The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Wardy]

After taking out every teams results against, The Rangers, Hearts and Hibernian the table is as follows.

1.Queen of the South

2. Raith Rovers

3. Falkirk

4. Livingston

5. Dumbarton

6. Cowdenbeath

7. Alloa.

Now I know it doesn't really mean much, but it just goes to show that our results against all of these teams aren't that bad. These are the teams we have to compete against, realistically over the course of the season. Definitely food for thought. Performances on the pitch still have to improve though, and that's entirely down to the management team.

[roverthemoon]

All ifs and buts but if we'd kicked on against Queen of the South and won that Friday night game we'd be top of that mini-table and sitting third in the actual table. Behind only Rangers and Hearts. We're not exactly playing fantasy football right enough but I still don't get the whole Armageddon thing

[Broken Algorithms]

Fair play to the boy who was trying to encourage us to do a pre-game Mexican wave. Bearing in mind I looked across when the team came out, and only about half the crowd could be arsed standing up and clapping, he was probably always pissing in the wind with his request.

I'm not sure what was more cringeworthy. That or the line-up and handshakes in front of the BBC Alba cameras before the QotS game.

[Scary Bear]

I thought I must have misheard the guy when he was on about a Mexican Wave. Are there enough fans at Starks to do a Mexican Wave? Don't you need 4 sides to your stadium to make a wave work? You've got to admire him for trying.

[Rover the Moon]

Regarding the 'can the club afford not to sack Murray?' argument, I find it hard to believe that the Kirkcaldy public would really return in their droves to such an extent that it would essentially pay for the management team's departure.

Presumably it would cost the best part of £90,000-£100,000 to pay up 18+ months of Murray and Ellis' salary. Are there really huge numbers of Rovers fans not turning up just now because of Grant Murray's management? There's little evidence to support this as our crowds have been around the 1500 mark for years now. I find it hard to believe there would suddenly be 2000 at Stark's every week just because Murray's away and, say, Danny Lennon's in. It doesn't add up.l

[liam_barnett]

I thought I must have misheard the guy when he was on about a Mexican Wave. Are there enough fans at Starks to do a Mexican Wave? Don't you need 4 sides to your stadium to make a wave work? You've got to admire him for trying.

I did think it would seem odd if it had worked with having nobody on the railway side.

[mojito]

I was surprised to read that Dunfermline were still pulling in 3300 yesterday against Morton.

From a population point of view there can't be that much in it between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy.

To be honest I'm not sure whats putting me off more the poor football or 90 minutes of folk pure seething, there is of course the argument that the two are related however given how poor the whole experience is i'm surprised 1500 people still go.

[honeyboy edwards]

I was surprised to read that Dunfermline were still pulling in 3300 yesterday against Morton.

From a population point of view there can't be that much in it between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy.

To be honest I'm not sure whats putting me off more the poor football or 90 minutes of folk pure seething, there is of course the argument that the two are related however given how poor the whole experience is i'm surprised 1500 people still go.

Your point about the Pars, I was also surprised when I saw over 3k for a home game against Morton.

Your point about the Rovers still having 1500 is also true, but if we continue in the same vain on the park, it won't be long until we go below the thousand mark for a Saturday game. Wait till the really crap weather comes and the financial squeeze in December and January.

[Stelios]

I was surprised to read that Dunfermline were still pulling in 3300 yesterday against Morton.

From a population point of view there can't be that much in it between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy.

To be honest I'm not sure whats putting me off more the poor football or 90 minutes of folk pure seething, there is of course the argument that the two are related however given how poor the whole experience is i'm surprised 1500 people still go.

There is a big economical difference though - Dunfermline is basically now a suburb of Edinburgh, so more disposable income knocking about plus more people moving to the area to start families. Contrast that with Kirkcaldy which has pretty much been run into the ground with an unemployment rate of 1.5 times the national average.

I wish folk would stop referring to the "product on the park". We are not customers we are football supporters!

Edited October 27, 2014 by Stelios

[Scary Bear]

There is a big economical difference though - Dunfermline is basically now a suburb of Edinburgh, so more disposable income knocking about plus more people moving to the area to start families. Contrast that with Kirkcaldy which has pretty much been run into the ground with an unemployment rate of 1.5 times the national average.

I wish folk would stop referring to the "product on the park". We are not customers we are football supporters!

...and Dunfermline have had a bigger fan base than Rovers for as long as I've been a fan. And they've been a Premier League team for more years than us which definitely helps. Remember when we were in the Premier League? Our average gates were pretty good. From memory the average was about 4500. The season after we were relegated from the Premier League we got over 3000 for a home game with Stirling Albion. Edited October 27, 2014 by Scary Bear

[Michael W]

Supporters are paying customers no matter what way you want to look at it.

[ADMO]

I was surprised to read that Dunfermline were still pulling in 3300 yesterday against Morton.

From a population point of view there can't be that much in it between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy.

To be honest I'm not sure whats putting me off more the poor football or 90 minutes of folk pure seething, there is of course the argument that the two are related however given how poor the whole experience is i'm surprised 1500 people still go.

When you think about it, didnt the club say the season tickets sold double or treble or something this season ? Perhaps a lot of "new timers" who are only going to make their season tickets worth the money !

[Skyline Drifter]

Queen of the South run that sort of scheme now I think. Minus the bugler

We've run it for about 6 or 7 years now and it's professionally done with funding from the Holywood Trust. Jim Thomson runs it as part of his community remit and either he or one of his assistants goes into schools, takes training, and they give away free tickets for kids with a paying adult. Sometimes 2 or 3 schools in a week. It used to only be primary schools but I think they sometimes do secondary ones now also.

The scheme also sees Jim delivering coaching to 'problem' teenage groups and things like that. It's quite successful.

[renton]

Fair play to the boy who was trying to encourage us to do a pre-game Mexican wave. Bearing in mind I looked across when the team came out, and only about half the crowd could be arsed standing up and clapping, he was probably always pissing in the wind with his request.

As for the game, we were dreadful, no doubt about it. Moon has regressed so much that he is now worse than Fox, and if anyone should come out of the midfield then it's him.

Mckeown is now so bad, that I'm beyond disliking him, and now starting to warm to him. After all, anyone who can be so utterly atrocious at football, but still play pretty much every minute of every game, deserves respect. He really is guff.

Stewart can't play up front himself, so to a degree, we were a victim of circumstance, but Murray should have brought on Vaughan and put him up top with Stewart after about 55 minutes. Instead, he waited until about the 87th minute, and put him wide, remarkable stuff.

If there's a plus point, it's that Alloa couldn't beat us, despite the fact we were utter, utter gash.

Oh, and Mcgurn coming back, which made me ridiculously happy.

I don't think Stewart was playing up front by himself. Scott was pushed up alongside him and was plying farther up than he had when playing behind Nade at Easter Road, for example. To me it looked like Murray's favoured 4-4-1-1 and if you'd swapped Scott out for Elliot, a recognised forward but doing the same job, there'd be a lot less agitation about the formation. Wether or not you think Scott is capable of that job is of course a valid argument but for me, Murray did set the team up as positively as he could on Satuday, playing two out and out wingers for the first time this year.

In the first half we played some good stuff, and Alloa struggled to cope with out wide men, second half they double up on McKay which absolutely limited his impact, and had better movmeent in the centre of the park than us. The problem with Murray's favoured formation is that it tries to resolve the tension between getting bodies out wide on the wings but without being over loaded in the middle of the park, and it requires a lot of work from the recessed number 10 (whether that's Elliot dropping back or Scott pushing up) and the two pivot midfielders. I thought Scott gave it a good shot but Moon was absolutely woeful - no ball retention and powderpuff in the tackle. Which is why I thought our momentum died.

When they packed the middle and stopped McKay from receiving the ball, Murray responded by replacing him with Conroy to narrow the play and give us better ball retention but it wasn't enough, not without Moon pushing on as well - which he didn't. So Murray maybe solved half the problem but bhe should've withdrawn Moon and stuck Callachan in there instead. Callaachan has his own limitations when it comes to positioning but he at least has a lot of good movement and wouldv'e been more able to support our attack through the middle more than Moon.

[McGuigan1978]

Agree with all of that. I think the problem was that Scott and Stewart didn't link up at any point.

That's not necessarily Scott's fault, as he probably felt he had to drop a bit deeper to help out, but it just left Stewart so isolated up front.

We actually got forward more effectively, and created far more chances at Ibrox than we did against Alloa.

[renton]

Agree with all of that. I think the problem was that Scott and Stewart didn't link up at any point.

That's not necessarily Scott's fault, as he probably felt he had to drop a bit deeper to help out, but it just left Stewart so isolated up front.

We actually got forward more effectively, and created far more chances at Ibrox than we did against Alloa.

At least part of that is familiarity, that's only the second time the two have played together up front, hardly enough to form an effective partnership. The other part would be Stewart's limited effectiveness at holding the ball up, as Nade and Elliot can. He actually did alright at times but he's never going to be hugely effective winning the high ball with his back to goal.

[sponsorsladdie]

Whats the expectations for the cup game? 3 or 4 goal winning margin?

[CALDERON]

Win first of all.

[Rovers1992/1993]

Whats the expectations for the cup game? 3 or 4 goal winning margin?

It depends if we have Nade and Elliot back by then, if so, I would like to think we'd win fairly comfortably.. If we play with the same team as Saturday with the same tactics, it'll be a close game..

[renton]

Whats the expectations for the cup game? 3 or 4 goal winning margin?

We're Rovers fans, we've learned not to expect.