Rangers v The Mighty Raith Rovers 🔵⚪️ Scottish Cup QF

[shizzlemanizzle]

1 hour ago, StellarHibee said:

Raith Rovers helping their big club along. Can't say i'm shocked at all tbh.

[Ro Sham Bo]

I think we did as well could be expected with that line up. Pity we never scored when Ross squared it instead of shooting. 

Fair play to Masson. After that Dundee match this could've been a career ender for him today but he did well. 

[Kuma Power]

12 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

I think we did as well could be expected with that line up. Pity we never scored when Ross squared it instead of shooting. 

Fair play to Masson. After that Dundee match this could've been a career ender for him today but he did well. 

Was just logging on to say exactly that. Was more than a bit worried when I saw Masson would be starting after how the Dundee Challenge Cup game started, but he didn't look out of place and put in a fair shift. Hopefully he can take a bit of confidence out of it if we need to call on him later on in the season.

[Michael W]

Didn't get thumped, which was a genuine fear when I saw the team. I'll take that. 

We were always going to have a bit of a backs to the wall job today, but we gave a decent account of ourselves. Lack of chances going forward but I think that was expected. 

Good pay day and we weren't embarrassed. Decent day tbh. 

[CountryBumpkin]

43 minutes ago, Kuma Power said:

Was just logging on to say exactly that. Was more than a bit worried when I saw Masson would be starting after how the Dundee Challenge Cup game started, but he didn't look out of place and put in a fair shift. Hopefully he can take a bit of confidence out of it if we need to call on him later on in the season.

 

59 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

I think we did as well could be expected with that line up. Pity we never scored when Ross squared it instead of shooting. 

Fair play to Masson. After that Dundee match this could've been a career ender for him today but he did well. 

Why? Masson coming off early against Dundee was in no way down to his performance but a change in shape. Nothing can be held against the lad there. Looked a lot more comfortable as a right back rather than wing back and did really well. The lad could easily have a good future for us, well done to him. 

[Renfrewblue]

3 hours ago, KirkieRR said:

Diddums. With your fanbase you could easily swamp p&b if you wanted to. Maybe the majority prefer the Rangers Media echo chamber.

The bigots and morons do. I'd prefer some decent chat with folk that actually appreciate the football. 

Raith did well today albeit we're still totally hopeless in front of goal. Our midfield are just shot shy and it's part of the reason we don't score anywhere near as many as Celtic. 

That first shot would have made it very interesting if he'd pulled it off. 

[KirkieRR]

24 minutes ago, Renfrewblue said:

The bigots and morons do. I'd prefer some decent chat with folk that actually appreciate the football. 

 

Ferr play.

[Raith Against The Machine]

I think that's probably about as good an outcome as we could've reasonably asked for today, and it was much better than I expected/feared. 

This Rovers side isn't really suited to playing without the ball, or on the break. Ian Murray said before the game that - with an obvious acknowledgement of the gulf in quality - we're actually fairly similar to Rangers in how we approach the game. Much more at home getting bodies around the edge of the box and probing for openings, but that was never likely to happen today. 

Taking that and adding in that we didn't have any defensive midfielders, had to start a teenager at right back, and could only put two non-teenagers on the bench, both of whom are on the way back from injuries, and it was the longest of shots to take anything today. 

The players who were out there, though, acquitted themselves well. There's only so many crosses and corners you can face before one or two inevitably find their way into the goal, and so it proved. You can point fingers at people losing runners or a miskicked block, but these things happen. 

We saw glimpses in the second half of where we might've been able to forge a solid game plan if we'd had fully fit Ethan Ross and Lewis Vaughan, although we'd probably also have needed at least one more striker. 

Rangers were fine. They were awfully ponderous in the first half, slowly manufacturing space for their wing-backs, but then spent far too long before delivering crosses, letting the Rovers' back four set themselves. If they hadn't found the goal before half time, I'm absolutely certain there would've been a significant step up after the break. As it was, they could continue in more or less the same vein and win comfortably. 

I don't know that we necessarily learned anything about this Rovers squad today. It was more of a reinforcement of what we already knew. On the positive side, the work rate and attitude throughout the squad is exemplary. The shortcomings that we have are more down to a lack of specific types of players, rather than glaring weaknesses in the individuals we do have. 

[roverthemoon]

Weirdly enjoyed that. Given such a threadbare squad I feared a doing but it never really materialised. Backs to the wall obviously and chances few and far between, but we did ourselves justice. Good support throughout and ‘walking away, the Rangers way’ the highlight as the home stands emptied. Ibrox the quietest I’ve ever experienced it. Presume having chucked the League and lost the League Cup final taking its toll. Thought Adam Masson deserves huge praise. Coped well in difficult circumstances. 

Edited March 12, 2023 by roverthemoon

[grumswall]

1 hour ago, CountryBumpkin said:

 

Why? Masson coming off early against Dundee was in no way down to his performance but a change in shape. Nothing can be held against the lad there. Looked a lot more comfortable as a right back rather than wing back and did really well. The lad could easily have a good future for us, well done to him. 

It probably helped that we defended with a back 5 at times, with him tucking in as a cb today. He's looking a good prospect and up against good players today, didn't look out of place defensively for the most. Panicked a few times, but so did more experienced players. Masson did absolutely fine today. Great experience for him and Taylor coming on as well. 

Tom lang was motm for me. We've nothing to be ashamed about losing 3-0 at Ibrox better teams than us will do it this season. I do wish we'd had more of a go instead of sitting deep and looking to counter when we aren't that team though. 

[Renfrewblue]

12 minutes ago, roverthemoon said:

Weirdly enjoyed that. Given such a threadbare squad I feared a doing but it never really materialised. Backs to the wall obviously and chances few and far between, but we did ourselves justice. Good support throughout and ‘walking away, the Rangers way’ the highlight as the home stands emptied. Ibrox the quietest I’ve ever experienced it. Presume having chucked the League and lost the League Cup final taking its toll. Thought Adam Masson deserves huge praise. Coped well in difficult circumstances. 

I hadn't realised how many players Rovers were missing. In those circumstances it has to be a fairly successful day considering. 

 

[Lola montez]

4 hours ago, eez-eh said:

Pity the poor Rangers fans having to watch the game for a whole 40 minutes before their team takes the lead.

Tbf, another 2 minutes and they start heading to their cars to beat the queues. 

[Renfrewblue]

8 minutes ago, Lola montez said:

Tbf, another 2 minutes and they start heading to their cars to beat the queues. 

My biggest pet hate is the subway loyal. Arrive late, leave early and cause folk to be stuck getting up and down in their seats endlessly, whilst blocking the view. 

If you can't wait to the final whistle, no matter the result the you are most definitely not a supporter. 

[bennett]

55 minutes ago, roverthemoon said:

Weirdly enjoyed that. Given such a threadbare squad I feared a doing but it never really materialised. Backs to the wall obviously and chances few and far between, but we did ourselves justice. Good support throughout and ‘walking away, the Rangers way’ the highlight as the home stands emptied. Ibrox the quietest I’ve ever experienced it. Presume having chucked the League and lost the League Cup final taking its toll. Thought Adam Masson deserves huge praise. Coped well in difficult circumstances. 

The union bears were in the huff and had a protest outside the stadium. 

[bennett]

 

Raith were well organised today and put it one hell of a shift, going down with head knocks worked and you could tell that we were getting frustrated by it.   

 

Nice to see Ridvan, Hagi and Soapy getting more match time. 

 

 

[Always next quarter]

Thought that was a really solid effort. Undone by goals at key times and that bit of luck we needed went to the home team. 

A bench of 4 outfield players 2 modern apprentices, 1 lad who had a hip op 2-3 weeks ago and hasn't kicked a ball along with LV who has also been out recently.

An 18 year old at right back and missing first choice picks; Millen, Brown, Gullan, Mathews along with 2 cup tied players.

Threadbare is being generous. We'll played lads. 

 

[The_Kincardine]

10 hours ago, Scary Bear said:

Think it’s just @bennett and @The_Kincardine as the token ‘gers fans on here.

There's a few of us.  I was on egg-chasing duties today - stovies and rugger for my son and some of his pals - so missed the game.

Besides, the "Wraiths vs Zombies" thread title will never be beaten so what's the point...

[Jilted John]

Came on here tentatively, expecting to be reading lots of bile from the home fans, only to find that the Rangers fans on here actually seem like a good bunch! Who’d have thunk it?

As for the game, we got what we expected. Hopefully we haven’t picked up any more knocks and getting more minutes into Vaughan and Ross’s legs can only be a good thing.

[Wardy]

Missing Millen, Gullan, Brown, Matthews, Akio, McGill and Ngwenya. Arguably 4 of those players would be in the first 11 so yeah. We performed considerably better than I thought we would when I saw the team sheet.
 

Rangers never let us string 2 passes together so it was always going to be a difficult afternoon. Losing goals to a set piece and an own goal is a bit pish as well but Least they didn’t get their token penalty. Chuckled at their VAR check for one though.

We take the cash and we move on. Hopefully Millen, Brown and Gullan back for Cove on Saturday. 

[CALDERON]

Strange game, certainly didn't feel like a quarter final.  Granted, I know that Raith Rovers are not a big draw for Rangers at all - but it felt like a very low key affair today.

Felt as though we had to get it to half time at 0-0 to have any real chance of making it interesting.  In reality, we had absolutely nothing to help us get out of our own half - although it was disappointing to concede a soft goal so close to half time.  Rangers had a wealth of pressure, but didn't feel they did a huge amount with it until that point.  The own goal killed the game. 

Felt we should have had a goal at 2-0, looked like a sitter to me, but will need to see it back again.

Rangers probably had a few more gears left in them, but felt the team battled really well and fundamentally did all that was really possible from that lineup.  

If I was being harsh, I would say that Goncalves looks fundamentally unfit.  Granted, it was a tough ask for him today, but he offered virtually nothing.  Also thought Vaughan looked really unfit also, perhaps to be expected, but we could really do with some kind of viable option in that area of the pitch.

Good crowd through and good atmosphere, smoke bombs aside.  I don't mind pyro, but throwing them into the crowd, and letting them off in a crammed enclosed space inside is just shit.  No need at all.

This squad has an absolutely fantastic work ethic - hopefully Murray can see a bit of this money to add a bit more quality to that - and we will be absolutely fine under him if we can do that.