Raith Against The Machine

I didn't know quite what to make of that. It didn't help that I was directly behind it so difficult to judge the angles, but Hamilton obviously won the header cleanly before Williams (if I remember rightly) crashed into him. The kind of incident that, in the centre circle, the ref gives as a freekick without even thinking.

We'll play much better than that and lose this season. A point is just reward for the perseverence, but I think we have we just as much reason to point to Thistle's substitutions. Each one made them weaker, and as soon as Jack McMillan (man of the match by an absolute mile) went off, we started getting change out of that right back area. There's a lot of optimism to take from that, but mostly due to the circumstances rather than the game itself. Away to Firhill is going to be one of the tougher games we'll get and we've come away with a point despite the players we had missing, and those who were clearly off pace. While we'll always have injuries to contend with, hopefully there won't be too many games that we're going into without a right back or a defensive midfielder. Euan Murray, understandably, looked underprepared but he'll benefit from the 90 minutes. Jack Hamilton, as he did last week, looked absolutely shattered after an hour. I don't know if that's just a disrupted pre-season thing or a built-in feature, but if it's the latter then the urgency of our need for a second number 9 steps up significantly. Ultimately a point is only a point, but (contrary to the real story of the game) we'll probably get a bigger boost out of that than Thistle do, just with the way it ended. The big thing will be whether or not we carry lessons into the Morton game. An injured player or two back would be nice, but regardless there needs to be more thought given to protecting the defence and packing the midfield when the opposition are running through it.

If you didn't have the time to count them, you'd think the Rovers were down to ten men here. Constantly under pressure, second to everything, Thistle always have a spare man. With the total lack of a midfield base, we should at least be able to get some traction in the final third, but second half in particular we've done nothing. We're playing a front five and we've had maybe two passages of play that have involved any three of them. We're doing terribly with the stuff we know we're bad at, but we're not getting remotely close to the stuff we're supposed to be good at.

Based on the run of the game, we could easily score a couple this half. But keeping them out at the other end? Just doesn't seem feasible.

Well, there is one difference. We're playing one fewer midfielder than we did the last time we were overrun through the middle here.

There's an excuse for Murray looking a half second off it because he hasn't had any time before now, but too many others look like they've not had a pre-season. Thistle's right back has scored one and created the other. Ours has been booked for diving into a silly challenge 70 yards from his own goal. We've created chances and Thistle look far from invincible, but the decision making all over the park from the Rovers has been abysmal. In the middle of the park, Thistle have got McInroy and Williamson v Stanton, and the next closest player to getting into that battle is Stuart Bannigan. It's easy to point to the injuries, but they're not a mystery that's revealed at the start of every game. You need to have mitigation in place before the match begins.

It'll be interesting to see what happens if we can get an equaliser, because we might actually calm down a bit. We've created a few chances but everything feels panicky as f**k.

3-3.

Our back four is living up to it's worst possible interpretation so far. A below average Championship left back, a centre half who's had 0 minutes so far, another whose legs have gone, and a right back who isn't one. We started well and look alright middle-to-front when we can get the ball, but we look brittle beyond belief at the back.

I thought so.

Rovers should've scored with their first attack, Thistle do score with theirs. I'm fucking fed up of watching us getting rinsed by Thistle's full backs whilst ours are either garbage or don't actually exist.

Multiple studies have confirmed there's no increase in likelihood or severity of injuries.

There are Jihadi training camps with fewer occupational risks than ours.

Declan Glass doing a better job disrupting Dundee United than anyone in an Arbroath jersey has.

Lads, it's Airdrie.

Quite nice for it to be the eve of the league season and not to be in a total meltdown about gaps in the squad and lack of signings, isn't it?

There's maybe two question marks over MacDonald. One is that he was carrying a shoulder injury for most of last season and it was definitely bothering him at times, and the other is that he's getting towards the age where there will inevitably be a drop off at some point. There's absolutely no question over his quality though. If that shoulder injury has healed up he should definitely have another year as one of the top performers at this level.

I can't remember his chance against Dunfermline, but both against Killie were from set pieces, which isn't really what I'm getting at. Teams know that with the attacking players we've got, they need to get tight and cover the passing and movement of Easton et al. One of the ways to get beyond that is with fullbacks who can naturally contribute to an overload. Ross Millen is more naturally inclined to move into space when it opens up for him, but it's limited somewhat by the fact that he hugely favours delivering (excellent) crosses from deep.

If we're bringing in a second dedicated left back, I'd like him to be quite attacking minded, to give us another dimension. Liam Dick is really, really solid defensively but there were games last season where we could've really done with someone who would really get involved in attacks. We saw more than once last season and I imagine we'll see again on Saturday just how important attacking full backs can be, given Thistle have got the best two in the division.

I think we can safely say it's a done deal, then. Their coffee is garbage, but Canadians seem to love it. Wotherspoon won't be able to resist.

Dunfermline has a Tim Horton's, why the f**k else would you want to go to Canada?

Our mob convert conservatories. No doubt improving things for the poor customers who've been hoodwinked by your lot. I don't think there's any doubt that Dunfermline's total wage bill will be higher than the Rovers, and justifiably so based on income. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a foregone conclusion if both clubs want the same player, but I can't see Ian Murray wanting to go all-out for Shaun Byrne, given he wouldn't be an automatic starter.

Then he breaches what I like to call "The John Frederiksen Rule". Anyone who's taller than 6'4" and good at football is playing at a higher level than this. Anyone who's that tall and floating about at this level is getting by on their height alone.