R.R.FC

Will Darren Young still be East Fife manager for this one?

I really hope things work out for him and his loan spell at Kelty helps bring him on. However, if it doesn’t, based on what we’ve seen so far I’d imagine Nando Mendy will feature heavily on lists like this in the future.

This is undoubtedly true. There were a couple of guys behind me booing Armstrong when he came on against Falkirk.

Huge McGlynn fan but he got it badly wrong with the starting line up today. There was no need for the change, Miller has been very good at right wing back and Spencer and Hendry have been excellent in central midfield together. A straight swap with Gullan in for Vaughan was all that was required. Sends the wrong message to the players as well that we are setting up more defensively at home because we don’t think we’re as good as Falkirk. Falkirk absolutely bossed the first half, they pressed us high up the park and didn’t allow us to build from the back and through midfield as we like to. We seemed to sit off them and Gomis totally ran the show. However, second half, credit to McGlynn for making the right changes and not leaving it too late. Armstrong was outstanding, goal and an assist and tore the full back to shreds. Even when he was doubled up on he was getting through. Hendry and Spencer started to boss the midfield and we were well worth our point in the end. Could have won it if not for an outstanding clearance by Doyle but I think over the 90 minutes a draw was a fair result. I’m sure both teams will look at it as 2 points dropped. I still think Falkirk will click at some point and win the league relatively comfortably given the squad they have. However, the longer they keep McKinnon the more hope there is for us. Also thought Tidser could have been sent off right before he was subbed off. Looked like it was studs up and high but would need to see it again. Strange to see a referee from Kirkcaldy chosen for the match.

Any chance @McGuigan1978 can pick Falkirk as his banker this week please?

New contract for Brad Spencer. Not a new signing at all, probably just as well if we want to actually make it to the end of the season! Great news though and with him, Vaughan, Hendry, MacDonald and Bowie signed up for next season we already have the starting point of a good squad regardless of what division we are in.

It’s not Tadé...I KNOW it can’t be Tadé...But I still really hope it’s Tadé...

Spot on. We were fourth nearly all season as far as I can remember. The second half of the season was outstanding with a 12 game unbeaten run and we definitely improved after January but we were doing okay before that. In particular, I remember 2 key back to back away games in December against Morton and Queen of the South who were our main competitors for the play offs. We drew in Dumfries and then won at Cappielow. There’s no doubt we wouldn’t have done it so comfortably but we were on course for the play offs before the January changes. Likewise, no problem with him going to Dundee United if he had just waited until after the play offs to talk to them. He was speaking to them before and in between our play off games with Hibs and then Dundee United made their approach literally hours after our defeat. He did a great job for us but I’m sure he fully understands why he still gets abuse.

Can Armstrong play in the number 10 role? Always had him as a winger which makes it a slightly strange signing given we’re not playing with those currently. He’s a good player though and you can never have enough good players. If he fits in the budget and McGlynn sees a position for him in the team that’s good enough for me. Glad to have him back.

Absolutely gutted for Lewis. Massive blow for us as a team, I think we needed a fit Lewis Vaughan to be consistent enough all season to win the league. However, the main disappointment is just for Lewis himself, he seems like a genuinely decent guy and has worked so hard to get himself back. With injuries like this, sometimes a player doesn’t ever look the same when they return but he looked like he’d never been away and was back up to speed very quickly. I suppose that may give him comfort he knows he can recover from such an injury without it affecting his quality. The mental aspect of it will be much tougher though. Can’t imagine how down he is just now, almost back to back spells of 9 months rehabilitation work must be soul destroying.

Credit to the East Fife fans for the comments regarding Vaughan, they have gone way up in my estimations. It would be easy for a local rival and close competitor in the league to take some enjoyment in us potentially losing our best player for the season. However, to a man, their comments have been very classy. Fair play.

Airdrie 2-0 Stranraer Dumbarton 1-1 Clyde Falkirk 3-1 East Fife Forfar 1-1 Raith Rovers Montrose 0-0 Peterhead

Armstrong ahead of Tade is wild. Gregory every day of the week for me. Not happening any time soon though. Armstrong was excellent initially but tailed off his last few games. Don’t get me wrong I’d be delighted to have him back but if we plan to continue with this new formation for the rest of the season I don’t really see where he’d fit in. We ended in a 5-4-1 last week but it was a definite two up top before that with Gullan in the hole. I don’t think that would suit Armstrong.

Would be great to finally string 3 league wins together. We have not managed it since March 2018 and if we have any hopes of challenging this year that is a stat we need to put to bed ASAP. Hopefully Vaughan is fit, would bring him straight in for Gullan who I thought struggled against Airdrie. McGurn will be in for Munro as well. Hopefully Baird gets to play some part off the bench this week. Our recent record away from home (and particularly at Station Park) mean I am not particularly confident going into this one but we look to have a solid base to build from now which will hopefully improve the away form. We showed two different sides in the last couple of weeks. Some great football against Peterhead and a more battling efficient performance against Airdrie. The Airdrie one was the type of performance I don’t think we had in us last season. I’d expect a similarly tight game against Forfar, any sort of win would be fantastic and really set up the home game against Falkirk. I’ll go for 1-1. We look much more solid at the back but we haven’t kept 4 clean sheets in a row since September 2010 back in John Baird’s first season with us.

Fucking love Grant Anderson. The passion in his goal celebrations is a thing of beauty.

I’d say the East Fife and Falkirk games are the only ones with a clear favourite where either of them not winning would be a surprise. The other three games look evenly matched and I don’t think any result in those would be considered a ‘shock’.

Is it not because he was booked up at Dingwall too? Think it’s only 2 bookings for a suspension in the Challenge Cup.

Everyone knows how contrasting our home and away form has been for the last few years but I have looked back to see just how bad. Apologies if it has been done before but since John Hughes took over our record in league games at home is as follows: Played: 45, Won: 33, Drawn: 9, Lost: 3, Goals for: 99, Goals Against: 35. We have won 108 points at an average of 2.4 per game with a goal difference of +64. Our away record is: Played: 46, Won: 13, Drawn: 14, Lost: 19, GF: 74, GA: 76. Giving us 53 points at an average of 1.15 per game with a goal difference of -2. Doesn’t really prove much that we didn’t already know. Our home record is very good, our away record is very poor. We still score a good amount away from home but we have conceded more than double the amount of goals we have at home. Hopefully, with Anderson added, Vaughan back and a change to a more solid looking formation we can finally turn the corner. I’m cautiously optimistic after Saturday but history suggests our home form has no real connection to our away form, let’s hope we can buck that trend over the next couple of weeks.

I think Allan will split opinion amongst fans throughout the season. I really like him. I think he’s a good footballer, his hold up play is generally excellent, he works hard and he appears deceptively quick. I think he is pretty key bringing the midfield into play and creating space for others. However, he definitely lacks a natural goal scoring instinct. I missed the Montrose game but against Clyde and Peterhead we have dominated both teams and scored 9 goals. He has not been on the scoresheet and to be honest didn’t look particularly likely to in either game. There has been occasions where we have the ball wide and midfielders are tearing into the box and he is still 20/25 yards from goal. Saying that, I am definitely in the camp that thinks he brings a lot to the team and is underrated. I would add MacDonald and Grant Anderson to the underrated list as well. MacDonald has a great engine and has contributed at both ends, although he is better going forward than defending. He ended up with 3 assists from wingback on Saturday and has barely been mentioned. Grant Anderson has been miles better than I thought he would be also, great to see him playing so well, his attitude on the park makes him really likeable.

Week 1 - Hibs Week 2 - Falkirk Week 3 - Celtic Week 4 - Aberdeen Week 5 - Dundee Week 6 - East Fife

I would say this is exactly the same from a Rovers point of view. I would be content with a draw but we’d really need to follow that up with a win at Forfar. A win on the road following up yesterday’s performance would give us a lot of momentum and maybe start to believe we have turned a corner with the change in personnel and formation. However, a defeat and we are right back to square one with the same old cycle. Bad away result with questions asked followed up by a confident dominant home win to bring hope going forward followed by by another bad away result. Repeat constantly to the end of the season. Same team and formation as Saturday, it was the first time in ages I watched us thinking that I couldn’t see us conceding a goal. We also managed to achieve that without sacrificing any attacking threat. We could potentially have Baird, Bowie and Dingwall all added to the bench too so plenty options to change it. We didn’t manage back to back clean sheets in the league at all last season so it would be great if we could manage that this weekend. Would also make it 4 in our last 5 in all competitions. I don’t think we will though, Airdrie are a good side and looked to have turned the corner themselves, I will go with 1-1.

The worst thing about that disallowed goal is that Donnelly is at no point passed the last defender even after he’s taken a touch and finished. Shocking call.

I would too but I went with Bene based on Davo probably not being 100% fit and what I think McGlynn will do. I definitely think Davo is the better of the two.

Few positive selection dilemmas for McGlynn for a change. Decisions to make in a few positions (if Bowie and Davidson are fit). Munro or McGurn? Which 2 out of Davo/Bene/Anderson at centre back? Does he bring Vaughan in from the start? Does Gullan go straight back in? I would go with: Munro Miller-Bene-Anderson-MacDonald Spencer-Hendry Anderson-Vaughan-Bowie Allan Munro had his best game for us on Saturday and looked comfortable. McGurn hasn’t been terrible but I think Munro did enough to get another chance. I thought Davo was having a good game before he went off. Probably best Bene has played in a while too. Think Anderson needs to start though so Bene gets the nod based on the fact I don’t think Davo will be 100%. I was really impressed with Tait last weekend but it’s a no brainer, if Vaughan is fit to start he has to. If Bowie isn’t fit then Gullan should come back in but if everyone is fit I prefer Bowie and Anderson wide. No matter what team is picked it’ll be nice to have a couple of potentially game changing options on the bench.

Would agree with this and I think it is one of our downfalls. Hopefully the signing of Baird (if it goes through) will help address this slightly. I had a look at our starting line up from Saturday and of the ten outfield players that started the game, the average age is 23.7 which is incredibly young. This would drop down to 22.3 if McKay started ahead of Davidson as many have said. For some reference, the East Fife starting line up had an average age of 27.5 and Arbroath who cruised the league last year had an average age of 28.7 from their best outfield 10. Obviously it doesn’t help that two of our most experienced players in Bene and Davo have huge question marks over their form but I do think the team could use a bit more experience. It was evident on Saturday how much the equaliser changed the game. Obviously goals can change games no matter what but I’d like to think another experienced head or two can help settle down our young side a bit better in spells where they are up against it.