Raith Against The Machine

Maybe a bit of feedback for the Queens' defence here on pressuring the cross... Also, not to go all Facebook Celtic Maw, but I thoroughly enjoyed the passion from Greig Young at full time. He might've only had about 20 minutes of league football but he looks like he's come along way from the wee timid guy who played in pre-season.

McGlynn's post-match he's suggesting Ethan Ross, Liam Dick and Reghan Tumilty all have the same types of symptoms but it sounds more like a sickness bug than Covid, but who knows? He mentions they were in for training on Thursday and Friday but I'm not sure what the testing regime is anymore. Ross Matthews, Dario Zanatta and Brad Spencer all with minor injuries but no prognosis offered, hopefully we'll get them back sooner rather than later, as well as the boys who had to go off today. Apparently Aidan Connolly picked up a dead leg in the first half and didn't sit down at half time for fear of it seizing up. Thoroughly enjoyed McGlynn's summary: "He's only a wee boy...! But he's got a big heart."

You'd have to be exceptionally unlucky to hire an entire squad's worth of players who just don't care, too. There are clearly systemic issues at fault.

The Skelpies.

Also scored more goals, chief.

Must've been frustrating from the other side, I'm sure, but I've no doubt the three players that went off were genuinely injured. Those two second half changes were us putting on a teenage left back who's only other league appearance (that I can remember) was our other Covid hit game this season, and a centre half who came into the midfield for I think his first appearance of the year after spending most of the season on loan at Edinburgh City as his contract runs down. With that in mind, it's a very, very good win for us. Obviously with the run we've been on we needed a win under any circumstances, but I think the team will take a lot from that. Queens only really scraped a couple of half chances and that's a credit to the Rovers defence. That was a proper old school McGlynn performance built on hard work and concentration. If we had a game midweek I think we'd be fucked, but hopefully we'll get some bodies back for next week. It's a shame Caley also had a really decent result today, because that game's a real showdown.

Sean Mackie looks every bit a player who hasn't played a lot of football for a long while. I like the look of him but you could see he's started to flag since just after half time. I'm surprised Queen aren't doing more running at him. Queens aren't really offering much of anything but our out balls have disappeared and we're dropping/being forced deeper and deeper.

Gullan put in a decent shift defensively on that left wing, helping out Mackie quite a bit, so obviously he's injured himself with a sliding tackle right on half time. Great stuff.

I'm not claiming some sort of "Aha, told you so!" gotcha moment, but I'm sure I posted something when Hughes was announced, wondering if Dom Thomas was his kind of player. Bobby Barr absolutely hated Hughes, in large part because he kept lumping him with strict instructions on what he should and shouldn't do, rather than just letting Barr go out and play. Dom Thomas strikes me as one of those "just let me do my thing" players.

Connolly is causing real bother drifting in off that right wing. I think that's three shots on target now from in and around the D. Unfortunately they've all been straight at the keeper, but if he keeps finding that space he'll stick one into the corner eventually.

Josh Todd has about three months left before his long-hair-pulled-back-to-cover-a-bald-spot strategy is completely untenable.

It is Gullan on the left of a 4, but early doors it looks like Connolly is playing further inside than you'd expect, narrowing the midfield. Maybe just trying to tighten everything up a bit after last week.

Gullan feels like the more natural fit though, doesn't he? I suppose Varian can body a full back just as effectively as he can a centre half, but I'm yet to see anything to suggest he can carry the ball as well as you'd normally want a wide player to do, especially in a 4.

4-4-2 with one of the strikers shunted out wide?

Saw a boy in Stirling town centre wearing a Rovers jersey earlier which initially struck me as a good omen, until I clocked that it was the cursed Anelka pale blue away kit. Queens 7-0 Rovers.

Oli Shaw will be playing for Edinburgh City within the next three years.

Someone GIF Bullen giving it Saturday Night Fever on the touchline there, please.

Maybe if we have to play a schoolchild in goal I'll start to feel a bit more optimistic.

Ignoring IWD wouldn't have been a good thing, but it would've been better than what they put out. A handful of people would've noticed and been critical, but the tone-deaf nonsense they put out (and still haven't deleted!) reverberated around Twitter for the day and was seen by tens of thousands of people, all in a negative light. The club's whole public image needs to be rehabilitated. They've got to be actively thinking about these issues and addressing them directly. I do agree that putting out the Susan Simpson announcement a day earlier would've looked a bit cynical, but there are ways in which it could've been done. I still think that for next season there needs to be a partnership with an appropriate charity. And not just a logo on a shirt (although that should happen) but full engagement, with videos of staff attending workshops and events etc. Killie have just done something very similar with the White Ribbon campaign.

Um... Are you okay?

You mean you're choosing to miss out on this kind of hard-hitting and insightful local journalism?

^^^ Doesn't understand racism.

^^^ Old white man.

Interesting to note this bit of the statement too: Football has changed over the years and we as the Board feel that Susan with her HR and Small Business experience is uniquely qualified to help the club adapt. The players and fans of today are very different from the era in which many of the current Directors grew up and to survive the club must change the way we develop and support all of the Raith Rovers family whether that is players, club staff, volunteers, fans or the wider community. For this reason, we have also asked Susan to be the bridge between the Football Club and the Community Foundation. We really appreciate Susan accepting the challenge and know it is the responsibility of the Board to assist her with the implementation of the changes that she will undoubtedly recommend. It's not exactly how I'd have phrased it, it's a bit "I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was, and now what's it seems odd and scary to me!" but it's an actual acknowledgement of the issue that exists in the boardroom and that led to the Goodwillie situation. It's the closest we'll get to an admission of "We're all old white men", which needed to be recognised and rectified for everyone to move forward. This is the first tangible evidence that things will get better again.