Arbroath v Raith Rovers

[Hank Scorpio]

8 minutes ago, Michael W said:

He had a tough shift in the first half. Playing on your own up front is never easy and he had the wind against him as well. Add in lack of match fitness and you can understand him struggling a bit 

However, my concern is just how far he looked off the pace. Not just that he wasn't a bit late in getting to the place he should've been, but he was way off it. Even at our goal he was miles away. Attempts at using him to knock the ball down were not successful either. Whether providing him with a striking partner and therefore giving him less space to cover (in theory) will improve things remains to be seen. 

Very tough shift for Frederiksen last night. We gave him precisely zero balls into the box for him to attack. As much  as the thinking is that he will hold the ball up and let others get around him, his ability to defend set pieces makes me think he’d be good at attacking them, but we almost never cross the ball into the box properly for him to attack. Not writing him off just yet. 

[renton]

21 minutes ago, Beastie Russell said:

I don’t get that brown is why Stanton is playing better, matthews can play that role and allow Stanton to play his. 

Brown had a good start to the season, but was anonymous on Saturday, and a hopeful hoof up the park for the assist last night doesn’t make him a good player.

Looks like last seasons injury and historical red cards v Airdrie are hindering Matthews chances of a start, I’d have him in the team any day of the week.

I'd agree that Brown wasn't great against Morton. Don't think he's had another bad game for us though, and while he and Matthews can do the same role they don't have the same strengths.

I like Brown a lot, last night he did well to snap into challenges in front of the centre backs. He's more direct than Matthews I think and a better carrier of the ball. Matthews is a better passer of the ball.

Matthews will play his part when he's match fit but I don't think it's a simple case of he's intrinsically better than Brown across all metrics that he deserves to be playing right now.

[Enigma]

Not understanding the Brown criticism at all. He’s been fantastic since signing, rolls up his selves and does his best work off the ball, has a great attitude, just been completely solid. His goal against Ayr was lovely too.

[Enigma]

Incidentally comment I heard of the evening was “he must be called the helicopter because he just hovers about”. Hopefully the big man is just adjusting to the tempo of what-have-you but it wasn’t a great performance. He’s clearly not match fit yet and seemed to tire really quickly so hopefully better to come but like Calderon said I’m clutching at straws a bit with him.

[clashcityrocker]

Combination of good goal keeping and Raith lacking a decent striker kept the score at 0-1, could easily have been 0-3.

Arbroath's worst performance of the season, no doubt about that.

[Hank Scorpio]

Stewarding was a bit OTT last night, I thought. Why did they lead the two young Arbroath fans out right along past our fans, rather than putting them out the back, like they had done with one other young lad previously? Also, what are 9-12 year old children doing that’s so bad that it’s worthy of being ejected? They seemed to all have a very high level of self-importance. 

[Lichtie78]

4 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Stewarding was a bit OTT last night, I thought. Why did they lead the two young Arbroath fans out right along past our fans, rather than putting them out the back, like they had done with one other young lad previously? Also, what are 9-12 year old children doing that’s so bad that it’s worthy of being ejected? They seemed to all have a very high level of self-importance. 

Death, taxes & the gayfield stewards being a bunch of jobsworth b*****ds 

[Jack Rae2]

Very good Wednesday night away trip that was. Makes it worth the tiredness at work this morning. Defensively, I’m impressed. O’Riordan is quite simply unreal for his age. I’ve really liked the look of Liam dick this season now at cb. Ngwenya is a much better option than dick at lb due to his forward play, very good going forward. As much as I have slated Millen, the past few games I’ve watched from him I’ve not had many things to complain about, he’s been reasonably good. He’s no RT but hopefully this is him coming into it a bit. Midfield is working well, Stanton is different class. I really like the look of brown however I think I’d still prefer to see Mathews from the start, much faster, constantly putting pressure on. Easton is one of those players who on his day, changes a game. A few matches I’ve seen from him have been poor, holding onto ball for too long which we seen a couple times last night. What I do like is his enthusiasm to be on the ball and do something which a lot of our players simply don’t do. Connolly has been good, player who will work and work for a full game. Big John looked so far off it, really hope he just needs a bit to get into it. Connel, makes some good runs, gets himself into good chances, as a striker he couldn’t have asked for better chances yesterday. Simply needs to learn to put the ball in the net.

Hope to see Ethan Ross back soon, he again like Easton constantly wants the ball and at the end of the day, we all know there is a proper player in the boy. Just seems to need some confidence back. Gullan is a loss in this team though, noticed every time he doesn’t play. Things will string together eventually, it’s always going to take some time at this level under a new manager.

[Tattie36]

1 hour ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Stewarding was a bit OTT last night, I thought. Why did they lead the two young Arbroath fans out right along past our fans, rather than putting them out the back, like they had done with one other young lad previously? Also, what are 9-12 year old children doing that’s so bad that it’s worthy of being ejected? They seemed to all have a very high level of self-importance. 

Our stewards are horrendous. The way they were eyeballing and intimidating the young kids in the second half was a joke. Bunch of 10-13 year old kids having a song song and a bit of fun at the fitba. How to encourage future fans.

Worst I saw was last season when a few young lads ran on the pitch at the end to congratulate Nouble after a great win. A few minutes later I saw them being frog marched by the no.1 a-hole steward to the back of the stand and pushed up against the wall and shouted at. They were about 10-11 years old. If that had been one of my kids I would have rammed his specks down his fecking throat.

I remember when I first started going to games, kids would often run on at the end for autographs etc. not saying it should be encouraged but what harm were they doing? Wasn’t like it was a full scale pitch invasion. It was 3 or 4 wee laddies wanting to speak to their hero. I wonder if they’ve been back?

[Scottydog]

2 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:

Our stewards are horrendous. The way they were eyeballing and intimidating the young kids in the second half was a joke. Bunch of 10-13 year old kids having a song song and a bit of fun at the fitba. How to encourage future fans.

Worst I saw was last season when a few young lads ran on the pitch at the end to congratulate Nouble after a great win. A few minutes later I saw them being frog marched by the no.1 a-hole steward to the back of the stand and pushed up against the wall and shouted at. They were about 10-11 years old. If that had been one of my kids I would have rammed his specks down his fecking throat.

I remember when I first started going to games, kids would often run on at the end for autographs etc. not saying it should be encouraged but what harm were they doing? Wasn’t like it was a full scale pitch invasion. It was 3 or 4 wee laddies wanting to speak to their hero. I wonder if they’ve been back?

Impression I got was they were Rovers fans, I say that because they were the same two were denied entry at the same turnstile as me at twenty to eight. I assumed they'd then tried their luck at the home end and got in only to be escorted out again by the over zealous Gayfield SS (safety & security).

[TxRover]

5 hours ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Very tough shift for Frederiksen last night. We gave him precisely zero balls into the box for him to attack. As much  as the thinking is that he will hold the ball up and let others get around him, his ability to defend set pieces makes me think he’d be good at attacking them, but we almost never cross the ball into the box properly for him to attack. Not writing him off just yet. 

I did notice, from the highlights, that he potentially has the knowledge and understanding to do the job. Notice the break where he was in behind the defence, and about to cross midfield, when the pass to him just got slowed a trifle by an Arbroath toe. His response to the break downfield, to get behind a too far forward defence, and to make the break (while remaining onside) that allowed a pass that would have set him in on the keeper alone, shows some ability.

[DUAFC]

6 hours ago, CALDERON said:

 

Not an expert on Arbroaths squad at all, but Campbells substitutions seemed to smack a bit of desperation and actually helped us see the game out.  If you take Linn out that team, you pretty much obliterate any real creative threat - which it seems is hardly in abundance to start with.

You spotted that, I spotted that - sadly Dick continually can't....scary !!

[Wardy]

47 minutes ago, DUAFC said:

You spotted that, I spotted that - sadly Dick continually can't....scary !!

Not a fan of spotted Dick myself actually. 

[clashcityrocker]

A word of caution to Raith fans before some of you get carried away - Arbroath were rotten last night, this was their worst performance of the season - if you can only score one goal in such circumstances, this is cause for concern.

Equally concerning was that Raith were not much better - an awful match between two teams short of form, flair and creativity.

But fair play for leaving with 3 points.

[grumswall]

A word of caution to Raith fans before some of you get carried away - Arbroath were rotten last night, this was their worst performance of the season - if you can only score one goal in such circumstances, this is cause for concern.
Equally concerning was that Raith were not much better - an awful match between two teams short of form, flair and creativity.
But fair play for leaving with 3 points.

I think we're well aware of our deficiencies seing as most people have been highlighting them for weeks.

[DUAFC]

51 minutes ago, Wardy said:

Not a fan of spotted Dick myself actually. 

Don't put up with it any longer than you have to - there's an ointment that helps.

[Hayshead2]

6 hours ago, clashcityrocker said:

Combination of good goal keeping and Raith lacking a decent striker kept the score at 0-1, could easily have been 0-3.

Arbroath's worst performance of the season, no doubt about that.

I take it you weren't at Cove then.

[Raithie]

49 minutes ago, clashcityrocker said:

A word of caution to Raith fans before some of you get carried away - Arbroath were rotten last night, this was their worst performance of the season - if you can only score one goal in such circumstances, this is cause for concern.

Equally concerning was that Raith were not much better - an awful match between two teams short of form, flair and creativity.

But fair play for leaving with 3 points.

As long as we score a goal more than the opposition I couldn't give a toss if it's 1-0 or 5-0, 3 points is 3 points. What's going in our favour is Arbroath and Cove (and to a lesser degree Hamilton) look like they might save our skin in the shiteyness department. 

[CALDERON]

1 hour ago, clashcityrocker said:

A word of caution to Raith fans before some of you get carried away - Arbroath were rotten last night, this was their worst performance of the season - if you can only score one goal in such circumstances, this is cause for concern.

Equally concerning was that Raith were not much better - an awful match between two teams short of form, flair and creativity.

But fair play for leaving with 3 points.

Main difference is that Rovers are creating chances.  Almost every week we have created pretty decent opportunities,  and more often than not some sitters.

Other than McDonald's save, Arbroath had absolutely nothing.

[clashcityrocker]

27 minutes ago, Hayshead2 said:

I take it you weren't at Cove then.

I was working that day - thankfully missed that debacle.