Pars vs Rovers - Wed 6th April

[maronforgan]

1 hour ago, Ayrpar said:

My frustration isnt just tonight’s performance from Polworth ( and Lawless to some extent)  but both have been very poor for the last 4 plus games. They wouldnt figure in my starting 11.

Absolute pish 

[Salvo Montalbano]

Don't think Polworth was bad at all and his energy in the middle is quite important. When the other options are Dorrans and Dow, both of whom don't have the legs anymore, then thinking he wouldn't be in the starting XI seems a bit odd. Think he'll be a big miss at Killie. 

[Stoo61]

Polwarth is slow, thats my only complaint. When he is played through, he's getting caught but I like him. 

Lawless is good, he can be frustrating but more often than not hes beating his man and can hold onto the ball. Can't shoot. 

[Paco]

20 hours ago, Paco said:

I think Poplatnik’s form has been largely due to having a strike partner, he was pretty rubbish in his occasional starts in the 4-2-3-1 system before. He clearly carried on delivering after the change on Sunday, but I’m not sure I want us to be suckered into thinking we should go back to 4-2-3-1 on a permanent basis.

I mean, we’re nothing if not so fucking predictable…

Worst I’ve seen us all season last night, albeit I missed the Ayr 4-0 loss. So, so bad. Zanatta looked like an Anelka signing. Dave McKay was hung out to dry by the rest of the team for me, particularly Tumilty who was absolutely pathetic. 

Pars clearly deserved the win and the worst part was they didn’t even really need to actually create anything. 

Certainly missing a lot of players, particularly in defence where even one of Berra/Lang/Mackie/Dick would’ve made a huge difference. And playing so soon after a cup final never felt right. But there’s no justification for how bad we were last night and it places an even bigger question mark over McGlynn in the summer. 

[da_no_1]

11 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

The c***s chucking stuff on the pitch need a lifetime ban, only after someone has kicked absolute f**k out of them. Thick, thick wee scumbags. Fucking moron, sheep, unthinking p***ks.

Quite shocked that you get in such a foul-mouthed state about this I have to say. 

[CallumPar]

I mean, we’re nothing if not so fucking predictable…
Worst I’ve seen us all season last night, albeit I missed the Ayr 4-0 loss. So, so bad. Zanatta looked like an Anelka signing. Dave McKay was hung out to dry by the rest of the team for me, particularly Tumilty who was absolutely pathetic. 
Pars clearly deserved the win and the worst part was they didn’t even really need to actually create anything. 
Certainly missing a lot of players, particularly in defence where even one of Berra/Lang/Mackie/Dick would’ve made a huge difference. And playing so soon after a cup final never felt right. But there’s no justification for how bad we were last night and it places an even bigger question mark over McGlynn in the summer. 

Has Ethan Ross been injured/carrying a knock? Genuine question, as he was your best player by far last night and gave Todd a really tough time second half. First half, Todd put in a cracking challenge on Zanatta early on, then Zanatta wouldn’t go near him. We were set up to exploit Zanatta’s laziness in the first half as well, which unfortunately wasn’t executed well. I noticed a few times, Lawless would come inside, and Todd would push forward, so Musonda would pick up Todd. Then Zanatta would be screamed at to mark Lawless. That’s actually how Lawless got his 2 chances in the first half. Because Todd had occupied Musonda and Zanatta hadn’t tracked back. Ethan Ross wasn’t as disinterested and kept tracking Todd though, leaving Musonda on Lawless.

Also, has Stanton been that anonymous every week? I honestly forgot he was playing at times. Pybus and Chalmers both had really good games, but Stanton didn’t exactly make things difficult for them at all. Matthews didn’t do anything other than constantly give away free kicks and Spencer clearly wasn’t ready to be thrown in like that - I’ve rated him in previous games. Think he’s a decent player.

Poplatnik wasn’t awful and (understandably) targeted Ambrose. But the downside of him being a lone striker for so long (from your perspective), was that Donaldson was always there to cover. Poplatnik might have Ambrose for pace, but he was a lot slower than Donaldson. Reminded me of our system before we brought in Polworth, where we had McCann up front on his own and nobody anywhere near him - other than 2/3/4 opposing defenders.

[Ro Sham Bo]

Ross went off with cramp on Sunday. No idea if that had any bearing on him not starting. Agree that he was our only performer last night though. Although he did well out wide last night, his best performances for us have come as a number 10 supporting the lone striker - McGlynn's set up last night left Poplatnik unbelievably isolated. 

Stanton is a funny one. He looks like a good player but he's rarely imposed himself on matches in the way you feel like he should. After a good start with us I've been slightly disappointed by his performances in the past couple of months. I'm hopeful he'll come good in the long run though. 

 

[Ro Sham Bo]

The only positive I can take from that match is that Willie Gibson will have been raging. 

[da_no_1]

I always worry about derby games, suppose it's years of living through in Kinghorn/Kirkcaldy and surrounding myself with Raith fans. Turns out they are absolutely terrible. Slow at the back, wasteful in midfield and even less than us at our worst up front.

Donaldson was utterly immense last night. Proper captain material. If we stay up we should do everything to sign him up. Every player looked like they had clear instructions and followed them to the letter. The only downside was Dan getting booked for a trip early on which is always a worry when he puts in the challenges he does. Chalmers was excellent as was O'Hara who never gave their defence a second to build out and bagged the 2 goals as well. All in all an excellent performance. 

Gives us a wee chance with the 2 homes games to come. What a laugh if we stay up.

Edited April 7, 2022 by da_no_1

[grumswall]

[101]

6 minutes ago, CammyDick said:

my laddie alerted me to this post threatening him with violence. If you’re such a big man making these threats online I think we should meet up for a chat and you can tell him this in person, sm. 

Hi Jimmy nice to have you back x

[Raith Against The Machine]

38 minutes ago, CallumPar said:

Has Ethan Ross been injured/carrying a knock? Genuine question, as he was your best player by far last night and gave Todd a really tough time second half. First half, Todd put in a cracking challenge on Zanatta early on, then Zanatta wouldn’t go near him. We were set up to exploit Zanatta’s laziness in the first half as well, which unfortunately wasn’t executed well. I noticed a few times, Lawless would come inside, and Todd would push forward, so Musonda would pick up Todd. Then Zanatta would be screamed at to mark Lawless. That’s actually how Lawless got his 2 chances in the first half. Because Todd had occupied Musonda and Zanatta hadn’t tracked back. Ethan Ross wasn’t as disinterested and kept tracking Todd though, leaving Musonda on Lawless.

Also, has Stanton been that anonymous every week? I honestly forgot he was playing at times. Pybus and Chalmers both had really good games, but Stanton didn’t exactly make things difficult for them at all. Matthews didn’t do anything other than constantly give away free kicks and Spencer clearly wasn’t ready to be thrown in like that - I’ve rated him in previous games. Think he’s a decent player.

Poplatnik wasn’t awful and (understandably) targeted Ambrose. But the downside of him being a lone striker for so long (from your perspective), was that Donaldson was always there to cover. Poplatnik might have Ambrose for pace, but he was a lot slower than Donaldson. Reminded me of our system before we brought in Polworth, where we had McCann up front on his own and nobody anywhere near him - other than 2/3/4 opposing defenders.

Think you've pretty much nailed all of this on the head, particularly that first half set up with Zanatta.

As Ro Sham Bo says, Ethan Ross was struggling by the end of the final on Sunday, and he'd only come off the bench in that game after an hour, so he's nowhere near full fitness. He's also definitely more effective in the middle where he's got more space to burst into, rather than being stuck out wide, but we've only got two natural wide players in the whole squad so he's ended up out there a fair bit. 

Stanton hasn't really lived up to his early promise. I think the general reaction after his debut was "Holy shit, we've got two Brad Spencers, this is amazing" but he's not quite managed to impose himself on games as much as we'd hoped. 

Our early season midfield trio of Spencer/Matthews/Tait worked really well, even though sometimes those individuals didn't stand out. Tait wasn't having a great season but we've missed his forward drive, and Stanton hasn't been able to control games the way that Spencer has. And I think we saw last night that there's nowhere near enough incision in a Stanton/Matthews/Spencer midfield. 

Spencer has three league goals, Matthews has one, Stanton doesn't have any. That's not enough to support a lone striker. When we finished the game against Queens we still had Zanatta and Connolly out wide but with Ethan Ross in as a 10 (removing Spencer). That's infinitely more effective. 

1 minute ago, CammyDick said:

my laddie alerted me to this post threatening him with violence. If you’re such a big man making these threats online I think we should meet up for a chat and you can tell him this in person, sm. 

Haha, amazing. 

[baillieinleeds]

9 hours ago, 101 said:

Thought it was funny him havering on about the tight squad when he spunked 2 players wages on a rapist who will never play for the team. If anyone is to blame for this situation that he's bemoaning, it is John McGlynn.

That I totally agree with, most if not all Rovers fans will agree. The fuckers in the director’s box and the dugout knew fine he wouldn’t be made welcome, and yet did it anyway, talk about self sabotage. 

[101]

Peter Grant didn't think it was a good idea to play this man at every opportunity. Some laugh really.

[pub car king]

The loss of Hendry and the subsequent poor recruitment followed by selling Tait in January for 7 pence (who would have thought we would do worse business that window) seriously fucked our team. Then along with Spencer being out for so long we struggle to compete. 

Stanton is an interesting one, he is a good player but he hasn't done much potentially because he has too much to do on his own. 

[SirJimmyofNic]

There's no leadership on the pitch or off it, and thats the biggest problem we have

[Enigma]

1 hour ago, pub car king said:

The loss of Hendry and the subsequent poor recruitment followed by selling Tait in January for 7 pence (who would have thought we would do worse business that window) seriously fucked our team. Then along with Spencer being out for so long we struggle to compete. 

Stanton is an interesting one, he is a good player but he hasn't done much potentially because he has too much to do on his own. 

To be fair we sold Tait for at least 100k which going by his performances for us this season looks like robbery on our part. He was stinking.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Enigma

[Enigma]

1 hour ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

There's no leadership on the pitch or off it, and thats the biggest problem we have

It’s certainly a factor. Would only have been MacDonald and possibly Bene aged over 30 on that pitch for us last night? I think we really do need a few more older heads.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Enigma

[101]

2 hours ago, Enigma said:

It’s certainly a factor. Would only have been MacDonald and possibly Bene aged over 30 on that pitch for us last night? I think we really do need a few more older heads.

and neither Benedictus or Macdonald showed any leadership last night.

[Enigma]

Just now, 101 said:

and neither Benedictus or Macdonald showed any leadership last night.

Which was kind of my point, neither are natural leaders but these are our experienced players. Berra’s really the only guy in the leader bracket.