The New Raith Rovers Thread

[WSDR 88]

Our away form has been utterly shocking since McKinnon left. 

Although we went on a wild winning streak with Ray Mac, we were absolutely stinking from October to the end of January when results started picking up again. The only real saving grace was the away win at Elgin.

Any voluntary sports psychologists on here, wanting to sort the team out get them working away from home haha? (On a consistent basis)

[Frank conner]

32 minutes ago, North Terrace Gazza said:

 

This is not the "best Ayr side in generations". Defensively we are weak with a goalkeeper (until recently) that was a liability. Our midfield is powderpuff but we have a cracking strike force.

 

Tbf it's not that difficult to call them the best Ayr team in generations as Ayr have been utter shite for a very long time. 

[Michael W]

Prioritisation is also a key measure of how effective the use of available funds is. For example, why bother signing a player on loan from Celtic to simply warm the bench?

[Broken Algorithms]

1 minute ago, Michael W said:

Prioritisation is also a key measure of how effective the use of available funds is. For example, why bother signing a player on loan from Celtic to simply warm the bench?

This. It's from the David Syme/Robbie Crawford type of signing we made last season. 

[Specky Ginger]

On 27/01/2018 at 13:21, WSDR 88 said:

Off topic away from the Simpsons comparisons - I do apologise haha. But does anyone know where you could get these patches? More so the middle one. Much appreciated in advance.

Brown's Bazaar on the high street. 

Edited January 28, 2018 by Specky Ginger

[Enigma]

Clear as the shite you continue to spout.

You’ve certainly got more senior squad players. I guess that’s just more pockets in the changing room for McColl to rifle through.

[callum-ayr]

I don’t buy this whole Ayr have a bigger budget talk. The likes of Vaughan, Spence, Barr, Buchanan, Matthews, Benedictus will be top earners and take a large chunk of the Raith budget. As said, I think Smith has taken the approach where he hoped they’d be scoring the goals that we have been doing. 

[Hank Scorpio]

I highly doubt 21 year old youth product Ross Matthews is one of our top earners. I don’t claim to know the first thing about our wage stricture but I’m fairly confident he won’t be in the top 6.

[HoBNob]

1 hour ago, callum-ayr said:

I don’t buy this whole Ayr have a bigger budget talk. The likes of Vaughan, Spence, Barr, Buchanan, Matthews, Benedictus will be top earners and take a large chunk of the Raith budget. As said, I think Smith has taken the approach where he hoped they’d be scoring the goals that we have been doing. 

Lachlan in the past has had no qualms with posting substantial losses, can't see Sims doing that.  Seems fairly obvious from the outside looking in that you're spending more. 

[WSDR 88]

Brown's Bazaar on the high street. 

That was probably the option 30 year ago ha

[callum-ayr]

8 hours ago, Grant228 said:

Lachlan in the past has had no qualms with posting substantial losses, can't see Sims doing that.  Seems fairly obvious from the outside looking in that you're spending more. 

We have only 5 senior defenders in our squad, down to 4 now Higgins is out till December. That will tell you how tight a budget we are on in terms of it being a FT budget. I’d say both our squads are top heavy with our quality higher earners in the forward areas. 

[renton]

You can point to a number of things, regarding the general shiteness of this Rovers team.

Firstly, we never got over the sale of Ross Callachan. Earlier, Scottydog talked about the lack of physicality in our side. Cal gave us that and more, there isn't a midfielder in this league that could match him for work rate and movement. The fact that he's starting more games than not for a top 6 Premier league team now, tells you how much quality we let walk out the door (couldnae stand in his way, eh?). That's a huge hole to fill in the middle of the park, and it means inevitably, that we tend to play from deeper, as it was Cal who always managed to get the ball to stick further up the pitch, which meant we could start attacking teams from better positions. 

Secondly, and related, is the constant jigging of the team, or more precisely the constant movement of Lewis Vaughan around the park- we've never found a consistent line up that makes the most of what we've got. We started the season with a 4-4-2 that had one winger and Vaughan on the the other side, almost as a third striker. That worked while we had Callachan, but you could see the holes starting to appear. It was also the case that Vaughan, it seemed to me, got in Spence and Buchanan's way to some extent - making the same runs, dropping in to the same spaces... it's no surprise that Spence's good run of form coincided with Vaughan's dropping into a deeper role. The problem is that Vaughan is the best all round player we have by miles, and he's wasted in central midfield. Our late flurry of chances on Saturday came after playing him up through the middle, we need to see more of that. Herron, or Hendry now need to step up to the plate to give us half a chance.

Thirdly, while Spence is at least effective in front of goal, Buchanan hasn't been - and Smith has done nothing to remedy that, either by dropping him to allow someone else a shot, or by finding a shape for the team that allows Buchanan to play effectively. You can see he's a smart footballer with a really nice range of passing, but he's doing so much of that work away from goal. Unless Johnny Court suddenly get's a regular nod, I doubt we'll see the best of him, because I think he needs someone to clear some space for him to play through. 

Fourth, Bobby Barr is a fucking shitehawk of a player. Or you could say he flatters to deceive, which is a nicer way to put it. Any time we rely on him to be the creative force out wide, we come up short, his decision making is crude (for example, that last one on saturday, when he tries to chip a ball over to Court, on a fast running pitch, close to the goal when he had two other, shorter, lateral options to keep the move alive) and he had a tendency to go hide for spells of the game. Our last good run of form was where Barr was largely out and Zanatta was getting a game. The latter, after a slow start was a breath of fresh air. He had the correct attributes for this league, direct, confident and couldn't be bullied (even if he did like a dive) we are to some extent shot shy, and he remedied that, at least one vital league winner was a mis hit trundler, but we need guys to take those opportunities to shoot.  For what it's worth, Furtardo looks like he'll do a job for us.

Fifth, for all his percussion like clanging, Graeme Smith is not the reason we lost out in Coatbridge or down in Stranraer. For me it's more to do with the fact that our team does not react well to being a goal down for any length of time. They lose their shape, and any semblance of tactics, going even more direct than usual to a front line that can't play that way. They panic. Possibly we might get better at that when Benedictus is back, someone who'll motivate and cajole others - loudly. Someone who'll lead by example.

Lastly,  Ayr look like they'll win the league with a bit of margin to spare, presently and will do because in Moffat and Shankland they have a combination of players who not only have a bit of skill, but can consistently do something that you need to have in this division, and that is to knock in the opposition front door. We don't have anything like that, beyond Court who doesn't really get game time. 

[CALDERON]

9 minutes ago, renton said:

You can point to a number of things, regarding the general shiteness of this Rovers team.

Firstly, we never got over the sale of Ross Callachan. Earlier, Scottydog talked about the lack of physicality in our side. Cal gave us that and more, there isn't a midfielder in this league that could match him for work rate and movement. The fact that he's starting more games than not for a top 6 Premier league team now, tells you how much quality we let walk out the door (couldnae stand in his way, eh?). That's a huge hole to fill in the middle of the park, and it means inevitably, that we tend to play from deeper, as it was Cal who always managed to get the ball to stick further up the pitch, which meant we could start attacking teams from better positions. 

Secondly, and related, is the constant jigging of the team, or more precisely the constant movement of Lewis Vaughan around the park- we've never found a consistent line up that makes the most of what we've got. We started the season with a 4-4-2 that had one winger and Vaughan on the the other side, almost as a third striker. That worked while we had Callachan, but you could see the holes starting to appear. It was also the case that Vaughan, it seemed to me, got in Spence and Buchanan's way to some extent - making the same runs, dropping in to the same spaces... it's no surprise that Spence's good run of form coincided with Vaughan's dropping into a deeper role. The problem is that Vaughan is the best all round player we have by miles, and he's wasted in central midfield. Our late flurry of chances on Saturday came after playing him up through the middle, we need to see more of that. Herron, or Hendry now need to step up to the plate to give us half a chance.

Thirdly, while Spence is at least effective in front of goal, Buchanan hasn't been - and Smith has done nothing to remedy that, either by dropping him to allow someone else a shot, or by finding a shape for the team that allows Buchanan to play effectively. You can see he's a smart footballer with a really nice range of passing, but he's doing so much of that work away from goal. Unless Johnny Court suddenly get's a regular nod, I doubt we'll see the best of him, because I think he needs someone to clear some space for him to play through. 

Fourth, Bobby Barr is a fucking shitehawk of a player. Or you could say he flatters to deceive, which is a nicer way to put it. Any time we rely on him to be the creative force out wide, we come up short, his decision making is crude (for example, that last one on saturday, when he tries to chip a ball over to Court, on a fast running pitch, close to the goal when he had two other, shorter, lateral options to keep the move alive) and he had a tendency to go hide for spells of the game. Our last good run of form was where Barr was largely out and Zanatta was getting a game. The latter, after a slow start was a breath of fresh air. He had the correct attributes for this league, direct, confident and couldn't be bullied (even if he did like a dive) we are to some extent shot shy, and he remedied that, at least one vital league winner was a mis hit trundler, but we need guys to take those opportunities to shoot.  For what it's worth, Furtardo looks like he'll do a job for us.

Fifth, for all his percussion like clanging, Graeme Smith is not the reason we lost out in Coatbridge or down in Stranraer. For me it's more to do with the fact that our team does not react well to being a goal down for any length of time. They lose their shape, and any semblance of tactics, going even more direct than usual to a front line that can't play that way. They panic. Possibly we might get better at that when Benedictus is back, someone who'll motivate and cajole others - loudly. Someone who'll lead by example.

Lastly,  Ayr look like they'll win the league with a bit of margin to spare, presently and will do because in Moffat and Shankland they have a combination of players who not only have a bit of skill, but can consistently do something that you need to have in this division, and that is to knock in the opposition front door. We don't have anything like that, beyond Court who doesn't really get game time. 

All correct, but what bothers me is that we only really see this away from Starks Park.

We are unbeaten in the league at home since Gary Locke was sacked a year ago, and only not won 4 of those games (I think). In that time we have been relegated and aren't top of this league. Mental.

[WSDR 88]

All correct, but what bothers me is that we only really see this away from Starks Park.
We are unbeaten in the league at home since Gary Locke was sacked a year ago, and only not won 4 of those games (I think). In that time we have been relegated and aren't top of this league. Mental.

Since G.Locke got the sack (1-0 defeat Home to Morton). We’ve played 22 games (at home), 17 wins, 4 draws and 1 defeat (League cup against Dundee).

I don’t even want to look at the Away stats... [emoji90]

[batross07]

Since G.Locke got the sack (1-0 defeat Home to Morton). We’ve played 22 games (at home), 17 wins, 4 draws and 1 defeat (League cup against Dundee).

I don’t even want to look at the Away stats... [emoji90]

That’s a remarkable achievement for a team that went on to get relegated and are currently, not top of the league! Surely BS has to be looking at this and making some changes to try and remedy this!

I seem to recall a good few seasons ago most of our wins in the league used to come away from home! And we couldn’t seem to win at starks!

[placidcasual]

Fifers reduced to playing the "You've spent outwith your means. It's no fair!" card.

Absolutely delicious [emoji23] GIRFUY tinkers.

[Raithie]

7 minutes ago, placidcasual said:

Fifers reduced to playing the "You've spent outwith your means. It's no fair!" card.

Absolutely delicious GIRFUY tinkers.

It was one fan who said that...

[CALDERON]

10 minutes ago, placidcasual said:

Fifers reduced to playing the "You've spent outwith your means. It's no fair!" card.

Absolutely delicious GIRFUY tinkers.

GIRUY? One point behind with a game in hand and 3 months to go?

 

[placidcasual]

Giruy at the tiny tears brigade cracking out the shite excuses. I've no idea whether we'll win the league or not, I'd say it's 50/50.

[Raithie]

22 minutes ago, placidcasual said:

cracking out the shite excuses. 

McCall taught us well.