Raith Against The Machine

He's been everywhere, man.

Big fan of his long throws. Nothing quite like bringing in a guy who's six foot eight and watching him trebuchet the ball for Aidan Connolly to win in the air. Solely because there are some fans at some of those games, it's a more impressive showreel than Blaise Riley-Snow's. I'm ready to be hurt again.

In the absence of Bet365's markets, I'd have given you very long odds on the Rovers being the next team to score once it went to 2-2. A really well dug out result, and one that didn't look particularly likely at times, probably best summed up by Jamie MacDonald's huge "Thank f**k!" at full-time. As I said before the game, this Rovers team doesn't lack quality. There's bags of it in the midfield. But we've got two main weaknesses; a lack of a proper number 9 up front, and a fragility that runs (to varying degrees) across the back four. Today, Kyle Connell did by far the best impression of a leading striker that we've seen this season, but even at that he was basically uninvolved between our second and third goals. And the defenders individually all did good things at various points, but as a unit they're just not a great Championship defence (that, of course, being something we aspire to have rather than something we have a right to expect), and you can see that in the goals we conceded, scrapping around in our own six yard box. They'll continue to improve as they get used to one another, but I'm not sure any of the other three are ever going to reach O'Riordan's level. I was quite disappointed with Ayr. Maybe that's a bit churlish when they were unlucky to not get at least a point, but it felt a bit like Akinyemi's teammates were waiting for him to do it all himself. And to be fair, at times it looked like he might. I feel a bit like a broken record here, because I feel like I've said it whenever I've seen a remotely competent striker this season, but put Akinyemi in this Rovers side and he'd do some amount of damage. Overall, really pleased that the Rovers managed to get the win today. Their application has never been in doubt, and their hard work deserves proper rewards. Until we bring in a proper striker, we'll continue to score fewer goals than our midfield play deserves, but Kyle Connell has given some room for optimism that we might not be completely abject until Big John's work permit arrives.

No way we're holding out for 5+ minutes

We're on the ropes. Kyle Connell incredibly fortunate not to be sent off, throwing the ball away when he's already been booked. I'd have sent him off.

I'm not entirely sure he meant it, but that was a brilliant header from McKenzie at the back post, putting it away from goal instead of trying to squeeze it in. This is what I was talking about before the game, though. We make it too difficult for ourselves to score and we concede too easily. You can get away with being goalshy, and you can get away with being shaky at the back, but you'll very rarely get away with both.

These two have now swapped wings, for what it's worth. The Rovers have reverted to knocking the ball about around the edge of the box without actually entering it, as predicted pre-match.

It certainly looks like it. Wide left, Mullin wide right.

Ayr haven't really made any attempt to get down the sides, which is undoubtedly where we're weakest, and Nolan/O'Riordan have marshalled Akinyemi well enough. You can see how dangerous he is, though, he's definitely got what it takes to succeed at this level. The big lads will do well to keep him quiet for the rest of the afternoon, so it's good to have the two goal cushion. I certainly didn't see us scoring twice before half time, but we've had a couple of other chances besides. Connell's fallen out of the game a little but Ayr aren't coping particularly well with the running from Ross, Connolly and Easton. Great composure and finishing for both goals, which is the most pleasing aspect. That's just now what I expected from this Rovers side. It looks like they've done a power of work in the break, some real improvements. Scott Brown, in particular, is doing much better taking the ball from the defence and getting it forward. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better.

Akinyemi's the real deal.

Maybe someone had a fiver on Connell to score first and it's been flagged as suspicious.

Early days, obviously, but Connell is taking up much better "number 9" positions than anyone at any point in a Rovers jersey this season. As well as the goal, he's been in the right place for a couple of crosses. Encouraging.

Kyle Connell mugging off Frankie Musonda to score the opener was not on my bingo card.

This is definitely true. Ross has been playing within himself a bit, but Easton has been excellent. Unfortunately, our most likely route to goal at the moment relies on Easton both creating chances and then finishing them too. It's a huge task, albeit one he's accomplished a few times already.

No Spencer, and Connell running about on his own up front. Bluergh.

Regrettably, I'm going to have to join in with the pessimism. We just don't have a focal point for the attack. If Brad Spencer is fit enough to start, we'll have a much better balance through the middle of the park, but I expect we'll see a lot of fruitless passing around the edges of the box and very little penetration. We've got good technical players so I'm sure we'll manage to grind out a chance or two over the course of the game, but I heavily suspect we'll see a repeat of the recent pattern where we squander what few chances that we can scrounge, but we give them up too easily at the other end. If we can get through the game without massive individual defensive errors (Nolan at Thistle, Millen versus ICT) then we might pick up points, this isn't a catastrophically bad Rovers side, but it is missing key components that stack the odds against us. Ayr only need to be good to win. We'll need to be good and lucky.

These two posts dovetail nicely. Look at the strikers that have arrived into the division this summer. There's been about three of them, and one is that duff trialist we had who has ended up at Arbroath two months later down the line. It's easy to say "Sign a striker!" but there simply aren't many. Morton opted not to gamble on a work permit previously and probably regret it now, we presumably pursued another option that didn't come through and have had to go offshore to find someone now. There's been this weird paradoxical chat about whether or not the money is there, but it's almost not even relevant. The players aren't there. In a normal summer, you'd look at the clubs around us, look at the strikers they've signed and go "Why couldn't we get him? Were we outbid? Were we not quick enough?" but there aren't really any names that jump out. Maybe Anton Dowds who went to Thistle, but that was arranged months ago, well before McGlynn left. Other than that, you've got Akinyemi at Ayr who's the obvious standout in the division but we know that non-league English market is a total gamble. He looks brilliant now, but nobody could say that the day he arrived. Steven Boyd? Jai Quitongo? Both picked out of League One, neither particularly good.

I don't agree with this at all. He didn't look as comfortable as his first season but he was also being shunted around into different positions. Fitness might've been an issue at the beginning when he was coming back from his injury, but I didn't see anything to suggest laziness or a bad attitude.

Where was his mother born?

If only there were other clubs in a similar position to ours, nine of them would be a good sample size, to get a feel for how easy or difficult it is to sign a striker at the moment.

Whilst on an individual level I agree with you (well, your second sentence), a minute's silence is inviting trouble. There's clearly a significant element of the public at large that isn't buying all this reverence for the royal family, and it'd be asking for trouble to attempt a minute's silence in as emotive an environment as a football ground. For what it's worth, I think there's a world of difference between showing a minute of respect for a dead woman, and playing/singing a song extolling the virtues of a living, unelected head of state. I can't see a situation where I'd ever disrupt a minute's silence, but I'd have serious issues with God Save The King. It's a situation the Rovers don't need to get themselves involved with.

Of course not, Officer.

Well obviously not, because one's a conscious decision and the other is weather.

Best just never let Celtic play ever again, then.

Yeah I actually know Dick Campbell and actually know he was crying and saluting his television. Thanks for asking.