The New Raith Rovers Thread

[SirJimmyofNic]

Yet again we lose a 2 goal lead, what the feck is wrong with those players mentality 

[Raith2711]

Positives:

Created a load of chances. Could have scored a few more goals.

Decent forward passing and no huge gap between defence and attack.

Hamilton, Freeman and Pollock all good.

We got a point.

 

Negatives:

Vaughan injury.

So mentally weak when we concede.

Points dropped to a poor poor Hamilton team. 

Crowd way down... actual crowd was sub 2300 and stacks of unsold food at the end. Folk are just scunnered.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Raith2711

[Wardy]

9 minutes ago, Raith2711 said:

Positives:

Created a load of chances. Could have scored a few more goals.

Decent forward passing and no huge gap between defence and attack.

Hamilton, Freeman and Pollock all good.

We got a point.

 

Negatives:

Vaughan injury.

So mentally weak when we concede.

Points dropped to a poor poor Hamilton team. 

Crowd way down... actual crowd was sub 2300 and stacks of unsold food at the end. Folk are just scunnered.

 

I heard 3200 for the crowd? 

[Raith2711]

1 minute ago, Wardy said:

I heard 3200 for the crowd? 

That figure was announced and is tickets sold. Less than 2300 through the turnstyles. 

Big gaps round me which hasn't been the case for a while.

[Jilted John]

We were far too open after that second went in. We needed to be far more compact. That one’s definitely on the gaffer. 

[renton]

Aye, frustrating. By far the better team, with a game plan that made sense and even allowing for Vaughan going off injured they maanged to execute on it well.

Should have been miles out of sight.

Problem is, every sub made us weaker. Take Hamilton off (aye, he was knackered) and Easton and suddenly the press is gone. Those two plus Matthews were allowing us to turn the ball over and control the middle.

Eventually getting Brown and Stanton back will help and it's gratifying that Pollock on early showing doesnt look like a shirt filler.

You can't do anything when the ref gives a penalty for Dabrowski getting two hands on a ball prior to contacting the player. The build up to the second was worrying, with space suddenly opening up down that right hand side. You could argue a certain level of unluckiness in terms of the ball coming off the post then keeper.

It's a sickener. There were signs of green shoots in there but a real concern as to how we maintain a game plan that is so reliant on one forward who doesnt have 90 minutes in him.

[Brashy's Boots]

1 minute ago, Jilted John said:

We were far too open after that second went in. We needed to be far more compact. That one’s definitely on the gaffer. 

To be fair, he'll never have seen us shit the bed like that. Even if someone told him it could happen, he wouldn't have believed them.

[Jilted John]

6 minutes ago, Brashy's Boots said:

To be fair, he'll never have seen us shit the bed like that. Even if someone told him it could happen, he wouldn't have believed them.

Haha yeah you’re probably right. So many positives to take from today though. I’m trying to focus on them rather than the shit show collapse at the end! 

[Brashy's Boots]

Let's fret too about Lewis Vaughan. That looked bad.

[CountryBumpkin]

That was a hell of a ride today, ended badly, but lots of positives to take from it, so i'll start there.

Overall it was a much improved attacking performance for the majority of the game. Best game Jack Hamilton has played for us, just imperious though he was up against utter garbage at the back. 

Freeman looked solid enough, burst a gut to get forward often and support his wide man and looked good until he inevitably started to tire at the end due to lack of game time. Having no other right back at the club to replace him with didn't help.

Stevenson on the other side was much the same, tired towards the end, didn't get forward as much but thats a hell of a hit for his goal. 

Matthews was everywhere and getting involved in everything, thats what we expect from him, its just a shame his midfield partner can't cover the gaps left behind with any mobility. Can't get Brown back quick enough to get Byrne on the bench. 

Easton was at his best today until after the 3rd goal, then the flicks and unnecessary touches started to appear and he started to tire. The opposite of Freeman, he has probably played too much in a short period of time and needed to be subbed off 

Pollock was a breath of fresh air when he came on, direct, quick, intelligent and composed. Something none of our other wide players are able to claim. When fit, this lad should be a nailed on starter on the left. 

Probably leaving the best for last, Jack Hamilton was excellent today, won almost everything fired in and about him, best illustrated for the third goal when he got it quickly out of his feet, turned and fired a great ball wide. This was his best game, but is short of match fitness and understandably tired and went off.

Now for the negatives.

Liam Dick...what a stupid f**king header back to the keeper, no distance on it, no shout beforehand to Kev and it gave the ref a decision to make. Personally don't think there was enough in it for a penalty but I can see why the ref gave it. From then on, Dick was a panic merchant at the back, letting balls bounce, underhitting passes, pumping it long in a panic too. Really poor show from an experienced player. Hanlon should have been talking him through and calming him down, did none of that. 

Vaughan's injury looked pretty bad, i'm hopeful its a groin strain and a few weeks at best, but I just don't feel confident when you see Vaughan go down like that. Fingers crossed for the lad. 

Subs lost us that game, or rather, the way we played after we made our second half subs did. We kept firing long high balls to Smith. As soon as he and Jamieson came on, they should have been running in behind stretching the game and pulling us up the park. Our other sub, Josh Mullin did very little, some really poor passes out of play, slow to move with the ball, just looked like a man incapable of playing football today. I'd probably have looked to bring on Gibson and put Pollock in behind Smith. 

You can see what Murray meant when he said the players weren't fit, far too many couldn't keep it going, too many coming back from injury too, its going to be tough for a few weeks until people get up to speed.

[SanStarko]

The lack of depth in the squad really showed today.  Hamilton got tired and we had no ready made replacement for him.  If you bring Smith on then you can’t keep trying to play the sameway as he can’t do the same job as Hamilton.

Freeman tired and again, no replacement for him.  I get the idea the club keep going on about with only bringing in players who are better than what’s here already.  But sometimes you just need to get some depth in the squad.  Guys who might not make the first XI if everyone was fit, but who give you that cover and mean you can make the changes you need to without everything falling to pieces.  

It’s great that if everyone is fit we have a really good squad.  But every year we have injury issues so maybe build a squad with that in mind rather than building a squad that will only be great if we somehow never get any injuries.

[FitbaSupporter]

Good teams would have gone on to win that game 5-1 or 6-1. We aren’t a good team so come away with only a point after our bottle crashes. It’s still early days but after three games I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Collins is going to reverse our current slide or is in any way an improvement on Murray.  Hope I’m wrong but if not then Barrowman’s bold gamble will have backfired spectacularly and we could be Premiership off the pitch, League One on it. 
 

 

[MICMAC]

Dear Santa, I know it's early but can you please give Big Kev a pair of hands that will catch a ball. TIA

[Kooz92]

Just now, MICMAC said:

Dear Santa, I know it's early but can you please give Big Kev a pair of hands that will catch a ball. TIA

And while you're at it, a pair of feet to kick the ball with too.

[Kooz92]

22 minutes ago, CountryBumpkin said:

That was a hell of a ride today, ended badly, but lots of positives to take from it, so i'll start there.

Overall it was a much improved attacking performance for the majority of the game. Best game Jack Hamilton has played for us, just imperious though he was up against utter garbage at the back. 

Freeman looked solid enough, burst a gut to get forward often and support his wide man and looked good until he inevitably started to tire at the end due to lack of game time. Having no other right back at the club to replace him with didn't help.

Stevenson on the other side was much the same, tired towards the end, didn't get forward as much but thats a hell of a hit for his goal. 

Matthews was everywhere and getting involved in everything, thats what we expect from him, its just a shame his midfield partner can't cover the gaps left behind with any mobility. Can't get Brown back quick enough to get Byrne on the bench. 

Easton was at his best today until after the 3rd goal, then the flicks and unnecessary touches started to appear and he started to tire. The opposite of Freeman, he has probably played too much in a short period of time and needed to be subbed off 

Pollock was a breath of fresh air when he came on, direct, quick, intelligent and composed. Something none of our other wide players are able to claim. When fit, this lad should be a nailed on starter on the left. 

Probably leaving the best for last, Jack Hamilton was excellent today, won almost everything fired in and about him, best illustrated for the third goal when he got it quickly out of his feet, turned and fired a great ball wide. This was his best game, but is short of match fitness and understandably tired and went off.

Now for the negatives.

Liam Dick...what a stupid f**king header back to the keeper, no distance on it, no shout beforehand to Kev and it gave the ref a decision to make. Personally don't think there was enough in it for a penalty but I can see why the ref gave it. From then on, Dick was a panic merchant at the back, letting balls bounce, underhitting passes, pumping it long in a panic too. Really poor show from an experienced player. Hanlon should have been talking him through and calming him down, did none of that. 

Vaughan's injury looked pretty bad, i'm hopeful its a groin strain and a few weeks at best, but I just don't feel confident when you see Vaughan go down like that. Fingers crossed for the lad. 

Subs lost us that game, or rather, the way we played after we made our second half subs did. We kept firing long high balls to Smith. As soon as he and Jamieson came on, they should have been running in behind stretching the game and pulling us up the park. Our other sub, Josh Mullin did very little, some really poor passes out of play, slow to move with the ball, just looked like a man incapable of playing football today. I'd probably have looked to bring on Gibson and put Pollock in behind Smith. 

You can see what Murray meant when he said the players weren't fit, far too many couldn't keep it going, too many coming back from injury too, its going to be tough for a few weeks until people get up to speed.

I think this sums up today beautifully. We were coasting until we tired and then we defaulted into the Murrayball Drop deep and defend the lead mode which allowed Hamilton back into the game. Big Kev won us a lot of points last season but he hasn't half lost us a few with errors and poor goalkeeping this season. Hope he can figure that out.

[FitbaSupporter]

5 minutes ago, MICMAC said:

Dear Santa, I know it's early but can you please give Big Kev a pair of hands that will catch a ball. TIA

Was just going to ask if the fan boys are ready to have an honest conversation about his weaknesses. Before anyone goes off on one, not suggesting that the dropped points today were solely on him, but  we need to face up to his deficiencies and how they add to the overall fragility of our defence.

Edited 2 hours ago by FitbaSupporter

[Jilted John]

1 minute ago, FitbaSupporter said:

Was just going to ask if the fan boys are ready to have an honest conversation about his weaknesses. Before anyone goes off on one, not suggesting that the dropped points today were solely on him, but  we need to face up to his deficiencies and how they add to the overall fragility of our defence.

Yeah he’s been at fault for a few goals already this season which is a shame because he pulls off some unbelievable saves at times but struggles with the basics. I’d argue that a new keeper is going to be quite far down our list of priorities though.

[FitbaSupporter]

3 minutes ago, Jilted John said:

Yeah he’s been at fault for a few goals already this season which is a shame because he pulls off some unbelievable saves at times but struggles with the basics. I’d argue that a new keeper is going to be quite far down our list of priorities though.

Yeah we’ve no other option and suspect dropping him would probably shatter his confidence. Needs to work on the basics as you said. 

[FitbaSupporter]

While I’m annoyed and ranting. Liam Dick is f**king rotten. 

[renton]

1 minute ago, FitbaSupporter said:

While I’m annoyed and ranting. Liam Dick is f**king rotten. 

  Euan Murray is available next week?