The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Rovers dude]

Maybe he`ll be better suited to playing up front with a goalscorer like Baird rather than last season when he was with Tade ( who we all know isn`t an out and out striker )

Hopefully he will partner well with baird

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

One thing is for certain. Slating the boy before he's kicked a ball likely won't fill him full of confidence.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing how he'll play off Baird.

Welcome back Jamie son. Get fired in!

[Broken Algorithms]

I know it doesn't stand much in his defence, but looking at the highlights of the Ross County game on final day of the season you can see how gutted Mole is after Rusell scored from the rebound of his shot despite it being a meaningless game. Best of luck to the lad, hopefully the fans will get behind him and Weiry and they can get a few goals among them.

[student124]

Interview with Jimmy Nicholl ahead of todays game : http://totalfitba.com/2010/07/24/nicholl-relishing-opportunity-to-relaunch-career/

[BIGQ FAE KDY]

Just want to say welcome jamie all the best for your time at raith and score a few goals for us.JIMMY NICK is and always will be a raith legend as will mickey cameron and i wish them all the success at cowden except against us. Tough game for raith today but hopefully we get the result that takes us into the next round as we dont normally do well in this cup.

[true_rover]

Quiet you.

We're doomed, and if you can't get on board with that then f**k off to disneyland and let the rest of us wallow as we please.

If you're paying for my flights out, I'll happily go!

[raith_94]

I know it doesn't stand much in his defence, but looking at the highlights of the Ross County game on final day of the season you can see how gutted Mole is after Rusell scored from the rebound of his shot despite it being a meaningless game. Best of luck to the lad, hopefully the fans will get behind him and Weiry and they can get a few goals among them.

We can but hope. . .

[peegee]

We were dire yesterday. We had a full squad to choose from (except Campbell) so I think it's fair to say McG thinks that's his 1st XI for now. It better not be. We had no creativity, no bite up front, and at the back looked like it was the first time they'd played together. Lost count of how many times the ball went from side to side instead of forward and it was so bad that at one point I wondered if Craig Robertson had returned!

Cowden were better organised than us, faster than us, stronger on the ball and more committed in the tackle. McBride needs to get his finger out and Dyer was close to living up to his name. Williamson, as usual in my opinion, was superfluous and Weir, in drifting wide or back to get the ball, was too often posted missing at the front. Tade showed some good form but his usual profligacy when it got interesting. Wilson was simply poor.

Baird looked promising and even the Mole put himself about a bit. Ellis didn't do too badly and controversially I thought Davidson was OK too (it's all about opinions lads), but whichever way you package it;

a) Cowden are not guaranteed to be bottom or even bottom two (although their "striker" Dempster is carrying as much weight as me),

b) we need to get the finger oot.

Look forward to a different line up on Tuesday night, else I'm certain Least Fife will be rubbing their hooves in anticipation....

[craig19831883]

No two ways about it we were awful yesterday. I'd prefer to see mole and baird up top with tade perhaps wide right because all to often williamson is a passenger. Lets not forget we put in an equally poor performance at forthbank against stirling this time last year and we started the league season well so lets wait and see.

[Jose McGlynnho]

I agree lads we were absolutely horrendous yesterday.

For me we didn't look fit enough for one thing and with the first game of the proper season only two weeks away we don't look sharp enough at this moment.

I though the team selection wasn't the best either. For one, why was Walker, who had an excellent season last year and who is the only central midfielder with a bit of drive to get forward to support our strikers sitting on the bench? Will we need to discuss the age old problem of Davo and Simmons just simply not being able to play together. They don't work - Davo is a battler, and he does that well. But if the game, like yesterday is not a battle and we need our midfield to control the game then Davo becomes useless. Simmons and Walker are our best central two in my opinion or if McGlynn insists on playing Davo then Walker can play beside him to compliment him.

Williamson isn't a rightsided midfielder but that's not his fault - He gets played out of position! Tade should always play wide so as to utilise his ability to run at defenders and cause fucking mayhem!

McBride on the other hand had a difficult time. But to be fair to the boy, if any of you have ever played football against an old club you have 11 players trying twice as hard to stop you having a good game and on his home debut he wouldv'e been trying, perhaps overly too hard to impress, which is what I thought he was trying to do yesterday and things just wern't coming for him. But that happens.

Graham Weir. Fans favourite and I have nothing against Weiry, but for fuksake, he genuinely could go a whole season without scoring! I think 2nd division is his level, as as much as he works hard, you need more in the first division to earn a place in a starting 11. I think Baird perhaps partnered with mole up front, or if not maybe Mole to play up top to hold things up, with Baird off of him perhaps slightly wider.

I don't think anyone should panic though because I think our squad is stronger than last season, and if we get our tactics right and most importantly our team selection spot on then will will do fine again this season.

I just hope McGlynn can see what so many of us in the stands can see, because seeing our midlfield constantly over run with Simmons n Davo in there is sooo fucking frustrating! ! !

MON THE ROVERS!

[Wardy]

I agree lads we were absolutely horrendous yesterday.

For me we didn't look fit enough for one thing and with the first game of the proper season only two weeks away we don't look sharp enough at this moment.

I though the team selection wasn't the best either. For one, why was Walker, who had an excellent season last year and who is the only central midfielder with a bit of drive to get forward to support our strikers sitting on the bench? Will we need to discuss the age old problem of Davo and Simmons just simply not being able to play together. They don't work - Davo is a battler, and he does that well. But if the game, like yesterday is not a battle and we need our midfield to control the game then Davo becomes useless. Simmons and Walker are our best central two in my opinion or if McGlynn insists on playing Davo then Walker can play beside him to compliment him.

Williamson isn't a rightsided midfielder but that's not his fault - He gets played out of position! Tade should always play wide so as to utilise his ability to run at defenders and cause fucking mayhem!

McBride on the other hand had a difficult time. But to be fair to the boy, if any of you have ever played football against an old club you have 11 players trying twice as hard to stop you having a good game and on his home debut he wouldv'e been trying, perhaps overly too hard to impress, which is what I thought he was trying to do yesterday and things just wern't coming for him. But that happens.

Graham Weir. Fans favourite and I have nothing against Weiry, but for fuksake, he genuinely could go a whole season without scoring! I think 2nd division is his level, as as much as he works hard, you need more in the first division to earn a place in a starting 11. I think Baird perhaps partnered with mole up front, or if not maybe Mole to play up top to hold things up, with Baird off of him perhaps slightly wider.

I don't think anyone should panic though because I think our squad is stronger than last season, and if we get our tactics right and most importantly our team selection spot on then will will do fine again this season.

I just hope McGlynn can see what so many of us in the stands can see, because seeing our midlfield constantly over run with Simmons n Davo in there is sooo fucking frustrating! ! !

MON THE ROVERS!

What do you mean COULD? He already went the whole of LAST season without scoring.

[renton]

Bit of a late post on the subject, still quite bileous after saturday if truth be told. That was the outlier from last season, the half dozen games where players, coach, manager all got it 100% wrong and we got a pasting, that was saturday. In truth it was near the effort levels put in against Airdrie in the 3-0 gubbing last year, or more worryingly, the non shift put in against Berwick.

Where to start? The central two at the back did ok, although Murray had an uncharacteristically sloppy performance in giving the ball away, and Ellis, for all his height really isn't able to use his strength as well as campbell or Hill, and against Dempster that became an issue. I can only imagine that McG did not take this as a serious game, otherwise why pitch Wilson in from the start after only fifteen minutes against Stenny, where he looked far from ready.

Looking down the left hand side of that team, it's obviously all new and you have a problem here. neither player, Dyer or McBride was able to give the other much support, It's tempting to put more onus on McBride who was clearly being marked out of the game by his ex colleagues, leaving Dyer stranded. My temptation would be to pair one of the two with a more experienced player. Mcbride lacks Smith's defensive work, and Ellis is needed presently to cover that centre half pairing. I'd be inclined to use Ferry out there, he can sit deeper and give Dyer more cover (until the latter is less rusty and more confident), sure he won't get up the pitch as well but he'll hold on to the ball, finds good space and can pick a pass, which giving the other big problem we had on saturday is surely a blessing.

The midfield two just don't work. Neither is inclined to get up the pitch and move beyond the two strikers to pull a defender away from the strikers, thus neither create space for the strikers moving forward (on occasion Davo does to be fair to him). Simmons tends to play within himself to often but is still a better footballer than Davidson. You can see it the way Simmons holds on to the ball a bit longer, trying to drag his marker in close and commit him before releasing the ball. Davo tends (or I find that he does) to release the ball to early and thus no space is created. He also has a bad habit of coming deep, almost into the centre half position to pick the ball from Murray and then give it back to him. He should either stay more advanced to recieve the ball from centre half, or turn and find a ball forward, to often he does neither. So we end up with a flat centre two who don't move enough to create space and consequently we end up trying to play through two banks of four players to get a sniff at goal.

I have no understanding of what Walker has to do to get a game, he is easily the best CM at the club. Indeed in 3 of the 4 midfield positions on saturday I'd prefer him to the present incumbent. He has the fitness to last in the position, can play a pass and crucially will get forward and make space for the strikers. Everyone else can see this, yet he has been used very sparingly in the pre season. Williamson is basically a passenger for large spells of the game and tends to hide a lot.

Up front, I thought we started with our best striker partnership on the bench. Mole will hold the ball up and Baird has a better brain and more pace than Weir. Surely that was Weir's last chance to stake a claim for one of the two starting berths up top. As a striker I feel he's gone backwards a bit since we got promoted and I wonder if his future is as a wide midfielder where when he does go outside he can beat a man. In the case of Tade I'd move him out wide right and he will terrorise most left backs in the division. You can understand McG's prediliction to having him more central as he is athletic enough to cover every blade of grass but he is better starting from wide, and as both he and Weir have a tendency to play that way, one of Baird or Mole, who will stay more central has to play in there.

Clearly, that was unacceptable as a performance. That is not his best eleven but given that much of that is what has played all the friendlies it gives me no great hopes for the games ahead. Rovers really need to get there act together, I understand the temptation is to sit with a deep midfield and play over the top to Tade, but that only works against teams like Dundee who'll come and play a high line, anyone playing a more cautious game will kill us with that eleven we started with.

Edited July 26, 2010 by renton

[L. Brilliant]

You can see it the way Simmons holds on to the ball a bit longer, trying to drag his marker in close and commit him before releasing the ball. Davo tends (or I find that he does) to release the ball to early and thus no space is created.

Agreed - Simmons is also our only player - as far as I've noticed - to see an easy pass to Player A but give it to Player B, who is being closed down a bit quicker but will immediately move it to Player A, who is then in that bit more room than if Simmons had given it straight to him. (There is probably a name for that but uninitiated as I am I don't know it.) I do think he's by far our best footballer when he is motivated, and if we have any ambition to retain the ball he needs to be playing.

[gingapar]

a couple of wee observations from your Cowden Highlights (so yes, severely limited resource material). McGurn looked pretty Ropey there and hopefully we'll learn that piling crosses in on top him looks as good a goal threat as any. And if the Rovers are defending that deep against Cowdenbeath, there is definite cause for concern.

[starks mad]

a couple of wee observations from your Cowden Highlights (so yes, severely limited resource material). McGurn looked pretty Ropey there and hopefully we'll learn that piling crosses in on top him looks as good a goal threat as any. And if the Rovers are defending that deep against Cowdenbeath, there is definite cause for concern.

So we get beat by a team in our own league in the first game, you struggled to beat a team in the bottom league, and have conceded bucket loads of goals all pre season, get your own defence in order before you offer advice to us.

[gingapar]

advice and observations are two different things entirely.

[vikingTON]

advice and observations are two different things entirely.

Not to Raith fans, they seem particularly touchy about those sort of things.

[RRFC2711]

Not to Raith fans, they seem particularly touchy about those sort of things.

f**k off and take a good look at your self.....

[vikingTON]

See!

[ARoverinLeeds]

Not to Raith fans, they seem particularly touchy about those sort of things.

Ok lads, lets write a story. Let me begin. "There once was a virgin troll.........please continue.