The New Raith Rovers Thread

[grumswall]

Always been a massive fan of Vaughan since his debut but the best thing for him would be someone bringing him back down to earth. He doesn't look half the player he can be because he's believed his own hype. I wouldn't want to lose him but if we do then hopefully his new manager can do that, to help his game.

[D'Jaffo]

His agent will have told him who is interested in him and he's now deciding which of those club's he's supported all his days.

Used to have an Ayr season ticket I’m told. Hit the post deliberately last season to get his boyhood club promoted.

[Michael W]

I don't see Spence to Alloa - apparently doesn't see eye to eye with Goodwin. I don't think he's good enough for the Championship either, in all honesty. 

He'll sign for a L1 club and will haunt us, though; bank on it. 

[WSDR 88]

Thomson confirmed at Arbroath, 2 year deal.
I really wish we’d kept Spence over Buchanan (I know contracts were already in place)

[RRFC1989]

I don't see Spence to Alloa - apparently doesn't see eye to eye with Goodwin. I don't think he's good enough for the Championship either, in all honesty. 
He'll sign for a L1 club and will haunt us, though; bank on it. 

Goodwin apparently in talks with StMirren so that might not be an issue

[renton]

Anyone get to the Hustings last night, and if so any particular highlights?

[GhostZapper]

13 minutes ago, renton said:

Anyone get to the Hustings last night, and if so any particular highlights?

Raith TV have just posted the filmed hustings online  - I'll be watching later on as was unwell last night, so didn't make it!

[madton]

Whats your thoughts on McKinnon's time with you boys? Looks likely that he will be announced soon after the whole Hopkin farce and keen to understand your views on how he did with you.

Similar size clubs with similar expectations, challenge etc and think its unfair to purely judge him on his time at United.( even then, don't think he was that bad there)

Did he recruit well for you? What kind of football did he play?  He has quite the job to rebuild our squad.

To me , it looks like he did a pretty good job, comfortably getting you in the playoffs, pulling away from us with ease in the end and just unlucky you played a club like Hibs in the playoffs.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

56 minutes ago, renton said:

Anyone get to the Hustings last night, and if so any particular highlights?

One boy shat the bed by insulting old people.

[Rover1990]

47 minutes ago, madton said:

Whats your thoughts on McKinnon's time with you boys? Looks likely that he will be announced soon after the whole Hopkin farce and keen to understand your views on how he did with you.

Similar size clubs with similar expectations, challenge etc and think its unfair to purely judge him on his time at United.( even then, don't think he was that bad there)

Did he recruit well for you? What kind of football did he play?  He has quite the job to rebuild our squad.

To me , it looks like he did a pretty good job, comfortably getting you in the playoffs, pulling away from us with ease in the end and just unlucky you played a club like Hibs in the playoffs.

Done well in the one year he was with us.  First 6 months was hit or miss, he was unlucky with Vaughan getting injured early, but after a successful January window we were brilliant 2nd half.  He aims to play good passing/attacking football  so if he is backed by owners he should have you challenging for top 4.  Would have him back at Raith.

[renton]

33 minutes ago, madton said:

Whats your thoughts on McKinnon's time with you boys? Looks likely that he will be announced soon after the whole Hopkin farce and keen to understand your views on how he did with you.

Similar size clubs with similar expectations, challenge etc and think its unfair to purely judge him on his time at United.( even then, don't think he was that bad there)

Did he recruit well for you? What kind of football did he play?  He has quite the job to rebuild our squad.

To me , it looks like he did a pretty good job, comfortably getting you in the playoffs, pulling away from us with ease in the end and just unlucky you played a club like Hibs in the playoffs.

Given what's befell us afterwards it's pretty easy to put McKinnon on a pedestal but he genuinely did a good job for us. There are two McKinnon teams really, his Mk.1 and Mk.2 teams. From the Summer signings he did well to bring in two good centre backs in Toshney and Benedictus to build from, and added one really left field signing in midfield in the form of James Craigen who was a good player for us, and two more predictable ones (Dundee United heritage) in Ryan McCord and some boy who's name I forget 'cos he played one game for us. Also brought in Scott Robertson who spent most of the rest of the time with us injured and brought Davo back. Up front he lost Vaughan early doors to ACL but brought in what was a highly rated player in Wighton, who did very little for us. Later he added a big lump in John Daly. 

That first team played some ok stuff and he tried early to have McCord in there as a deep lying type playmaker. We were a bit lighter and more indirect. We were 4th at Christmas despite slowing down badly into the winter - albeit not to the extend of our usual clock back fiascoes.  His Mk.2 team was something else though, he was kind of forced to swap out most of his forward line and managed to get upgrades in every department. Instead of Wighton and Daly we had Ryan Hardie and Panyioutou. He managed to get hold of Aiden Connolly and Louis Longridge to give us more options out wide. McCord hardly played a game after Christmas and instead we went with a midfield pairing of Ross Callachan and Toshney, with Craig Barr fitting into defence. Grant Anderson also fell more onto the fringes and both Connolly and Longridge were more modern types of wingers, able to play infield and not hug the touchline as much as Ando did. Our play was a lot faster, more direct and a fucktonne more physical. He was happy to give Ross Matthews his first start in a cup game against Celtic where he bodied Scott Brown after 5 minutes. Had a thing for big lumpen forwards - after Daly left he made sure to bring in Joel Thomas, albeit he stuck with Stewart and Hardie for the most part as the main strikers.

Overall, McKinnon was happy enough to make tactical switches during games to try and change things up - more so than his predecessor and in a more clever way than his successor (not hard). Also happy to try and adapt the team shape and personnel from week to week, rather than a predilection for starting the same 11 if they'd won. He's by all accounts an arrogant fucker, and no doubt part of Locke's appeal to those inside Starks was Gary F's pleasant demeanour. McKinnon probably  got lucky with his second tranche of signings, partly by being forced into making them, partly by the likes of Connolly suddenly becoming available, but he deserves credit for making the changes he did. 

[Wildrover]

I liked Mckinnon, he would change tactics and personel during games to try and win it, didn't always work but it least he tried, overall a decent manager who deserves another shot, I'm take him back in a heartbeat. 

[Enigma]

Renton is completely spot on there. He does have a bit of a ‘big-time Charley’ attitude and will probably see you as a stepping stone, the guy is clearly ambitious, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t do well for you.

[Beastie Russell]

1 hour ago, Zen Archer said:

One boy shat the bed by insulting old people.

Vote winner IMHO

[madton]

1 hour ago, Rover1990 said:

Done well in the one year he was with us.  First 6 months was hit or miss, he was unlucky with Vaughan getting injured early, but after a successful January window we were brilliant 2nd half.  He aims to play good passing/attacking football  so if he is backed by owners he should have you challenging for top 4.  Would have him back at Raith.

 

1 hour ago, renton said:

Given what's befell us afterwards it's pretty easy to put McKinnon on a pedestal but he genuinely did a good job for us. There are two McKinnon teams really, his Mk.1 and Mk.2 teams. From the Summer signings he did well to bring in two good centre backs in Toshney and Benedictus to build from, and added one really left field signing in midfield in the form of James Craigen who was a good player for us, and two more predictable ones (Dundee United heritage) in Ryan McCord and some boy who's name I forget 'cos he played one game for us. Also brought in Scott Robertson who spent most of the rest of the time with us injured and brought Davo back. Up front he lost Vaughan early doors to ACL but brought in what was a highly rated player in Wighton, who did very little for us. Later he added a big lump in John Daly. 

That first team played some ok stuff and he tried early to have McCord in there as a deep lying type playmaker. We were a bit lighter and more indirect. We were 4th at Christmas despite slowing down badly into the winter - albeit not to the extend of our usual clock back fiascoes.  His Mk.2 team was something else though, he was kind of forced to swap out most of his forward line and managed to get upgrades in every department. Instead of Wighton and Daly we had Ryan Hardie and Panyioutou. He managed to get hold of Aiden Connolly and Louis Longridge to give us more options out wide. McCord hardly played a game after Christmas and instead we went with a midfield pairing of Ross Callachan and Toshney, with Craig Barr fitting into defence. Grant Anderson also fell more onto the fringes and both Connolly and Longridge were more modern types of wingers, able to play infield and not hug the touchline as much as Ando did. Our play was a lot faster, more direct and a fucktonne more physical. He was happy to give Ross Matthews his first start in a cup game against Celtic where he bodied Scott Brown after 5 minutes. Had a thing for big lumpen forwards - after Daly left he made sure to bring in Joel Thomas, albeit he stuck with Stewart and Hardie for the most part as the main strikers.

Overall, McKinnon was happy enough to make tactical switches during games to try and change things up - more so than his predecessor and in a more clever way than his successor (not hard). Also happy to try and adapt the team shape and personnel from week to week, rather than a predilection for starting the same 11 if they'd won. He's by all accounts an arrogant fucker, and no doubt part of Locke's appeal to those inside Starks was Gary F's pleasant demeanour. McKinnon probably  got lucky with his second tranche of signings, partly by being forced into making them, partly by the likes of Connolly suddenly becoming available, but he deserves credit for making the changes he did. 

 

1 hour ago, Wildrover said:

I liked Mckinnon, he would change tactics and personel during games to try and win it, didn't always work but it least he tried, overall a decent manager who deserves another shot, I'm take him back in a heartbeat. 

 

1 hour ago, Enigma said:

Renton is completely spot on there. He does have a bit of a ‘big-time Charley’ attitude and will probably see you as a stepping stone, the guy is clearly ambitious, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t do well for you.

Cheers lads.  It's what i thought would come back pretty much. 

One of our grips with Duffy was in his inability to change tactics to try and win a game so good to hear that he wasn't scared to do so. Remember Hardie coming  on and changing a game at Starks that season, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35619992

Don't mind an ambitious manager, rather we hired someone who wanted to better himself rather than feel he has made it managing in the Scottish Championship. ( Jack Ross springs to mind here) Again you sensed Duffy didn't quite have that ambition to manage at the top anymore and was quite happy doing what he was doing.

Hopkin was obv first choice  so a few of us are feeling a bit "meh" about McKinnon, but these comments certainly paint him in a good light!

 

[Beastie Russell]

3 hours ago, renton said:

Anyone get to the Hustings last night, and if so any particular highlights?

Paul Gilfillan sounds like Graeme Souness

[RRFC1989]

http://www.raithrovers.net/35473/kyle-benedictus.htm
Expected given it was in FFP last week but Bene confirmed

[Broken Algorithms]

56 minutes ago, madton said:

 

 

 

Cheers lads.  It's what i thought would come back pretty much. 

One of our grips with Duffy was in his inability to change tactics to try and win a game so good to hear that he wasn't scared to do so. Remember Hardie coming  on and changing a game at Starks that season, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35619992

Don't mind an ambitious manager, rather we hired someone who wanted to better himself rather than feel he has made it managing in the Scottish Championship. ( Jack Ross springs to mind here) Again you sensed Duffy didn't quite have that ambition to manage at the top anymore and was quite happy doing what he was doing.

Hopkin was obv first choice  so a few of us are feeling a bit "meh" about McKinnon, but these comments certainly paint him in a good light!

 

 That match report.

Quote

Rovers defender Rory McKeown put his side ahead after seven minutes with his first goal for the club.

BBC didn't mention there that he skelped it in from about 35 yards with a ridiculous hit. We scored about 4 or 5 wondergoals at Stark's that season. We also scored a good number of 90th minute goals with 3 against Morton, 1 against St Mirren, and 1 against Rangers to stop them winning the league at Starks.  Wouldn't surprise me to see him try to get Ryan Hardie in straight away.

Changing games was definitely McKinnon's strength. He likes quite a wide range of signings as mentioned. I'd imagine if the Raes are happy to back him, then he'll get Morton moving nicely towards being a top end team. We were on that trajectory, before he went off to Dundee United. The board then decided to go for the cheapest option possible before making every incorrect decision they could. Still painful even now to look at.

Edited May 29, 2018 by Broken Algorithms

[roverthemoon]

Thought all four did well at the Hustings, that old folk comment aside. Great to have four folk going for it and they are all obviously committed Rovers guys. Decent turnout too. 

Interesting to see that it’s two guys from fan groups and two independents. Suspect that like with Gordon Adamson last time out, it’ll be one of the well kent faces that wins as they’ve got the backing of their fan groups, but to me Paul Gilfillan impressed the most. Seemed to have the most to offer and would offer something a bit different. 

[roverthemoon]

Would add to the positive comments about McKinnon. Had the team brimming with confidence towards the end of the season and playing some great entertaining football.  His willingness to go for the win with subs was impressive and frequently paid off. Not sure what went wrong at Utd but suspect Morton would be a better match with more realistic expectations. Could very well have them competing near the top of the Championship.