Fife Derby: Pars vs Rovers - Sat 26th August

[Cardle is Magic]

1 hour ago, DAFC. said:

It was last ditch and defend for lives stuff, and we just couldn’t get anything to stick. Sorely missed Matty Todd and KRH today. I think KRH could could have been the one to unlock the door.

We still need signings.

Nah, it really wasn’t at all tbh. Never looked like scoring and Rovers were pretty comfortable for the most part.

1 hour ago, CALDERON said:

Dunfermline fans have mentioned a game against Falkirk where McPake let them have the ball all game as he knew they would do nothing with it, and Murray essentially did the same thing today.

Said this to my brother after the match - was very similar.

Not a fan being on the other side of it ngl.

9 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

What I would say, is having heard a few of his interviews now, McPake seems like a pretty good egg.  

Agreed.

I very rarely find myself disagreeing with his reflections on the matches either.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Cardle is Magic

[McGuigan1978]

I was fairly confident we’d win today, and as much as we were only one ahead, at no point was I really concerned. 

I thought we probably deserved it.

Aye, there wasn’t much in it, but we spurned a really good chance in the second half, despite Dunfermline’s fabled great defence, and up front they offered nothing. 

Felt like a statement win if we’re genuinely serious about going up this season, but I think we’re a bit short of challenging United. 

As for Dunfermline, a good effort from a newly promoted side, and good luck to them, they really looked plucky! 

[Raithie]

Rovers Twitter going full shithouse this evening

[Wardy]

https://x.com/raithrovers/status/1695520170695905280?s=46&t=zSsktbIqu-L305yojYcYbQ

[Been going too long]

Well played Ross

[mrpaddyx]

A bit of a defensive slog but I’m delighted with the win. If the Pars had a decent striker they would have at least got a point. 

[JamieStevenson]

1 hour ago, Scary Bear said:

Another 4 years?

I probably won't be leaving it so long next time but 18/19 season completely killed my love for going along to EEP. I can accept being shite as long as the game is somewhat entertaining. That year half of the games must have been 1-0 losses with no action whatsoever. Today at times it felt like I was getting flashbacks to those days.

We need 1, maybe even 2 new attacking options that's for sure.

[Raith Against The Machine]

First of all, that was good fun. Football's more enjoyable when you've got a bit of needle, and we've been to plenty derbies where we walked away with nothing. There can't be many better ways than spending a Saturday afternoon than watching a team of players you really like, led by a manager you really like, winning away in a game like that. 

That said, I don't think we played well. But crucially, we never, at any point, played badly. We never did anything stupid, never made silly mistakes, never got frustrated. Scott McGill personifies that perfectly. Compared against natural left backs, was that an actively good fullback performance? Not really. But for someone stuck out of position, on his bad foot? He was excellent. Did everything he had to do, recovered quickly when his first dig didn't come off, stuck to his task, kept his head up, stayed at 100% until the final whistle. 

I don't think it's a game where we ever had it the way we wanted it. If you spoke to Ian Murray before the game and asked him his ideal way for that game to play out, I'm sure it would involve a lot of domination in the middle of the park, controlling the ball, pulling the Pars from side to side, with Mullin and Smith driving into the box to support Jack Hamilton. Basically none of that happened. The first half was basically chaos, but we adapted well. Took a chance, rode a bit of luck, but fundamentally kept the Pars at arm's length. 

I think McPake will be extremely disappointed at how wasteful his team were in the wide areas. Time and again, in the first half particularly, the Pars had the Rovers scrambling with Edwards/Comrie getting forward and McCann/O'Halloran getting wide into the same areas. Far too many of those opportunities ended up with crosses into Murray and Watson, that they'll eat up all day. A couple of direct runs rather than shite crosses and I think you're causing much bigger problems. O'Halloran in particular was garbage. Didn't look like he has the fitness, ability or inclination to really cause bother. 

Also, I don't have a wider point on this, I just want to reiterate that Craig Wighton is absolute muck, and I refuse to acknowledge or even consider any evidence to the contrary. He's just Greig Spence without the hair transplant. League One level at best. 

It was so pleasing to see the Rovers just dig in and see the game out. It's not an asset you'd particularly ascribe to Murray's side, certainly not last season, but they didn't look seriously troubled today. Obviously I was shitting it every time a corner was awarded, particularly after Hamilton went off, and especially once Murray had gone too, but very few of them came close to actually being a threat. A nod to Lewis McCann's freekick that he smashed into the Norrie. In hindsight, I think that was the point that the Pars' players belief started to go. 

I thought Stanton was brilliant for the time he was on the park. Setting aside the goal, he was continually dragging us 20 or 30 yards up the park almost single-handedly. For all I adore Lewis Vaughan, it totally justified Murray's decision. There's no way Lewis gives you that much dig in the middle. Brown and Byrne, who both did their jobs excellently, aren't going to also get you going forward again. Stanton did that exquisitely. 

You put a left back into that team and it really starts to look pretty formidable. Dabrowski was excellent, really exuded confidence for the first time, and the defensive unit looks better every week as they start to gel. If we can get three games on the bounce with our actual starting back four, they should get even better. Byrne and Brown are excellent defensive midfield options, and we've got more quality attacking midfielders than Martin Hardie has restraining orders. A second out-and-out number 9 would be lovely, but Jack Hamilton continues to look really dangerous even without banging the goals in. 

We're not going to win the league. We'll lose plenty games this season. But when it clicks, and it did today even without a fair few things going our way, I really enjoy watching this Rovers side. 

[DAFC.]

49 minutes ago, Cardle is Magic said:

Nah, it really wasn’t

We were in amazing positions constantly and Raith were throwing everything in the way to stop us. They defended amazingly well, took their chance, and we just didn’t seem to be able to get things to stick. They should never have got that opportunity. The two chances they had were from dreadful defensive errors, and took one of them. Like I said previously, that is the kind of game we really need Todd and KRH for.

Thought we were decent but was just “one of those games” and the team that takes their chance wins it. We had plenty of impetus and ample opportunity to win that, and we didn’t have any answers for the way the set up to defend. 

Chalk it off as experience, and move on to an away game against an Inverness side who haven’t got a point yet. Yikes. 

[Broken Algorithms]

I fucking love Ross Millen.

[Cardle is Magic]

11 minutes ago, DAFC. said:

We were in amazing positions constantly and Raith were throwing everything in the way to stop us. They defended amazingly well, took their chance, and we just didn’t seem to be able to get things to stick. They should never have got that opportunity. The two chances they had were from dreadful defensive errors, and took one of them. Like I said previously, that is the kind of game we really need Todd and KRH for.

Thought we were decent but was just “one of those games” and the team that takes their chance wins it. We had plenty of impetus and ample opportunity to win that, and we didn’t have any answers for the way the set up to defend. 

Chalk it off as experience, and move on to an away game against an Inverness side who haven’t got a point yet. Yikes. 

Wish I watched the same game you did because we were several levels below “decent”. I don’t remember us creating anything of note, other than a lot of hopeful crosses into the box.

I agree that Todd and/or KRH would likely have made a difference. Even when we play well there’s a painful lack of creativity and it’s even more apparent when the performance level is low.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Cardle is Magic

[Rammit Bawdeep]

3 hours ago, RR #1 said:

Aye saw him getting treatment but no idea he was choking. Pretty heroic of him to cheat death and still play the full 90 minutes. Fair play to the boy 

Cock

[Stardog_champion]

3 hours ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Aye, I'm amazed folk would be chewing gum during a game. There was a teacher in Kirkcaldy who died from choking on gum playing 5s up at KHS a good few years back. 

That was 2001, I was helping my uncle cleaning windows and the teacher was in the Glenrothes funeral home where I was working, he apparently choked on Nicorette gum

[Enigma]

Looks like Sean Byrne made the correct choice.

[Raithie]

17 minutes ago, Rammit Bawdeep said:

Cock

He chocked on cock?

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Keith Watson and Euan Murray were fucking superb today. Ian Murray said in pre season that we needed two centre halves who want to header everything and throw themselves in front of the ball - and that’s exactly what they did. A blood and guts performance from both of them. McGill filled in really well at LB and covered Murray a couple of times when he got caught wrong side. Didn’t think Byrne, Brown and Stanton really worked as a midfield 3, but I’m not really sure. Stanton scored and should’ve really had a second so I’m happy to concede it can’t have been that bad. 
 

Hope Murray’s injury isn’t too bad. We could do with him and Watson just being fine all season. 

I’ll have to admit it seems the view I had that Watson and Murray might be too slow a pairing was wrong.

[pub car king]

7 minutes ago, Raithie said:

He chocked on cock?

 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, Raithie said:

Rovers Twitter going full shithouse this evening

Let me guess, “Rovers win with no Dick”?

[SirJimmyofNic]

32 minutes ago, Rammit Bawdeep said:

Cock

Wi a user name like yours I'd be careful of saying that

[Ro Sham Bo]

1 hour ago, Broken Algorithms said:

I fucking love Ross Millen.

His celebrations at the end were brilliant.