Raith Against The Machine

I could be wrong, but Vine looked to me like he was outside the box today. Regardless, we're conceding some amount of howitzers this season.

James is a sociopath.

This is without doubt the most ridiculous post I have ever read on Pie and Bovril.

Andy McNeill was picking up back passes and conceding goals to Neil fucking McCann. Robinson is nowhere near that disaster zone.

Just to contrast this, I've had a look and we've conceded nine goals from outside the box. I'm not drawing any conclusions, but the statistics are quite startling. We've scored 57 goals this season, with all but three of them coming from inside the box. We've only conceded 49, but nine of them have been from outside the box. Do we need to be shooting from further out more often, or do we need to improve our defending in the 18-25 yard area?

Just make sure you watch the whole thing in one sitting. If you have to leave it after half an hour you might never smile again.

Cardle's goal today is just the third goal we've scored this season from outside the box. One of the others was at home to Alloa; a Cardle cross that Elliot couldn't get a toe to, only for it to creep inside the far post. The other was at Stark's against Queen of the South in November; Elliot drilling the ball across goal when he was a yard or two away from the corner of the box. Every single one of the twenty three goals we've scored away from home this season have been struck from inside the box. We're the Ruud van Nistelrooy of Scottish football.

Watson should be fine now, fingers crossed. You wouldn't expect a broken bone to reoccur like a muscle injury, now that he's back up and running.

My point wasn't about how good Robinson is, it was that Laidlaws saves against Hibs weren't spectacular. You'd be disappointed if he hadn't made any of them. Only the first was non-routine.

I'll post up a proper reasoned argument later, but people have changed their tune on Laidlaw, bloody drastically. He was good in the Hibs game, but before that we looked panicked at the back, and he was directly at fault for goals. If Robinson had saved the first one today, it would've been a better save than anything Laidlaw managed against Hibs. He came out for a cross that he didn't get anywhere near today, and might've done better for the third (I'd need to see it again) but every goalkeeper in the world will concede goals like the first two. Obviously we're conceding far too many goals, but chopping and changing AGAIN isn't going to help that. Now that Watson is back we should be able to name a consistent defensive unit for a few games running. I actually quite like Laidlaw, I was one of his staunchest champions when Stewart was the alternative, but Robinson is the better goalkeeper, at this moment in time. Laidlaw was directly at fault for more goals in the home game against Cowdenbeath than Robinson has been in the entire time he's been here.

We were pencilled in for a game against Stenhousemuir tomorrow night but it seems it has been postponed. Next Monday we're away at the Shire.

Oh look, a naked photo of your baby. That's what I wanted to see.

He's been given the support to build the squad because he's brought the money into the club through cup runs. You can't condemn the man for our (woeful) league form and not recognise his cup achievements. If there was an available manager, or a transfer window open, I might be more inclined to jump on the Murray Out bandwagon, but I can't see that there is. Remember that we went fifteen games unbeaten earlier in the season. Murray hasn't become a bad manager overnight. Obviously our abysmal form is a massive problem, and it's something that must be addressed, but our performances in the last three games haven't been terrible. At Dumbarton we flew out of the blocks and were hit with a sucker punch, then struggled for a while, but we battled back and could well have won the game but for a wonder strike from Agnew. Against Alloa we again started well enough until they scored the first time they crossed the halfway line. Again, we fought back and were the better side. We weren't good enough in the second half yesterday, but was anyone complaining at half time? We're showing in fits and starts what we're capable of, and we will pick up more points between now and the end of the season. I thought Hutton's recent statement was a little hackneyed and cliched, but the core message was correct. If we don't panic, keep supporting the side and plugging away, we will pick up more points than one of Livingston/Cowdenbeath/Alloa/Dumbarton. It hasn't been an ideal league campaign by any means, but we're still only six points off a promotion play-off place, and we remain undefeated over 90 minutes in all cup competitions. It's hard to stomach the recent form, but Murray and the team bought themselves this breathing space with their early season performances. It's incredibly disappointing that they're having to use it, but this could still easily be our best season in two decades.

How many of those goals have been his fault? Two, at a push? Laidlaw sold three in the game against Cowdenbeath alone. I'm sure a change in goalkeeper again hasn't helped the back four, it never does, but between now and the end of the season we need to have the best keeper available in goal. That's Robinson.

Who do you think you are kidding Mr McCoist...

The Reserves play Cowdenbeath tomorrow night, that should give us more of an idea of how close to a return he is. It's important that we don't rush him back too soon though. While it'd be great to have him back for Saturday, it's more important we have him for all the other Saturdays after that. Could really do with having Hill available for Tuesday though!

The Trust is a fiver a year. Hopefully this encourages more people to sign up.

I see that the Trust are able to offer a ticket to members. There really is no excuse for not being able to get a ticket for the game.

Bloke on Facebook saying he won't be back, and we've "lost a raith fan". Yup, a big loss! It's unfortunate that a small number of genuine fans will likely miss out, but it's not like this situation has appeared out of the blue. Since the beginning it's been clear that we'd have a limited allocation, hence the whole voucher situation. There was plenty scope to get vouchers, or get a friend to pick a couple up. I'm sure even an email to the club at that time would've smoothed the path. I'd rather be in a stand with 3000 (hey, I'm an optimist) Rovers fans than 3200 Rovers fans, 400 hangers-on and 400 interspersed Rangers fans.

Wasn't on Facebook, but one of the lassies at my work was raging about that yesterday. She seems to have a particular dislike for that "Fatality" lass who necked the Mortal Kombat. She then claimed that it was in the paper that there wasn't any MDMA in the nine pills she took, but there was a shitload of other things, including heroin and glass. Heroin and glass!

"Where's the best place to get diet pills?" Ur not fat honey xx

That pink kit...