Raith Against The Machine

Incidentally, my scepticism levels on the singing section have increased a fair bit. Maybe the folk in there had a brilliant time and I'm not writing off an experiment after one outing, but it felt like it just totally diluted the home atmosphere. Stark's is too open. The noise was just disappearing, I could barely hear that section over the away fans, and as an obvious consequence the South Stand was much quieter too. If you want to have that separate section in the Railway Stand, it needs to be pushed right up against the Southern end. Then you'd have three sides of the ground, all pressed down at one end, and you'd get a much better noise out of it, as well as being able to put a bit of pressure on the linesman and having a proper Rovers end. If that's what it's like for a derby, albeit a fairly unimportant one, I don't see that it's going to be particularly bouncing or full for run of the mill league games. I applaud the idea, and the willingness from the club to try things, but you'd have had a much better atmosphere today if you'd stuck those same fans back in the South Stand.

I don't think there's any great reason to be disheartened after that. If Millen was out long term I'd be concerned, but as long as he's back for the league it'll be fine. Corr was better than I expected. He was asked to do a fair bit with the ball, particularly in the second half, and he didn't do badly at all. A bit more confidence and he'll be absolutely grand. Watson and Dick as expected; their strengths are their strengths and their weaknesses are their weaknesses. They'll be fine for the Championship this year. Having either Matthews or Brown to add to that team will be a huge boost. Stanton is far from terrible, but he's not a natural in that lone holding role and it shows. Our various attacking players all looked good in flashes, a bit more understanding and I'm sure some combination of them will work well most weeks too. Saw more from Jack Hamilton today than I did against East Fife, and I suspect he might start on Tuesday night. It wasn't ideal that for the entire time on the park, our left winger was a right footed striker. Either Connolly or Ross available and that's a much more potent attack in the later stages. I thought that we edged it slightly over the piece, but both teams looked like what they are - unfinished projects. The advantage that we have, I believe, is that a lot of our missing pieces are already at the club, whereas Dunfermline (along with other clubs in the division) are going to have to go shopping for theirs (outside Chris Hamilton and Kane Ritchie-Hosler.) I'd be a lot more upbeat if we'd won 8-0, and that penalty defeat really does affect the mood more than it should, but we're a significant distance ahead of where we were this time last year, both in terms of the numbers we've got and the overall quality.

You think that was over the top? He did the same against Kelty in the Fife Cup!

I've seen enough Keith Watson foot races (1) to know I don't want to see any more.

Dabrowski is going to have to either get much better at coming off his line, or get marginally sexier, or he'll lose his place as my favourite Rovers player.

I think the hierarchy is: 1. Ross Millen 2. Praying for a miracle Ross Millen recovery 3. Some other c**t

We do it ceremonially now to commemorate that wee baby faced vlogger guy whose tear-stained "you burnt your own piiiiitch" as we were turning you over had me laughing for days and days.

A lot of the same problems as last year with Gullan as a very false nine making it very difficult for us to actually engage the Pars backline into doing some proper defending, but I do think the 3-4-3 is playing a big part too. The wing-backs are doing a good job at keeping Mullin and Smith looking over their shoulders and limiting their involvement. And the three means that even when Vaughan and Gullan do get properly forward, there's still a spare man. We needed something special and we got it. We've actually competed reasonably well in the middle without Brown and Matthews, but we do still look a little easy to run through. McCann is giving Scott McGill a torrid time, but McGill continues to not look out of place pretty much anywhere on the park. Looking forward to the second half. It's been a good game.

Gullan offside in the build up? Looked like it from behind the goal. I think you've basically got two pretty perfunctory team here, but with individuals capable of some pretty outrageous stuff. A guid laugh. More please.

Can't believe not having a right back has come back to haunt us. Nobody could've predicted this.

It was the same for at least one of the pre-season games. I'd assume it'll stay that way going forward.

We might need to adopt the Pars' six inch kick-outs. Dabrowski being under no pressure and managing to put himself onto his bad foot... not confidence inspiring. Still a heart-throb though.

That first five minutes was relentless but it looks like we're going to struggle against these wing-backs.

I believe there have been changes at Twitter that make it really difficult to pull a feed across like they used to. I also don't think you can view Twitter without an account any more either, so aye, he'll need one.

The match mascot wearing goalie gloves is a flex I can very much get behind.

Captain Edward Smith, incidentally, the last person to be quite as soaking as I am right now.

Thanks for pointing that out. Just the three years it's going to up there, is it? I'll be driven insane by then.

Like bringing in Captain Edward Smith to commentate on the World Yachting Championships.

I wonder if they've ever given any thought to scheduling all the Second v Third Seed games on the last match day. The way these groups work, it's by far the game most likely to still have stakes on it, if you schedule it that way, no?

Well he plays for you, so... (Not really. I think he probably left on about as good terms as would be possible for a Rovers captain going directly to the Pars (or vice versa) but that's not going to stop folk giving him pelters tomorrow. And knowing Bene, he'll lap it up. He's a Dunfermline player now, and he'll rightly be going hell for leather. I don't see him as a 'refuse to celebrate against my old club' kind of guy.)

Not really. We've got maybe two proper combative players in the squad but they're both injured. I think the most predictable flashpoint, if you want to call it that, is that over five games this season, it's almost inevitable that you'll win a penalty against us, and Bene will either get to bend it right up us, or he'll miss embarrassingly.

Is that more or less than you'd be willing to pay for Willy Akio?

Our manager hasn't morphed into The Riddler, so we're short on things to discuss.

That's the answer it'll prefer, at least.