Kuma Power

A couple from recent times that would have been out of our wage bracket at Raith, but not totally beyond the realms of possibility in the manner of Messi/Haaland: -thought Yosuke Ideguchi never really got a chance at Celtic due to injuries etc. Was hoping he'd be sent out on loan this season to get him up to speed with Scottish football, as he'd have been a good addition to any midfield in the lower half of the Premier or the Championship. As it was he was released and went to Japan; -Andy Irving always looked impressive when Hearts played against us last time they were in the Championship. Seems to be progressing his career in Austria these days and kicking on well there.

…and thank god for that! That post was from back in December before Silverbear got chased away (although apparently it was said at the AGM that they were back in touch trying to restart negotiations)… Hopefully we have more positive Rovers take over news soon.

Really frustrating when you get a player who clearly has something there, but just doesn't have the attitude or mentality to realise it consistently. Manny Duku was another like that for Raith. Started the 2020-21 season like a house on fire, banging in goals all over the place, but around Christmas/New Year time something happened and he just totally disengaged. That was the season there were no fans in the grounds, so you could hear what the players were saying to each other. I mind one game near the end of the season where he didn't chase down a ball, and an exasperated Reghan Tumilty shouted "Manny are you still f**king playing?" - which kind of summed up how many of us felt with him by that point.

Just to reassure any Morton fans out there, we’ve managed a grand total of five goals in the league all season after we’ve gone behind in games, and recovered only four points from league games we’ve been losing. So our past form is definitely in your favour.

Agree with this. Hopefully one of the first things Murray and our new investors do is sit down with Scott McGill and offer him a deal for next season. A guy that can play competently at right-back, left-back and through the midfield is going to be invaluable in a small squad.

Plus you can factor in whatever we paid Frederiksen in wages, as well as the amount we spent to bring him here and anything we might have paid to settle with him to leave. I also seem to remember hearing some throwaway comment on RaithTV about us only being able to afford Isma if we got past Motherwell in the cup (apologies if I misrememembered that though), so our contribution to his wages won't have been cheap either if that was the case. These two together likely won't be six figures, but could easily be another several 10k for very little return on the pitch.

That list becomes even more bleak when you consider that for at least two of the seasons (this season and 20/21) Vaughan has been one of our most prolific scorers, despite playing without a pre-season and getting back up to match sharpness after lengthy periods out injured. (ETA: and/or you can also read it as a testament to Vaughan's quality and determiniation as a player that he's able to start popping in goals so quickly despite being out for so long)

Wonder if Ross is carrying some kind of knock too? He was only on for 10 mins up at Inverness and might have expected to see him earlier when we were trailing if he was fully fit. Agree Spencer is probably on the bench as a last resort as well.

Just to add to what's been said above about the defence, I had a wee look at our results and as far as I can see, nobody has managed fewer clean sheets in the league than us. I make it that we've kept 5 clean sheets, same as Hamilton and Cove. At the same time, we've only managed to recover 4 points (and score 5 goals) from situations in league games where we've gone behind. We've also dropped 18 points (6 draws and 2 defeats) in games where we score first. Granted some of this is inevitably going to happen when you have a small squad, and it isn't entirely on the defence. But for a team that can struggle to score and to get back into games, we're still giving ourselves a lot of extra work to do to get points on the board. Not sure what the answer to this is. If you look at Arbroath or even to a lesser extent ICT, there's something to be said for keeping a consistent back line season after season, even if they aren't individually world-beaters. At the same time though, there's a danger we end up doing the exact same thing next season simply because everyone has done okay on an individual basis. Ideally I'd like to see us bring in a central defender with a wee bit of experience at this level - again, it doesn't need to be a world-beater, just someone who can steady the ship, get us organised at set pieces, and help the likes of Nolan to develop. Appreciate that needs budget which may not be there, though.

If you're thinking of the same guy I am, it's Willis Furtado. Last spotted firing a team to the Norwegian top flight and representing Cape Verde at the African Cup of Nations. Must have been the Valente's that powered him on to greater things.

Plus O'Hara loves a goal against the Rovers. If we sign him, it at least stops him scoring against us for someone else. Not that that strategy worked out particularly well when we tried it with James Keatings, though...

For all we talk about needing a goalscorer - which I don't disagree with - if my calculations are correct we've also dropped 18 points from games in which we've scored first this season. We've won 11 games, but there are a further 8 (6 draws and 2 defeats) where we haven't been able to see the win out. Game management isn't as obviously bad as it was last season, and we're generally a better team to watch, but if we'd been able to get even a couple of those wins over the line then we'd be in much better shape. We've also only managed to come from behind twice in the league this season to take something from a game. Not sure how any of this compares to other teams in the league, to be fair, but on the face of it it seems we still have problems with keeping clean sheets and holding on to a lead.

One of those games that reminds me why we are where we are in the league. We all know how well this Rovers team can play on their day. But there needs to be an absolute step-change in consistency, and in ability to calmly execute a change of plan when things aren't working, if we're going to challenge for anything next season.

Great performance from us today and a good way to bounce back from last weekend. Watching the highlights, it occurs to me that we've developed a bit of a thing for shooting from halfway if we spot the opposition keeper off his line. Frederiksen vs Queen's Park in the Challenge Cup and vs Cove in the league (albeit the latter with disastrous consequences...), Isma vs Rangers, and now Easton today. Don't recall seeing so much of this in previous seasons. I wonder if it's something Murray is training our forwards to look out for and try if the circumstances are right, or if it's just coincidence?

Still early doors yet as we've only really seen him in a couple of games, but if Scott McGill continues to play like he did today and against Cove, I'd definitely be up for us having a chat about him coming back here next season.

Just to build on what others have been saying above, not for the first time this season it seemed yesterday like there was no 'Plan B' that played to the strengths of the players we had on the pitch. We saw last week against Cove how good we can be if everything falls into place, but when things weren't working yesterday we resorted to launching long balls up to Isma (first half) and then moving across the 18-yard line before firing a diagonal ball into the box (second half). It didn't help that with Akio on international duty and Gullan injured, Isma was effectively the only striker - and I use that term very loosely - in the squad. Not saying either of them would have won us the game, but the former in particular might have given us something a bit different as the game wore on. As it was, we ended up putting on more and more wingers and attacking midfielders who were all trying to do the same thing. In a sense it felt as if we looked less likely to score rather than more likely as the minutes ticked by. Granted, things like this happen in football, and you can't legislate for Fulton in the Hamilton goals playing a blinder. But whether it's recruitment, tactics, mentality or a combination of all three, being able to regroup and do things differently is something we need to look at before next season.

It's worth noting that Adidas did something very similar with the Japan 100th Anniversary shirt they released in 2021. On that occasion too, as well as the regular shirt they also made a 'boxed' version which was limited to 2021 pieces and cost a fair bit more (and is worth a fortune on eBay these days if you have one in good condition). Although in fairness that one was a properly nice box made out of prime Japanese wood, rather than what appears to be prime Scottish...cardboard. Adidas then produced a lot more of the regular unboxed ones, and it was still possible to buy them new online until fairly recently at a reasonable price. Not sure whether that was the call of Adidas or the JFA though. So it might be the case that 1500 is the initial run, and they might be producing more later? If it was going to be limited to 1500, you'd think they'd number each one individually or something like that.

Something worth reiterating about yesterday's game that hopefully we can all agree on: how brilliant was it to see a fit and healthy Lewis Vaughan running around for almost the entire game, firing shots in left, right and centre, taking on opponents, scoring in front of the South Stand, and generally looking like he was really enjoying his football? He is a joy to watch when he's on form.

If I remember rightly MacDonald also made a very good save from a powerful Cove shot in the second half (I think at 4-1 or 5-1?) so seemed fine after the interval. Was thinking too - if MacDonald plays in the final next week and we were to win on penalties, then we'd have won three penalty shoot-outs with three different keepers en route to the Challenge Cup. That must be some sort of record if it happens?!

I'd agree with that. In some ways it's reminiscent of the game we lost 5-2 to Queen's Park earlier this season, which looked pretty even in terms of stats. In that game I think almost every shot on the Raith goal went in too.

I seem to remember reading McGill can play at RB too, so I wonder if it will be McGill at RB and Brown in his usual midfield position?

Was just logging on to say exactly that. Was more than a bit worried when I saw Masson would be starting after how the Dundee Challenge Cup game started, but he didn't look out of place and put in a fair shift. Hopefully he can take a bit of confidence out of it if we need to call on him later on in the season.

A wee word for Connor McBride, if it hasn’t been said already here or on the match threads. It’s been a good week for him - took his goal well against Arbroath, literally ran himself to a standstill vs Dundee, and came on and helped us manage out the game with smart attacking play yesterday. Great to see him go from being a warm body of last resort to a very useful squad player in recent weeks. I was one of those questioning why he was here earlier in the season, but glad to be proved wrong. He’s really stepped up when our squad has been down to the bare bones.

It doesn't even offer that - it's one of the wee Click and Collect IKEAs, so you can't even get tanked up on meatballs and lingonberry juice before going out looking for Cove Joking aside, Cove's ground is just in a really unfortunate location. Being spat out of the stadium onto the side of a dual carriageway in an industrial estate after watching us get thumped 3-0 there in the League Cup has to be one of the low points of following the Rovers in recent years.

Agree with this. It definitely helped today having a range of subs we could bring on who, rather than significantly weakening us, actually allowed us to keep on attacking and creating goals. That hasn't been the case for many of our games recently with the various injuries. And as above, Murray deserves credit for making the changes to personnel and formation when he did. Hopefully Gullan and Vaughan being taken off was just a tactical/fatigue/precautionary thing. Thought Akio looked handy when he came on and looking forward to seeing what he can do over the coming games. Wouldn't be surprised to see him starting in the Challenge Cup game midweek.