The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Michael W]

A player that's currently injured? 

Welcome to the Rovers, Robert!

[Scary Bear]

1 hour ago, RAITHROVERS84 said:

Wonder who’ll pick up Robert Snodgrass if he remains in Scotland.

Twilight of his career but you’d think he’d run amok in the championship. 
Also, if Falkirk manage to get up through the playoffs the chequebook coming out for Scott Arfield looks nailed on. 

If Arfield’s only option is Falkirk then it’s time to sack his agent.

[James19]

3 hours ago, Zen Archer (Raconteur) said:

31 May 2019 net loss £202.541

31 May 2020 net profit £116.901

31 May 2021 net Profit £151.338

31 May 2022 net loss £100.122

Former CEO a waste of space, Bill Clark getting the heat for her appointment as the owner verbally ran for cover on the issue.

Her remit was to source funds for developing the Railway Stand, she brought in zero £'s

The CEO brought a seven figure deal to the table last summer that would have developed the ground and stands but the owner declined the offer no wonder he ran for cover at AGM

[Heid_The_Baw]

So that list from earlier in order of statistical shiteness (shitest to least shite) of our strikers since 2018.....

• David Goodwillie - 0 goals in 0 appearances DNF - did not score when it was legal for him to  .  McGlynn disaster.
• Kieran Mitchell - 0 goals in 18 appearances  DNF  -  not really had a chance to play consistently.
• Timmy Abraham - 0 goals in 8 appearances  DNF - Hopeless
• James Keatings - 0 goals in 7 appearances   DNF - If he was a horse he would have been shot.
• Luke Mahady - 0 goals in 2 appearances  DNF - young guy so not really fair
• Ethon Varian - 3 goals in 43 appearances  14.33 - A one legged blind donkey would be better.
• Joao Vitoria - 1 goal in 12 appearances    12 - Canny even mind o him.
• Kyle Connell - 2 goals in 23 appearances  11.5 - Waste of a shirt unless long throwins get you off.
• John Frederiksen - 1 goal in 11 appearances   11 - rank.  Gamble didnt work.
• Jack Smith - 1 goal in 8 appearances   8 
• Lars Lokotsch - 1 goal in 7 appearances  7 - another I canny recall.
• Lewis Allan - 4 goals in 22 appearances  5.5 - Hibsed it.
• William Akio - 2 goals in 10 appearances  5 - Flatters to deceive
• John Baird - 5 goals in 24 appearances  4.8 - Never going to be the same.
• Gozie Ugwu - 4 goals in 19 appearances  4.75 - Morton then where?
• Matej Poplatnik - 11 goals in 44 appearances  4 - Never rated him.
• Isma Goncalves - 2 goals in 8 appearances  4 - Headless chicken.
• Steven MacLean - 2 goals in 7 appearances  3.5
• Kieron Bowie - 10 goals in 35 appearances  3.5 - we got money!
• Jamie Gullan - 21 goals in 71 appearances   3.38 - not a fan of his
• Manny Duku - 10 goals in 28 appearances   2.8 - Was on fire then someone put him out.
• Lewis Vaughan - 12 goals in 30 appearances  2.5 - Lewis is better than every one of the above put together.
  
  So our best striker since then is not even strictly a striker......Lewis Vaughan.  No surprise there tbh.  
  Surprised at Gullans scoring rate though.  But he is lightweight and injury prone.
  Some absolutely rank footballers in that list like Ethon Varian.  Must have been doing McGlynns ironing as how else was he in our team?  One of the worst 'strikers' I can recall ever in a Rovers shirt.
  Look at this seasons players in that list though (highlighted) and it is plainly obvious we desperately need a goalscorer!

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Heid_The_Baw

[RR #1]

26 minutes ago, Heid_The_Baw said:

So that list from earlier in order of statistical shiteness (shitest to least shite) of our strikers since 2018.....

• David Goodwillie - 0 goals in 0 appearances DNF - did not score when it was legal for him to  .  McGlynn disaster.
• Kieran Mitchell - 0 goals in 18 appearances  DNF  -  not really had a chance to play consistently.
• Timmy Abraham - 0 goals in 8 appearances  DNF - Hopeless
• James Keatings - 0 goals in 7 appearances   DNF - If he was a horse he would have been shot.
• Luke Mahady - 0 goals in 2 appearances  DNF - young guy so not really fair
• Ethon Varian - 3 goals in 43 appearances  14.33 - A one legged blind donkey would be better.
• Joao Vitoria - 1 goal in 12 appearances    12 - Canny even mind o him.
• Kyle Connell - 2 goals in 23 appearances  11.5 - Waste of a shirt unless long throwins get you off.
• John Frederiksen - 1 goal in 11 appearances   11 - rank.  Gamble didnt work.
• Jack Smith - 1 goal in 8 appearances   8 
• Lars Lokotsch - 1 goal in 7 appearances  7 - another I canny recall.
• Lewis Allan - 4 goals in 22 appearances  5.5 - Hibsed it.
• William Akio - 2 goals in 10 appearances  5 - Flatters to deceive
• John Baird - 5 goals in 24 appearances  4.8 - Never going to be the same.
• Gozie Ugwu - 4 goals in 19 appearances  4.75 - Morton then where?
• Matej Poplatnik - 11 goals in 44 appearances  4 - Never rated him.
• Isma Goncalves - 2 goals in 8 appearances  4 - Headless chicken.
• Steven MacLean - 2 goals in 7 appearances  3.5
• Kieron Bowie - 10 goals in 35 appearances  3.5 - we got money!
• Jamie Gullan - 21 goals in 71 appearances   3.38 - not a fan of his
• Manny Duku - 10 goals in 28 appearances   2.8 - Was on fire then someone put him out.
• Lewis Vaughan - 12 goals in 30 appearances  2.5 - Lewis is better than every one of the above put together.
  
  So our best striker since then is not even strictly a striker......Lewis Vaughan.  No surprise there tbh.  
  Surprised at Gullans scoring rate though.  But he is lightweight and injury prone.
  Some absolutely rank footballers in that list like Ethon Varian.  Must have been doing McGlynns ironing as how else was he in our team?  One of the worst 'strikers' I can recall ever in a Rovers shirt.
  Look at this seasons players in that list though (highlighted) and it is plainly obvious we desperately need a goalscorer!

 

Would take Varian over any of the so called strikers we have signed this season. 

[CALDERON]

3 minutes ago, RR #1 said:

Would take Varian over any of the so called strikers we have signed this season. 

Akio has scored the same amount of goals, with about a third of the appearances.

[R.R.FC]

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/sport/football/raith-rovers-boss-ian-murray-reveals-positive-development-in-contract-talks-with-top-scorer-aidan-connolly-4101236?fbclid=IwAR172hOeGlS8KcLIRrVydtF7mGvELo9ij30aVPK8eJlAUPrbX3QAfayZ3Xs
 

Looks like contract talks are starting to get underway. Murray says Connolly has indicated he wants to stay but up to us to put together a package to keep him so still sounds a bit away from a done deal.

[Ro Sham Bo]

9 minutes ago, R.R.FC said:

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/sport/football/raith-rovers-boss-ian-murray-reveals-positive-development-in-contract-talks-with-top-scorer-aidan-connolly-4101236?fbclid=IwAR172hOeGlS8KcLIRrVydtF7mGvELo9ij30aVPK8eJlAUPrbX3QAfayZ3Xs
 

Looks like contract talks are starting to get underway. Murray says Connolly has indicated he wants to stay but up to us to put together a package to keep him so still sounds a bit away from a done deal.

Yeah. It's easy for Connolly to say he wants to stay but I suspect the reality is that he'll get better offers from elsewhere that will turn his head. 

In our favour I suppose is the fact he's moved around before and not always with great success, so maybe stability will be more important to him now. 

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Ro Sham Bo

[Been going too long]

Just now, Ro Sham Bo said:

Yeah. It's easy for Connolly to say he wants to stay but I suspect the reality is that he'll get better offers from elsewhere that will turn his head. 

In our favour I suppose it's the fact he's moved around before and not always with great success, so maybe stability will be more important to him now. 

 

Agreed hopefully he is once bitten twice shy as his previous best spell was with us, I know he is one footed but so was robben, really hope he stays 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, Heid_The_Baw said:

So that list from earlier in order of statistical shiteness (shitest to least shite) of our strikers since 2018.....

• David Goodwillie - 0 goals in 0 appearances DNF - did not score when it was legal for him to  .  McGlynn disaster.
• Kieran Mitchell - 0 goals in 18 appearances  DNF  -  not really had a chance to play consistently.
• Timmy Abraham - 0 goals in 8 appearances  DNF - Hopeless
• James Keatings - 0 goals in 7 appearances   DNF - If he was a horse he would have been shot.
• Luke Mahady - 0 goals in 2 appearances  DNF - young guy so not really fair
• Ethon Varian - 3 goals in 43 appearances  14.33 - A one legged blind donkey would be better.
• Joao Vitoria - 1 goal in 12 appearances    12 - Canny even mind o him.
• Kyle Connell - 2 goals in 23 appearances  11.5 - Waste of a shirt unless long throwins get you off.
• John Frederiksen - 1 goal in 11 appearances   11 - rank.  Gamble didnt work.
• Jack Smith - 1 goal in 8 appearances   8 
• Lars Lokotsch - 1 goal in 7 appearances  7 - another I canny recall.
• Lewis Allan - 4 goals in 22 appearances  5.5 - Hibsed it.
• William Akio - 2 goals in 10 appearances  5 - Flatters to deceive
• John Baird - 5 goals in 24 appearances  4.8 - Never going to be the same.
• Gozie Ugwu - 4 goals in 19 appearances  4.75 - Morton then where?
• Matej Poplatnik - 11 goals in 44 appearances  4 - Never rated him.
• Isma Goncalves - 2 goals in 8 appearances  4 - Headless chicken.
• Steven MacLean - 2 goals in 7 appearances  3.5
• Kieron Bowie - 10 goals in 35 appearances  3.5 - we got money!
• Jamie Gullan - 21 goals in 71 appearances   3.38 - not a fan of his
• Manny Duku - 10 goals in 28 appearances   2.8 - Was on fire then someone put him out.
• Lewis Vaughan - 12 goals in 30 appearances  2.5 - Lewis is better than every one of the above put together.
  
  So our best striker since then is not even strictly a striker......Lewis Vaughan.  No surprise there tbh.  
  Surprised at Gullans scoring rate though.  But he is lightweight and injury prone.
  Some absolutely rank footballers in that list like Ethon Varian.  Must have been doing McGlynns ironing as how else was he in our team?  One of the worst 'strikers' I can recall ever in a Rovers shirt.
  Look at this seasons players in that list though (highlighted) and it is plainly obvious we desperately need a goalscorer!

 

The problem with this ranking is it rates all appreances the same...as I posted a few pages back, if you correct to goals per 90 minutes, the list is radically different:

Duku, Isma and Poppy all jump above LV...and then it gets weird, Ugwu...Jack Smith...

Player                             Games/Goals/Minutes     Minutes per goal   Goals per 90 minutes

Manny Duku                       28/10/1,526                      152.6                        0.59

Isma Goncalves                8/2/331                             165.5                       0.54

Matej Poplatnik                 44/11/1,941                        176.45                      0.51

Lewis Vaughan                 47/17/3,098                      182.24                      0.49

Gozie Ugwu                        19/5/983                          196.6                        0.46

Jack Smith                          9/1/205                            205                          0.44

Kieron Bowie                      35/10/2,127                       212.7                         0.42

Willie Akio                            10/2/429                          214.5                         0.42

Jamie Gullan                    73/21/4,949                      235.67                      0.38

Lewis Allan                          22/6/1,474                       245.67                      0.37

John Frederiksen               11/1/264                            264                           0.34

Aiden Connolly                  89/25/6,935                   277.4                         0.32

Steve MacLean                  7/2/566                           283                            0.32

Joao Vitoria                        12/1/282                           282                            0.32

John Baird                          24/5/1,517                        303.4                         0.30

Lars Lokotsch                     7/1/307                             307                            0.29

Dario Zanatta                     50/10/3,292                    329.2                         0.27

Danny Armstrong              53/9/3,464                    384.9                         0.23

Dylan Easton                      42/7/3,162                       451.7                          0.20

Kyle Connell                        23/2/1,164                        582                           0.15

Sam Stanton                       60/7/5,159                      737                            0.12

Ethon Varian                       43/3/2,562                     854                            0.11

Luke Mahady                      2/0/43                             N/A                            N/A

James Keatings                 7/0/103                            N/A                            N/A                 

Timmy Abraham               8/0/211                             N/A                            N/A 

Keiran Mitchell                    18/0/454                         N/A                            N/A

[renton]

1 hour ago, Heid_The_Baw said:

So that list from earlier in order of statistical shiteness (shitest to least shite) of our strikers since 2018.....

• David Goodwillie - 0 goals in 0 appearances DNF - did not score when it was legal for him to  .  McGlynn disaster.
• Kieran Mitchell - 0 goals in 18 appearances  DNF  -  not really had a chance to play consistently.
• Timmy Abraham - 0 goals in 8 appearances  DNF - Hopeless
• James Keatings - 0 goals in 7 appearances   DNF - If he was a horse he would have been shot.
• Luke Mahady - 0 goals in 2 appearances  DNF - young guy so not really fair
• Ethon Varian - 3 goals in 43 appearances  14.33 - A one legged blind donkey would be better.
• Joao Vitoria - 1 goal in 12 appearances    12 - Canny even mind o him.
• Kyle Connell - 2 goals in 23 appearances  11.5 - Waste of a shirt unless long throwins get you off.
• John Frederiksen - 1 goal in 11 appearances   11 - rank.  Gamble didnt work.
• Jack Smith - 1 goal in 8 appearances   8 
• Lars Lokotsch - 1 goal in 7 appearances  7 - another I canny recall.
• Lewis Allan - 4 goals in 22 appearances  5.5 - Hibsed it.
• William Akio - 2 goals in 10 appearances  5 - Flatters to deceive
• John Baird - 5 goals in 24 appearances  4.8 - Never going to be the same.
• Gozie Ugwu - 4 goals in 19 appearances  4.75 - Morton then where?
• Matej Poplatnik - 11 goals in 44 appearances  4 - Never rated him.
• Isma Goncalves - 2 goals in 8 appearances  4 - Headless chicken.
• Steven MacLean - 2 goals in 7 appearances  3.5
• Kieron Bowie - 10 goals in 35 appearances  3.5 - we got money!
• Jamie Gullan - 21 goals in 71 appearances   3.38 - not a fan of his
• Manny Duku - 10 goals in 28 appearances   2.8 - Was on fire then someone put him out.
• Lewis Vaughan - 12 goals in 30 appearances  2.5 - Lewis is better than every one of the above put together.
  
  So our best striker since then is not even strictly a striker......Lewis Vaughan.  No surprise there tbh.  
  Surprised at Gullans scoring rate though.  But he is lightweight and injury prone.
  Some absolutely rank footballers in that list like Ethon Varian.  Must have been doing McGlynns ironing as how else was he in our team?  One of the worst 'strikers' I can recall ever in a Rovers shirt.
  Look at this seasons players in that list though (highlighted) and it is plainly obvious we desperately need a goalscorer!

 

Is it all goals in all comps you are doing? One of Varian's was against Aberdeen in the League Cup. So, two league goals. Him and Akio have the same number in all comps. Akio has two league goals plus scored one in the CC vs Dundee.

Lars Lokotsch scored against Alloa in the game that Ethan Ross looked a footballer when he skinned most of the Alloa team in one move.

Joao Vitoria scored in the 5-2 game against Clyde (had to look that one up). Another one of those guys who'd terrorised our defence for a couple of years, McGlynn seemed keen to get him, then never really gave him a chance. Part of his short lived plan to play him and Grant Anderson as forwards.

[Kuma Power]

That list becomes even more bleak when you consider that for at least two of the seasons (this season and 20/21) Vaughan has been one of our most prolific scorers, despite playing without a pre-season and getting back up to match sharpness after lengthy periods out injured.

(ETA: and/or you can also read it as a testament to Vaughan's quality and determiniation as a player that he's able to start popping in goals so quickly despite being out for so long)

Edited April 13, 2023 by Kuma Power

[TxRover]

Here’s the ugly reality…everyone immediately thinks of perhaps Liam Buchanan as our last real CF…but he was only scoring 0.44 goals per 90 minutes…Kevin Nisbet is the clear call, scoring 0.79 goals per 90. Before that, we had…Grieg Spence at 0.53 per 90 or Ryan Hardie at 0.57 per 90.

We’re honestly not doing that badly compared to historical averages, we’ve just been perhaps spoilt by results above what our scoring has been deserving.

[Ro Sham Bo]

It's also worth factoring in that some of the players listed played for us in league 1 rather than championship. 

[CALDERON]

6 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Here’s the ugly reality…everyone immediately thinks of perhaps Liam Buchanan as our last real CF…but he was only scoring 0.44 goals per 90 minutes…Kevin Nisbet is the clear call, scoring 0.79 goals per 90. Before that, we had…Grieg Spence at 0.53 per 90 or Ryan Hardie at 0.57 per 90.

We’re honestly not doing that badly compared to historical averages, we’ve just been perhaps spoilt by results above what our scoring has been deserving.

You can have as much averages and stats as you want, we have been fucking terrible up front for years.

[Brashy's Boots]

That's enough stats, thanks.

[Paco]

Certainly no denying some of the guys listed above are dumplings but I genuinely think you could choose any centre forward from any club in Scotland, aside from maybe the Old Firm,  and they wouldn’t end up with a significantly better scoring record than the likes of Gullan and Vaughan.  

We’ve watched Stanton, Ross, Connolly, Easton and formerly Zanatta fail to create chances for centre forwards for 18 months now. When do we accept the system and the personnel are the problem, not the centre forward? 

[Raith Against The Machine]

8 minutes ago, Paco said:

Certainly no denying some of the guys listed above are dumplings but I genuinely think you could choose any centre forward from any club in Scotland, aside from maybe the Old Firm,  and they wouldn’t end up with a significantly better scoring record than the likes of Gullan and Vaughan.  

We’ve watched Stanton, Ross, Connolly, Easton and formerly Zanatta fail to create chances for centre forwards for 18 months now. When do we accept the system and the personnel are the problem, not the centre forward? 

I think it's a mixture of both. A "Where Are They Now?" on that list wouldn't exactly point to a bounty of misused talent. In fact, it would point almost entirely to a bunch of guys who dropped out of full-time football the minute they left Stark's Park, and won't ever find their way back. 

That said, recruitment of a prestige striker at this level is clearly more about luck than skill. And for the last four years we've persisted with a system that really requires a classic goalscoring number 9, and despite trying and failing with twenty different number 9s, we haven't deviated in any significant way. 

And to take my first point and reverse it, look at the midfielders you've listed. Zanatta left to a very poor full-time side and Ross would maybe struggle given his injuries, but Easton, Stanton and Connolly could all undoubtedly pick up another full time gig if they left in the summer. They're not bad players. 

There needs to be an overhaul of the approach from middle to front, based on the understanding that we're almost certainly not going to have a 25 goal striker next season either. We might get lucky and find someone from somewhere, but recent history shows it isn't likely. Those midfielders need more in front of them than one low confidence striker who's always being covered by two centre halfs. 

[Specky Ginger]

Connolly aside, the goals return from the rest of team, outwith the forward line, has been pretty poor this season as well.

If you look at Partick last Friday, they're getting goals from all over the park and they're one of the few teams in the league with a 'proper centre forward'.

[CALDERON]

Also doesn't help that the players who are there to take the chances,are often trying to create them.

Against Queens Park, Vaughan laid the ball out wide to Millen, the proceeded to drop deep 10 yards behind their box, with nobody in the box to cross to - and we've seen it multiple times this season.