Raith Against The Machine

There's definitely a lot of sand kicking up in places. I'm no groundsman but that seems wild for this stage of the season. I'm not convinced we have been better since half time, incidentally. We're doing about the same middle-to-front with the ball, but we look more susceptible on the break. I suspect a goal will eventually come, sooner or later the nice wee passing and moving of Connolly/Easton/Zanatta will create a break in the box, but it's been much like Saturday in that regard. Just plugging away until the sheer number of chances means one goes in eventually.

Also, Liam Dick absolutely rinsed his man with a tremendous nutmeg, and I wondered if we might be witnessing a new dawn, but then the ball broke and the same man nutmegged him back before clearing the ball. C'est la vie.

Well if it's any consolation, you've not missed much. We've maybe had slightly more of the ball slightly further forward than we did on Saturday, but we've not created much. The best chance was Connolly going through on a counter attack, but the keeper tipped it wide. MacDonald had a make a decent save too, although the striker really shouldn't have given him a chance. Sam Stanton, notably, looks to be trying to drive forward a fair bit more. He's had a couple of long range efforts, too.

If you've got the email from when you bought your season ticket, the barcode on the attachment has the number you need to log in.

Stanton continues to frustrate a wee bit, doesn't he? He seems to be entirely committed to keeping things ticking over, which he does admirably, but it's not really enough. Spencer does the same thing, but he can also then go and make things happen too, when the occasion calls for it. Stanton's neat and tidy, but I don't feel like we get a lot of potential game-changing moments from him, creatively or defensively.

Chucking all your attacking players on and finishing with just one defender is admirable, in a sense, but I can't help feel some semblance of structure might've helped in those last few minutes.

Deary me. I try to stick up for Dario but he really doesn't help himself sometimes.

The referee at Stark's is having a wild afternoon.

Yep Zanatta a passenger. Doesn't work hard enough. Never did. I think he's very effective, but only in a fairly narrow scope. Stick him out wide where he can isolate his opponent, and give him support with either a striker who's peeling off or an overlapping fullback. He's never going to hit any kind of heights as a second striker, especially not one who you want doing a lot of work without the ball.

Zanatta hasn't been an improvement on Kieran Mitchell in this system. Gullan looks isolated again, and the press has disappeared.

What a miss! If a defender managed to get the ball up and over the bar from where Dale Carrick just did, you'd be talking about it for months.

Only in his first spell. His second spell was all possession based, passing stuff. He worked with Brendan Rodgers at Celtic inbetween and underwent a total transformation in his approach.

I can't divulge how or why I know this, but Ben Williamson has a Jason Cummings-style Joker tattoo that takes up more or less the whole of his thigh, so his judgement is certainly in question.

If your other players can get you two up, Kennedy will help make it four or five. Just don't expect much from him in tougher games.

Squad's too big min, at least give the other teams half a chance.

Dylan Easton's first goal was allowed to stand m9

Full back wearing number four. League One here we come.

I was only half listening so I maybe picked it up wrongly, but in the second part of his interview, did Murray not suggest that he wants two strikers on the park because the high press is too ineffective with only one? Given our paucity in that area, you'd have to assume (tonight aside) that he intends to use Dario as a forward, at least until further reinforcements arrive.

That's the injury update back up, and it looks like the timeframe for Tam Lang has been altered to say when he'll be back running rather than giving any kind of date for getting back to training or playing.

Bobby Ford was 30 years old when that photo was taken.

Interview with Ian Murray starts at 22m45s for anyone who's not keen on the full two hour show.

I don't think it's quite the "running around and kicking folk" you're thinking of. What you want is a Scott Brown style destroyer who knows when to take a yellow and kill an attack. Ben Williamson is more of a loose cannon than that, kind of guy who gets booked two minutes into a game for halfing a full back on the touchline or gets sent off for diving in after a bad touch. That's not to say he won't evolve into a more refined player, but he's not there yet on the evidence of his spells with Rovers (where he mostly played further forward in midfield) and Livingston. I don't think that's too bad a comparison, to be fair. He's in a similar "all-action" mould as Callachan, probably with a better technical grounding, but not as athletic or dynamic.

You wouldn't want to find yourself in a Fives cage up against Ethan Ross and Dylan Easton, eh?

I would assume so. Just the four goalies. Maybe Murray does have a point about the squad being too big... Four trialists, one of whom is Kareem Isiaka who played against Kelty.