The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Rovers_Lad]

Aye lets forget his save in the first half to keep it 0-0

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, buchan30 said:

Wasn’t down, due to work, but why was Fordyce sitting in the railway stand on his own? Is it to get a different angle on what is going on with him having had the assistants manager job last season at Airdrie? 

3 hours ago, pub car king said:

I'd imagine so, Hanlon did the same thing at the Partick match.

As I recall, that's what Potter was doing before IM got canned. It's obviously something they want a knowledgeable person over there for, probably either charting or reporting to Potter.

Not mentioned, but that's Matthews halfway to the traditional Iain Davidson pre-Christmas holiday...it was his third League Yellow today. 

[Pride of Fife]

1 hour ago, Rovers_Lad said:

Aye lets forget his save in the first half to keep it 0-0

Goalkeepers’ train all week (and are paid) to keep the ball out of the net, as Roy Keane would say..”it’s their job’  One or two good saves shouldn’t cancel out howlers which are totally avoidable. We all know his kicking is questionable at times(seriously cost us down at Ayr too) That goal today, he could probably have trapped it with his foot and picked it up! He makes amazing instinctual stops but as soon as he has half a second to think it’s although he wants to make a save ‘for the camera’ which if true, needs sorted, probably in his own head!

Last season he make several glaring mistakes costing us goals, home to Ayr in the 4-4, the 3-2 loss at Gayfield spring to mind but we also conceded goals from corners that were a result of a Dabroski ‘save’ which most times he could be holding, not getting two hands to ball just to push it behind!

This post isn’t meant to be an attack on the guy who 95% of the time is the best keeper in the division, it’s pointing out that other ‘5%’ that needs addressed if he is going to go from good goalkeeper to amazing goalkeeper. He is still early in his career, let’s hope he sorts it out…

[Wardy]

Over the piece, defensively we were fine, however in terms of facts, both Murray and Dick were yellow carded for stupid clumsy challenges and Dabrowski with a clanger which cost us the game.

 

Agree with all that Hanlon strolled it though. Didn’t give May a sniff.  

Definitely an opportunity missed, even with the players we have out injured. 
 

Edited to add, after seeing Martindale’s interview, that was Livi’s first away win in a year. The Rovers are always there to help others out.

Edited September 1 by Wardy

[CountryBumpkin]

58 minutes ago, Wardy said:

Over the piece, defensively we were fine, however in terms of facts, both Murray and Dick were yellow carded for stupid clumsy challenges and Dabrowski with a clanger which cost us the game.

 

Agree with all that Hanlon strolled it though. Didn’t give May a sniff.  

Definitely an opportunity missed, even with the players we have out injured. 
 

Edited to add, after seeing Martindale’s interview, that was Livi’s first away win in a year. The Rovers are always there to help others out.

Did he come up with any excuses as to why that was the first away win in a year? The Martindale way is to blame everything on anyone or thing but himself.

Looking at the highlights, I think we did well throughout given the makeshift side we put together. The back 3 worked well until Murray picked up his obligatory injury, which it seems he's been playing with for weeks. Gibson did well at right wing back after an early scare where Shinnie got in before him at the back post and Kev pulled off an excellent stop. Matthews and Mullin were very good in the middle of the park together, with Easton ahead of them. I don't think we'd be able to play in the same way if Matthews and Mullin were replaced by Brown and Byrne, nowhere near the same energy or mobility. Smith and Jamieson worked tirelessly for the majority of the game, Smith throwing away the best chance when Mullin put him through with a poor touch that let McGowan get back to the ball. 

e: What was the point in getting wide and putting high crosses into the box when we had Smith and Jamieson in there. Wild assumption that either of them were going to win a header against those giants at the back for Livi. Smith to his credit got a speculative flick onto one of them but that was it. Crosses needed to be low and across the 6 yard box to cause problems.

The frustrating thing with Smith is the inconsistency he has in getting a connection on the ball, i've seen him fresh-air a kick more times than I want to remember and he scuffs shots more than he gets proper accuracy on them, if he could work on that, he'd be much more threatening in forward areas.

The imbalance of the squad needs addressing, we need another defender in, someone capable of playing right side of a back 2 and 3 or right back to cover, a striker for obvious reasons and we need a midfielder that can pick out the difficult passes to break teams open.

Edited September 1 by CountryBumpkin

[Raithfan2711]

Totally agree on Smith. The amount of times he fails to control the ball in dangerous areas is why I don’t think he gets anywhere near a start if everyone is fit. It’s great having someone with work rate and putting themselves about, but that only gets you so far. Vaughan did more up top in a third of game that Smith has in the League this season. 

Murray’s booking yesterday was one where he took one for the team. He clearly had a decision to make and it was either foul or risk someone who had momentum and space getting in.

Edited September 1 by Raithfan2711

[Wardy]

10 minutes ago, CountryBumpkin said:

Did he come up with any excuses as to why that was the first away win in a year? The Martindale way is to blame everything on anyone or thing but himself.

Looking at the highlights, I think we did well throughout given the makeshift side we put together. The back 3 worked well until Murray picked up his obligatory injury, which it seems he's been playing with for weeks. Gibson did well at right wing back after an early scare where Shinnie got in before him at the back post and Kev pulled off an excellent stop. Matthews and Mullin were very good in the middle of the park together, with Easton ahead of them. I don't think we'd be able to play in the same way if Matthews and Mullin were replaced by Brown and Byrne, nowhere near the same energy or mobility. Smith and Jamieson worked tirelessly for the majority of the game, Smith throwing away the best chance when Mullin put him through with a poor touch that let McGowan get back to the ball. 

e: What was the point in getting wide and putting high crosses into the box when we had Smith and Jamieson in there. Wild assumption that either of them were going to win a header against those giants at the back for Livi. Smith to his credit got a speculative flick onto one of them but that was it. Crosses needed to be low and across the 6 yard box to cause problems.

The frustrating thing with Smith is the inconsistency he has in getting a connection on the ball, i've seen him fresh-air a kick more times than I want to remember and he scuffs shots more than he gets proper accuracy on them, if he could work on that, he'd be much more threatening in forward areas.

The imbalance of the squad needs addressing, we need another defender in, someone capable of playing right side of a back 2 and 3 or right back to cover, a striker for obvious reasons and we need a midfielder that can pick out the difficult passes to break teams open.

Aw I didn’t really listen to his rambling but it came from the guy doing the interview. 
 

Smith for me just doesn’t look like he knows what he’s going to do when he gets the ball. Needs to be more instinctive and as others have said, doesn’t get into the starting 11 when everyone is fit.

[Diamonds are Forever]

43 minutes ago, Wardy said:

Aw I didn’t really listen to his rambling but it came from the guy doing the interview. 
 

Smith for me just doesn’t look like he knows what he’s going to do when he gets the ball. Needs to be more instinctive and as others have said, doesn’t get into the starting 11 when everyone is fit.

 

 

I always felt Smith was far too one dimensional. Basically his only move was starting out on the left, driving forward, cutting inside and shooting. To be fair this had it's moments like his hat-trick against Montrose and goal in play-off final against Hamilton, but over the piece was too predictable. In his last season with us he played on a front 3 with Gallagher and McGill, he was hugely outscored and outperformed by both of them. I remember at the time thinking he maybe needed a new challenge to force him to develop his game, but really I'm not totally sure he has the ability to do so. He's a player that you're never disappointed to see start because you know he'll put in a shift and at worst will be a pain to the opposition, but there's no way he's the level required to challenge at the top end of the Championship - certainly as the main striker, perhaps as a foil for someone better.

[CALDERON]

1 hour ago, CountryBumpkin said:

 

The imbalance of the squad needs addressing

This is my concern more than the manager situation.  This squad as it stands was never going to mount another title challenge,  as there simply isn't enough goals in it.

We've significantly improved the defence, but that still leaves games like yesterday as a real possibility.  There's always the chance of getting caught by a sucker punch at the end.

I do think there are clear signs that Dabrowski has worked on things, but he's been at fault or partly at fault for 2 goals in 2 games.  My main concern there is that we've invested significantly in experience in defence, yet we have a goalkeeper who lacks that.  I'm fairly certain there's potentially an excellent goalkeeper there in time, but we are still seeing too much mistakes.  

Any thoughts of the title have gone, largely due to the fact we don't have the best squad in the league and are already miles off the pace.  Given the lack of any obviously awful side, our worrying lack of goals and our continued awful injury record - I'd be happy with 4th place to be honest.  Alarm bells have been ringing for months, and I think a change in manager only solves part of the issue.

[Been going too long]

9 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

This is my concern more than the manager situation.  This squad as it stands was never going to mount another title challenge,  as there simply isn't enough goals in it.

We've significantly improved the defence, but that still leaves games like yesterday as a real possibility.  There's always the chance of getting caught by a sucker punch at the end.

I do think there are clear signs that Dabrowski has worked on things, but he's been at fault or partly at fault for 2 goals in 2 games.  My main concern there is that we've invested significantly in experience in defence, yet we have a goalkeeper who lacks that.  I'm fairly certain there's potentially an excellent goalkeeper there in time, but we are still seeing too much mistakes.  

Any thoughts of the title have gone, largely due to the fact we don't have the best squad in the league and are already miles off the pace.  Given the lack of any obviously awful side, our worrying lack of goals and our continued awful injury record - I'd be happy with 4th place to be honest.  Alarm bells have been ringing for months, and I think a change in manager only solves part of the issue.

Agree to a point but surely getting a manager in and let him get a couple of players in of his choosing and look at the squad with fresh eyes is equally ( more imo) important 

[MICMAC]

1. Stop the fk speculating about Stanton

2. Kev tries to please the crowd too much. Tried to punch that one away yesterday, if he'd opened his hands he probably saves it.

[SirJimmyofNic]

More important than bringing in a new manager or indeed new players, is to get to the bottom of what's causing all these injuries especially to key players, we engaged Gregor Pirie in June but the problem was there long before he started, in fact Mcglynn had the same problems with injuries to players, two different managers, two different teams yet the same thing is happening    

Edited September 1 by SirJimmyofNic

[SerieA]

Scott Agnew new manager 

[Been going too long]

11 minutes ago, SerieA said:

Scott Agnew new manager 

Not even funny 

[DaveT]

Lot of negativity here, it's not easy I understand that but we are only 4 games in.

The season has a long way to go, last year Dundee United didn't have the best of starts but they went on to win the league.

We have issues we need dealt with, can't do much about injuries or suspensions so what can we do till these things are sorted.

No doubt a new manager might help, we will have to wait and see, I've been at all the games played home and away and can see improvement.

We are not getting hammered by teams so keep the heed and give it time folks it's the Rovers we're supporting.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Remember we were toiling early season in 94/95 and went on to win the league.

It's still in our own hands but we need to start scoring sharpish, 1 goal in 4 games and a penalty at that just simply isn't good enough.

[SerieA]

Fresh ideas needed.
Difficult with the current injury situation but really isn’t much of a difference in the pattern of the games.Slight difference yesterday with change of formation and at home against a bog standard championship team.

Good to have Vaughan back though.Far better team when he is in it.

[DaveT]

16 minutes ago, SerieA said:

Fresh ideas needed.
Difficult with the current injury situation but really isn’t much of a difference in the pattern of the games.Slight difference yesterday with change of formation and at home against a bog standard championship team.

Good to have Vaughan back though.Far better team when he is in it.

Big difference in performance from start of season, can't see how you think nothing has changed.

As far as results nothing has changed but we are playing better.

We need to start scoring goals, but hopefully that will happen as we get more players back.

Maybe a chance if we can be lucky enough to find a hidden gem that can score goals like every other club is looking for things will improve.

Keep the faith and we will get there, only 4 games played.

[grumswall]

First game iv been to in the league yesterday and I thought we did ok. If either team deserved to win it, it was probably us. In saying that, I think we could still be playing and not have scored. For whatever reason we look absolutely toothless going forward. Which when you have people like mullin, Gibson, Stevenson etc putting in decent balls into the box isn't great. What we're crying out for is Hamilton in there but when we have him playing, we inevitably just go long ball for him to flick on to no one so it defeats the purpose. 

Dabrowski made a good save in the first half but as the ball broke I never doubted he would make it, he's a big guy and it isn't easy to get passed him in that situation. His kicking was pretty woeful yesterday and I did see Murray and Hanlon speaking with him about it during the game. Hanlon is a cut above and if we keep him fit, we should be alot more solid this season. Dick had a good game aswell and probably hit his shot "too well" for it to actually go in. Haven't watched the highlights but at the time muzzas tackle on the edge of the box seemed pointless as may? Was heading away from goal. I thought our players did well to shit fest the situation though and thankfully we didn't concede. First half especially I thought Matthews did good dropping deeper to link play and while mullin was full of running and did ok, we need a natural cm in there instead. Iv been impressed with Gibson the two times iv seen him play and I think he will develop well. He maybe needs to add a little more skill to be able to go by his man at times, but he is a good prospect for us and has a good delivery. I didn't think Jamieson offered us anything that smith doesn't yesterday although he does have a good first touch and a bit of pace about him. Smith worked his arse off and they both did well challenging up against the 7 foot Nottingham who was a bomscare early on. 

In saying all that, we definitely lack direction in how we are attacking teams. Swinging balls in the box is fine if you have a striker that can really go and attack them, but having Jamieson, Smith and lately vaughan in there isn't going to weild success when you're putting in deep crosses. I didn't see anything yesterday to suggest Murray was actually the problem, if there even was one, so I'm still edging towards sacking him being a bad decision. 

We do have a big injury list but the players we have available should be good enough to start winning games. I think the switch to a back 3 based on yesterday could bear fruit if we have the midfield and strikers to take advantage of having the extra cover at the back. 

It's pretty massive for the board to get this appointment right especially as we are now 4 games in to the season and have won 1 game, only scoring 1 penalty. I do think we have the squad to go and finish too 4 from here but it does depend on who's coming to manage them and if they can get them ticking. 

[Oliver Khan]

IM talked last season after the 4-3 against Patrick and 4-4 against Ayr, where he said we need to stop conceding goals and get tighter at the back. Whether that came from him, or he was under pressure from the board, I have no idea. 
What I do know is that it worked, in as much as we didn’t concede as many goals in games, but it also coincided with us losing a cutting edge, and we just couldn’t score after that. 
I still maintain that if you take out the start of ‘24, where we lost 5 in a row, 3 league games and 2 in the cup, we had a decent 2nd half to the season. Maybe not in terms of performances, but results were decent. 

It’s funny that everyone was talking about us being better than the rest but now there are a few comments filtering through that we don’t have the strongest squad in the league and the title might not be realistic.

It is still realistic and is possible because we are as good as the rest, when we have a fit squad, but we are not, and never were any better. Our problem is the injuries we suffer. It’s too early to say we’re out of it, but it all depends on the new manager. 

As far as I’m concerned, Euan Murray hasn’t been fit since he signed, but we’ve had so many other injuries that he has to play with a niggle every week just to keep us afloat. The defence has been strengthened, and Matthews might do a job at right back but we need a proper right back to bring balance to the team. We need CM’s playing in CM, and we need some fit strikers! 
Jack Hamilton doesn’t score too many goals, but I don’t mind that if he’s contributing to the team scoring goals.

I like Brown, Byrne and Matthews, but they all play a similar role for me. I’m not a fan of fitting people in because you don’t want to leave them out, but at the minute, we’re just trying to get 11 players on the park, which was also the case for a fair chunk of last season!

I’m guessing Sam Stanton’s injured as well, since he hasn’t been playing?