McGuigan1978

You’ve been saying it every few days for weeks, but I’m struggling to believe that Dylan Easton has “had his head turned” and decided to play within himself, when he’s playing at the highest level he ever has done, and just a few weeks ago, had two thousand people singing his name at Tannadice. What’s probably happening is that he’s going through a poor spell of form, which is less to do with head turning, and more to do with the fact he’s a reasonably inconsistent footballer, which is why he’s with us at 29 years of age

Why do you think playing terribly would enable him to get a move?

That was absolutely atrocious today, both in terms of how we were set up, but also from a player perspective too. Yes, we absolutely shouldn't be starting games with a back three that only contains one central defender, unless there's no other option, but to be fair, our one and only central defender, Euan Murray, was probably culpable for the first two goals we conceded. I also thought Liam Dick, and then Dylan Easton when he came on gave 0/10 performances. They didn't do a single thing right, but in general, everything about us is panic stations when things aren't going well. Chaos has been a massive part of why we're so high in the table, but as we kicked off at 1-1 (I think) Vaughan tried to lob Mark Ridgers from the centre. They then almost scored from Ridgers kick out. Absolute madness, and it shouldn't be happening. Calm your jets and start doing the basics right. Since Tannadice, we actually had a really good chance to put our foot down against the poorest sides in the division, and potentially extend our lead. Instead, we've capitulated, partly through formations which don't suit us, partly through poor form, but also today, it just looked like belief and confidence were sorely lacking. We barely won a challenge in the middle of the park. Loads of comments about the full backs, but that's not the issue. We need a central defender, and I'm quite frustrated that Ayr brought in Jack Sanders from Kilmarnock, I thought he'd have been ideal for us, but nevertheless, we'll see what transpires the rest of the window.

If I didn't want people to think I was using terms from 4chan, I'd quite simply not use terms which are predominantly used on 4chan

From what I can gather, Alex Samuel had seven league goals in seven years before today. Fair play!

Airdrie 1 Partick Thistle 1 Dundee United 3 Dunfermline 0 Morton 4 Arbroath 0 Queen’s Park 1 Ayr United 2 Raith Rovers 3 Inverness 1

Inverness 0 Dundee Utd 1 Arbroath 0 Ayr Utd 1 Dunfermline 1 Airdrie 2 Morton 1 Partick 1 Raith 2 Queen’s Park 1

I think he is a solid Championship central defender, but arguably our best defensive performance this season was at Tannadice, and he spent the entire game on the bench. I’d have preferred if he stayed, but if it means we can bring in another player then it’s far from a disaster.

Arbroath were picking up more points per game under Dick Campbell than they are currently under Jim McIntyre.

Queen’s Park 1 Dunfermline 1 Airdrie 0 Raith Rovers 1 Ayr United 0 Inverness 1 Dundee United 2 Morton 0 Partick Thistle 3 Arbroath 0

In fairness, I think Arbroath fans were very impressed by him, so maybe he played a slightly different role or Dick Campbell got more from him, so I still expect him to do well for Accies

I was thinking that as well, but wasn’t too sure

On that, see since we got our pitch installed, how many games have we had called off because of the surface?

I think he might he a decent signing for Hamilton, but he definitely wasn’t excellent at Raith, and I doubt a single Rovers fan would even have him in the good category. He did score two goals against Hamilton, but that was all he managed for us, plus an assist against Arbroath, which in 17 games isn’t great for someone who played in advanced positions quite often. We also tried him further back, which I thought might suit him, as he buzzes around and gives the impression he can press and harangue opponents, but that didn’t work out either and games completely passed him by. Don’t get me wrong, there could very well be something there, but he didn’t show it for Rovers.

My immediate reaction was “this feels like a very bad thing,” and I definitely didn’t think it was just a wee consolation effort.

I didn’t think we comfortable at all. I thought we were very lucky to be up at the interval

Aye, that’s two performances in a row that have been really poor, and while conceding a goal from 35 yards to a substitute goalkeeper is very funny, it shouldn’t mask the fact we were quite simply set up wrong. Other than a 15 minute spell in the second half, I didn't think we were ever in control of that game, and were a bit lucky to be a goal up at the interval. I thought Ian Murray panicked very early last week against Ayr, and changed the system immediately when we went 3-2 down, but it felt like he panicked before kick off in this one. Big Barry Smith vibes with the, “let’s move Lewis Vaughan further away from goal” and predictably, it really didn’t work A 4-1-3-2 with Vaughan playing deep felt like a strange move, and despite that, we almost got away with it, despite being poor, but in all honesty we really didn’t deserve three points Calm down, set up the players in a way which suits them, and deviate from that if we’re struggling. Fingers crossed Stanton is back soon too, as were a far poorer outfit without him. Lastly, and I could be in the minority here, but the Rovers fans becoming rugby-esque and applauding Ali Adams goal was by some margin the most annoying part of the afternoon.

I was pretty surprised when Ian Murray came out after the Partick Thistle game and talked about adding a speedy wide player. I mean, it makes sense to a degree, but cramming in more attacking players to the best area of the squad, when to me at least, the full back areas need shored up, felt slightly strange. That said, if it means we can win games 5-3 rather than 4-3 then he should absolutely crack on. However, if we are looking to add a full back, I don't think Lewis Stevenson is too wild a shout. Seems surplus to requirements at Hibernian, so you'd presume they'd be amenable to some kind of loan deal, and if he only has a season or two left as a player, you'd imagine helping his local side in a promotion push would be a pretty appealing way to bring the curtain down on his career.

Dundee United 0 Partick Thistle 0 Ayr United 1 Dunfermline 1 Inverness 0 Morton 1 Queen’s Park 1 Airdrie 0 Raith 3 Arbroath 2

I was told a few months back that St Johnstone's wage budget was really low this season, but of course, that maybe wasn't true and even if it was at the time, could and probably would change moving forward. I do think that a club with no previous ties to Vaughan would probably balk at giving him a multi-year deal on a decent salary though, whereas Rovers probably still would.

I don’t think there’s any chance that Hibs (or Hearts) make an offer for Lewis Vaughan now. It would probably need to be a club making a calculated risk that he could make the step up, keep him fit and score the goals that keeps them in the top flight. Again, you’re maybe looking at Dundee, but I don’t see it

Stanton, Easton and Millen are the three that other clubs would have been interested in January, or more likely the end of this season. As someone who stays local and has a young family, I suspect Dylan Easton would listen to offers from teams like Dundee, Dundee United and St Johnstone, but as much as a lot of Rovers fans are trying to downplay our spending, I think we’d top trump St Johnstone just now I mean, maybe, Killie, Motherwell or St Mirren would fancy a bid, but I suspect it’ll be somewhere closer to home unless it’s really good money. Regardless, I reckon he’ll go in the summer, and if so, fair play and I’ll wish him well. Ross Millen isn’t local, and while I doubt teams will batter the door down for him, I suspect Jack McMillan will leave Partick Thistle this summer, and if so, Millen would be a right back I can see them being interested in. Avoiding a commute across the country would probably tempt him As for Vaughan, his injuries would obviously put suitors off, but he’s the top scorer in the second tier right now, that might tempt a team or two. That said, as long as we offer him something decent enough on two years or so, I think he’ll stay.

Arguably the greatest announcement of all time

Was it this time last year we had a loan signings advent calendar, and we’d built ourselves up to think the last one would be an announcement that Regan Hendry was coming back? Turned out it was just a message from him saying hello or some such? Hopefully it’s better than that!

Even by our standards last night, that was a very weird game. It felt very much like last season's Raith Rovers team, no control, error strewn and Ian Murray going into panic mode about 20 minutes too early. By all means go for it, but I'm not sure we needed to be so cavalier with 30 minutes remaining. That said, we had some apocalyptically bad performances from some players, and if any one of them had even an average game, we'd maybe have won. Liam Dick, Scott Brown and Kevin Dabrowski were disastrous, admittedly I wouldn't have popped up in Kevin's Twitter notifications to tell him as it's a bit weird, but nevertheless, he was directly at fault for goals one and four. The first was in the "should be doing much better there" category, but the fourth? My goodness. I was a bit worried when I saw Franny Amartey was in the starting line up, but was hoping he was one of those players who get better in the eyes of fans when he's not playing, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Quick, skilful and bullying opponents left, right and centre. If that's what he's capable of week in, week out, then not picking him is very strange. I was delighted when Lee Bullen took him off, as frankly it didn't make a lick of sense, and it was very much to our benefit, so thanks Lee! There were positives of course. Lewis Vaughan's hat-trick was great to see, and both his headers were excellent. I suspect that as much as I compared it to last season, the 2022/23 Raith vintage would have lost that comfortably, and Dundee United had another lamentable performance so didn't gain any ground on us, but that really needs to be a blip if we're to challenge for first place. Yes, it may have been frustrating, but it was also a good laugh, and you can't say fairer than that.