Raith Against The Machine

I really think this criticism is only valid if there are viable, visible alternatives. It'd be different if, in the same week we signed Frederiksen, other clubs in the division had brought in strikers who've knocked in ten goals since, but I'm not seeing that. Ayr brought in Akinyemi in the summer, Thistle and Caley had Graham and McKay already. Queen's Park had (and then lost to the Premiership) Simon Murray. Dundee brought Robinson back for a second loan, although I'm sure we couldn't have afforded him, and he's still only scored 9 goals all season. Ian Murray can't conjure up strikers from nowhere. I think we've spent too much time this season trying to work a lone striker system with strikers who don't suit it, but he's brought in and then subsequently disposed of Connell and Frederiksen, alongside trying Gullan, Vaughan, Akio and Goncalves. You can't accuse him of not trying to find strikers, or choosing bad ones over good. He's had to settle for what he can get, because better options literally don't exist.

I can't believe people were being negative about an obviously made up rumour that was obviously made up.

It looks very much like our defence will be our second choice left back, our third choice left back, our second best (of two) central defender and our only defensive midfielder. I don't think anyone cares about this enough to be offering up the above as excuses, more just a statement of fact. To be fair, last time we were at Dens we only had two outfield subs and had to use one of them after about half an hour, but this isn't a semi-final. This is one team with everything to play for, and another just trying to make it to full time without being carted off. The masochist in me was considering going up for this, but I'm not spending £24 to get into a (for us) dead rubber. Once the time lines are out, however, I might put down that amount on Dundee -3.

Me neither. With the caveat that these people need to be capable and justify their wages, there needs to be a professionalisation across the club. You can't run with a board of directors who turn up for a few hours at a time but never meet all at once, and a manager who has to do everything for himself, especially without an academy to provide a natural path. Football has moved on. Ian Murray can't be training, coaching, managing, scouting, negotiating and recruiting by himself. Look at the successful clubs and try to mirror them. Clubs like Livingston and St Mirren who've been where we are and gone on to better things. They're not trying to get promoted out of the Championship by bringing in part-time players, or asking their manager to run the show without adequate support.

I'd definitely be looking to keep Lang. He's still young, he's carried our defence at times this year, and I don't see where we're going to get an upgrade from. I'd also offer Nolan a new deal. He still needs more games, but he's got potential. I'd really want to bring in another central defender who probably knocks Nolan into third choice, but I wouldn't be devastated if we went into next season with the same pairing as this year. I'd let Dick go. He's fine for the Championship, but absolutely no more than that. If we released him today, would a Morton or an Ayr even bother looking to pick him up? I'm not convinced. He'd be better off going to an Airdrie and having a good season in the top half of League One. If we want to push on, we need a left back who can offer more going forward than just sheer endeavour.

Aye, McGlynn certainly could've made better use of the funds available to him (to say the least), but the club hierarchy can't put that on him entirely. He wasn't signing the cheques.

We've got enough players to fill a starting eleven, they're just not particularly good, and certainly not well balanced. Our season is done anyway, who cares?

I agree with your first part, and choosing to go with a squad this size is a decision the club has made, but we also don't have an academy. Beyond a couple of modern apprentices (one of whom is injured), we don't have any 16 or 17 year olds.

I don't think you're alone in that, to be fair. It's an upgrade on the reports we got when he signed, at least, because it sounded like he was going to be actively terrible, but instead he's just been a bit... nothing. Doesn't stand out for any reason, good or bad. You've got to think he'll be playing part-time football next season.

I agree with both the content and the sentiment of what you're saying this evening, but Murray did also sign Connor McBride, who's probably the most egregious 'waste' we've had this season. Connell (probably) and Frederiksen (definitely) were worse players, but we were crying out for a number 9 when he signed both, and they were gambles worth taking. There was nothing on McBride's CV to suggest he'd be an upgrade on our existing options, and he's vying for a place in the one area of the park where we're actually quite well off. Easier said than done, of course, but I fancy we'd be at least a point or two better off if Murray had taken those wages and bolstered pretty much any other area of the park (other than goalkeeper). Ultimately, though, a minor amendment in the grand scheme of things. As you say, he was dealt a bad hand from a squad building perspective. It's a squad of solid Championship players, by and large, but the feeling certainly is that as a whole we're paying over the odds for it. Add to that the sudden losses of Berra and O'Riordan, and Murray's done well to keep things broadly moving in the right direction. Ian Murray has made some decisions I don't personally agree with, and some objectively wrong decisions, both in games and on a more macro level this season, but he's done more than enough to earn another season at the helm. Any manager is going to bring their own baggage, and I'm not seeing anything egregious with Murray that can't be overcome by moving another year away from the decisions of others, learning from past mistakes, and (hopefully) benefiting from better luck.

I had it in my head that you couldn't sign any new players after 31 March, for some reason, but Dundee just brought in a new boy this morning. Might need to get Murray out scouring the Powerleague Monday night to get a couple of bodies in for Dens.

Sounds very much like we'll be heading to Dens with two defenders. Magic.

Yup, totally fine with that, given the injuries we went into the game with. Presumably Millen going off after 52 minutes means he has some sort of issue too, as well as Isma going off late on. One game closer to the end of the season.

Och wheesht.

To a fair extent, I think it's a symptom of having such a small squad. We've got five or six players who play every single minute they're available for. Both Vaughan and Lang have come back from serious injuries and had to hit the ground running, with absolutely no respite. They've both ended up with hamstring injuries. So it's not that it's a recurrence of their original injuries, which have been rehabbed properly, but it does look like there needs to be more general recovery for players who didn't get a full pre-season. It also sounds like Ethan Ross and Jamie Gullan have been trying to play on with the same injuries that ultimately require surgery. Nobody gets a chance to sit out for a couple of weeks to let any niggles settle. Unless boys can't run, they're playing, and it's self-defeating.

Absolutely nothing worth getting upset about, however this ends up. Frankly, even if we'd beaten Hamilton 7-0 on Tuesday night, we'd still have no chance of making the playoffs with these injuries.

It'll be 4-2-3-1. Brown will drop into defence. Stanton will sit with - presumably - McBride. Then you've got a basically natural front four of Easton/Vaughan/Connolly behind Akio. They've only had since Tuesday, he's not going to go mad with innovative formations.

So that's a goalkeeper, two full backs, one centre half, a defensive midfielder, five number 10s and a striker. They'll be reconfigured into a 4-2-3-1, I'm sure, but looking at that anything less than a three goal deficit isn't a terrible outcome for us.

Javier Amaya.

Interesting, but ultimately nothing of any material value at this point. To summarise, he's basically suggesting that rather than there being a buyout on the horizon, the close season will likely see "a team" of new faces joining the board, with more of an emphasis on the skills and experience they can bring rather than monetary investment. On the one hand, it rules out a Queen's Park style cash-laden charge to the top of the league next season, but also hopefully removes the possibility of the club falling into the hands of some mad Walter Mitty character.

Perhaps he's finally found out who signed off all those budgets that led to us losing £150k a year for the last decade.

"Shite for weeks" isn't quite right. You could easily make the argument that our last four games have been our two best and two worst performances of the season. There's a huge disparity in the Rovers on a bad day versus the Rovers on a good day. Probably the biggest in the league, but maybe I'm just too close to see that anywhere else. There'll be changes from last night, there's no doubt about that. Almost certainly Vaughan won't play as the 9, but whether that means Akio or Goncalves comes in, I've no idea. Regardless, we won't create many clear cut chances, but might well score a couple of belters. It's a side that balances on a knife edge most of the time, Schrodinger's Championship side, but I think we need a lot more to go for us to get a good performance, whereas it doesn't take much for things to fall apart. The defence is too brittle too much of the time, and the attack is particularly wasteful. If things click, there's absolutely no reason why we can't win on Saturday, but it's ultimately meaningless.

I'll be going to Scary Bear's birthday party instead.

That's absolutely on the manager. Not for the first time this season, totally threw away any chance to get something from a really narrow game, with plenty time on the clock.

Stupidest red card I've ever seen. What a fucking idiot!