Raith Against The Machine

The rain looks brutal, but it does at least seem to be coming straight down, rather than one of these windy "game of two halves" affairs.

I found the stream was pretty wonky on the "Automatic" setting, the player couldn't make up it's mind on the quality it wanted. Stuck it onto 1080p though and after an initial 30 seconds or so buffering, it's been flawless.

I've also got no commentary, and I'm quite happy for it to stay that way, thank you very much.

A very solemn and meaningful moment of pause to reflect on the political and societal factors that underpin the need for the Black Lives Matter movement, only mildly undermined by 140 decibels of Bits And Pieces.

Well thank f**k for that. If Liam Buchanan scores today, I'm going to be very perplexed. Whilst not as outrageous as Wullie Gibson, he really shouldn't have any place in the Championship in 2020.

I hope I'm just being pessimistic, but it could easily be the case that we're missing multiple players today. Just a case of waiting for the starting line-up and seeing what the state of play is.

Kieran MacDonald has just tweeted to say he's tested positive for Covid

This is the kind of thing I was thinking about. There was a game at Airdrie where he came off the bench late on, and he was everywhere. Looked every bit a Premiership player who was just down on his luck. But then he didn't build on it. He flitted from one spark of possible quality to another. Always looked half an inch away from being excellent, but could never bridge that final gap.

Tony Dingwall has finally resurfaced. As someone predicted a month or two back, he's joined Elgin for the rest of the season. Really interested to see how he gets on. He could be a Kevin Nisbet who needs a lower level to get his confidence and then rebuilds a solid career, or a Derek Carcary who always looks like he's one game away from being brilliant, no matter what level he's at, until he falls out of the senior game altogether.

Funny game, that. Ayr only really getting into the final third four or five times but looking like they might score every time they did. The rest of the game was played in Ayr's half, but we couldn't really manage a meaningful final ball all night. Armstrong probably the epitome of that - his movement was brilliant but he couldn't do anything to get the ball to Duku or Lokotsch. I thought we firmly controlled the first half, and then Ayr clearly had a better plan after half time. As time went on, you could see how visibly Hendry, Armstrong and Tait tired, and at a certain point we stopped controlling the game. Between this week and last week, we've gone toe to toe with two of the better sides in the division and probably been the better side in both games. A little frustrating not to win either one, but a wee bit more development and this team could be very good indeed.

I think he's almost trying too hard to find his groove again. When he's on form, he does the stuff he's been doing tonight and it looks effortless. Duku for Loko is bold. Need a big performance from the big fella. Another fairly anonymous one and hell surely drop below Ugwu in the pecking order.

Thought he'd delayed that pass too long at the time. Great finish though, hopefully he takes the confidence from that.

Aye, me too. While he wasn't exactly a superstar for us, he was in a shite team and didn't shy away from anything, despite obviously not being in the best place personally.

Has Ryan Stevenson added to his face tattoos since he played for us? He's running out of space. That Duku volley is really similar to McManus' goal last week. He's maybe just five yards further forward.

That was a fantastic ball from Armstrong with the freekick. A shame we didn't have Duku or Musonda in the middle rather than (I think) Hendry. You can already see how Moffat and Anderson will exploit any slackness at the back, though.

That was one of those daft ones where there's really no reason for it. At least he's got the confidence in his convictions, at least. Better than a lot of young keepers who you see being caught in two minds far too often.

Michael Miller seemed like a thoroughly good egg when he was this us, and I hope he has a dreadful evening.

A member of Ayr's backroom staff and Tom Walsh both isolating, although the two seem to be completely unrelated. Presumably the staff member returned a positive test whereas Walsh is isolating due to close proximity with a member of his household or something.

Hopkin was on 80k a year plus bonuses So, 80k a year?

Will any of the above work for free?

Perfectly normal situation, happens all the time. Definitely nothing to see here.

You keep missing the link for the League One forum, son.

Nothing good can ever come from football that involves Ayr Utd. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is.

Always going to be disappointing not to win after being 2-0 up but I'd have taken a point before the game, without a doubt. I think the Pars have gotten away with that, on reflection. They never seemed to settle into a proper flow and only threatened sporadically. The Rovers were the opposite, they seemed composed and in control for large parts but totally lost that for a couple of five minute spells. It's unfortunate (and the risk you take, ultimately) that one of those spells saw two goals. After the last performance at ICT where we were toothless and firmly second best, the team should take real confidence from that. Absolutely nothing to fear going down to Ayr on Friday night.

Steady on, it's about 25 yards out. I also don't think it was a foul, they were hip to hip, but I'd have been screaming for it if it was the other way round.