a touch and the ball just ended up drifting in without one. If the keeper goes for it he looks daft when someone prods it into the empty net before it reaches him. Someone needs to get across the line of the ball and get something on it but that kind of freak goal will happen from time to time unfortunately.

For our part, the 1st goal against Morton and the one against Ayr were from badly defended corners too. The 2nd Morton one was a terrific goal as was the 2nd St Mirren one. The opener v St Mirren was a good finish too but St Mirren wouldn't be happy with the space Shields was able to motor into.

I was talking about Morton’s first. Wasn’t sure if it counted as open play as it came after a long throw was cleared.

[19QOS19]

I was talking about Morton’s first. Wasn’t sure if it counted as open play as it came after a long throw was cleared.

It was a cross. The guy had a free header. Well taken header mind you.

[Skyline Drifter]

13 minutes ago, Flash said:

I was talking about Morton’s first. Wasn’t sure if it counted as open play as it came after a long throw was cleared.

Sorry, my mistake. I was counting the 1st as a set piece rather than open play but granted that's open to interpretation. Either way it was badly defended and it was a free header.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Skyline Drifter

[Fae_the_'briggs]

A QoS v Raith Rovers match thread and we're churning over the goals in the Morton, St.  Mirren and Partick games,   time to move on or move that discussion to the Queens thread. I'm more concerned about how we're going to pump this lot. 

[Distant Doonhamer]

A QoS v Raith Rovers match thread and we're churning over the goals in the Morton, St.  Mirren and Partick games,   time to move on or move that discussion to the Queens thread. I'm more concerned about how we're going to pump this lot. 

To be honest the frailties of our defending are relevant to any match. This one’s hopefully different. Either that or we’ll need to score a big number of goals to be “pumping” anyone.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

6 minutes ago, Fae_the_'briggs said:

A QoS v Raith Rovers match thread and we're churning over the goals in the Morton, St.  Mirren and Partick games,   time to move on or move that discussion to the Queens thread. I'm more concerned about how we're going to pump this lot. 

[Messi Scott]

7 hours ago, Scottydog said:

If they have they're the only ones taking him seriously.

You don’t need to listen to me to know we’re favourites against QoS 

[Guest Flash]

2 hours ago, Zen Archer Esq. said:

Behave.

[Guest TOPFITTER]

Unfortunately in Scottish football the "Prima Donna's" who are called to officiate in football games have an undue influence in the games, their substandard efforts can negate any positives a team can produce and also accentuate any mistakes and so the last thing you want to be doing is gifting unearned chances to your opponents. This of course is only my opinion based on an ever dwindling expectation of enjoyable attacking football, given what I have watched over the last 50 years of the Scottish game. So if we can defend well and attack as this side is showing they can that'll do me, anything more is a bonus !!!

My biggest trial Saturday will not be the football but negotiating technology to obtain a full 90 minute stream

 

[RRFC2711]

We will pish this on Saturday......then the clocks go back[emoji317]

[pantene proV]

1 hour ago, Messi Scott said:

You don’t need to listen to me 

Ok