Raith vs Caley

[ExiledLichtie]

I didnt realise Raith had an Inverness hoodoo as well.  They seemed to have our number for the last couple of seasons as well, but Saturday was easily the worst Inverness team I can remember seeing.  If Raith can't beat Inverness with a team featuring Jack Hamilton and some of the best transfer business in the division, they never will.

No pressure lads.

[Pride of Fife]

Inverness pre match….

Inverness at full time….

Home support….

[Richey Edwards]

Billy Dodds is a very violent man.

His contribution to the Boxing Community should never be forgotten. 

[R.R.FC]

32 games and 23 years since our last win against Inverness in 90 minutes. I know all Rovers fans know that but it really is quite incredible. Current form suggests we really should be looking to win this but history suggests we’ll find some sort of daft way to lose/draw.

In reality it’s a different squad of players that hopefully won’t take much notice of the past and will just get the job done.

Very difficult to predict what our starting line up will be. Keith Watson and Sam Stanton weren’t even in the squad at the weekend, were they injured or just rested? Assuming they are both fit and Millen makes it, the back 4, midfield 2 and striker picks itself for me but the 3 behind Hamilton is very difficult.

Ahead of Brown and Byrne we have Smith, Connolly, Mullin, Easton, Vaughan, Stanton, Gullan and Ross competing for 3 places behind what will surely be Hamilton as the number 9. Ross, Connolly and Gullan will be on the bench but the decision after that is really difficult.

Callum Smith has been our form player in recent weeks with 4 goals and 1 assist in his last 6 starts. I think the 3 of him, Stanton and Mullin has a real nice balance to it with Smith’s pace in behind, Mullin’s width and delivery (which I thought we really missed first half on Saturday) and Stanton picking up pockets, being excellent on the ball and all 3 working very hard off the ball.

However, Vaughan has 3 goals and an assist in his last game and a half and he and Easton changed the game against QP and ran the show second half on Saturday. Really interesting to see what Murray goes with, certainly a good ‘problem’ to have but, assuming everyone is fit, at least 2 players are going to be very rightfully pissed off to be on the bench.

I think as he’s done in the past he’ll pick the team based on most recent form, it’s the easiest to justify when trying to explain the decision to players missing out and keep them onside and he’ll go with:

Dabrowski

Millen     
Watson     
Murray    
Dick

Brown     
Byrne

Smith     
Vaughan     
Easton

Hamilton

It’s not what I’d go with but it’s what I think we’ll see. 

Edited September 11, 2023 by R.R.FC

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, R.R.FC said:

32 games and 23 years since our last win against Inverness in 90 minutes. I know all Rovers fans know that but it really is quite incredible. Current form suggests we really should be looking to win this but history suggests we’ll find some sort of daft way to lose/draw.

In reality it’s a different squad of players that hopefully won’t take much notice of the past and will just get the job done.

Very difficult to predict what our starting line up will be. Keith Watson and Sam Stanton weren’t even in the squad at the weekend, were they injured or just rested? Assuming they are both fit and Millen makes it, the back 4, midfield 2 and striker picks itself for me but the 3 behind Hamilton is very difficult.

Ahead of Brown and Byrne we have Smith, Connolly, Mullin, Easton, Vaughan, Stanton, Gullan and Ross competing for 3 places behind what will surely be Hamilton as the number 9. Ross, Connolly and Gullan will be on the bench but the decision after that is really difficult.

Callum Smith has been our form player in recent weeks with 4 goals and 1 assist in his last 6 starts. I think the 3 of him, Stanton and Mullin has a real nice balance to it with Smith’s pace in behind, Mullin’s width and delivery (which I thought we really missed first half on Saturday) and Stanton picking up pockets, being excellent on the ball and all 3 working very hard off the ball.

However, Vaughan has 3 goals and an assist in his last game and a half and he and Easton changed the game against QP and ran the show second half on Saturday. Really interesting to see what Murray goes with, certainly a good ‘problem’ to have but, assuming everyone is fit, at least 2 players are going to be very rightfully pissed off to be on the bench.

I think as he’s done in the past he’ll pick the team based on most recent form, it’s the easiest to justify when trying to explain the decision to players missing out and keep them onside and he’ll go with:

Dabrowski

Millen     
Watson     
Murray    
Dick

Brown     
Byrne

Smith     
Vaughan     
Easton

Hamilton

It’s not what I’d go with but it’s what I think we’ll see. 

The problem I would see is if Brown and Stanton were “given a rest”. While I understand the desire to bring Brown back immediately, Stanton has been every bit as important, if not more so. Thus benching him would not be a good example of IM’s normal way of doing things, so I suspect Stanton comes back, despite Easton’s contributions. If one or both had niggles, all bets are off.

[Hank Scorpio]

4 minutes ago, TxRover said:

The problem I would see is if Brown and Stanton were “given a rest”. While I understand the desire to bring Brown back immediately, Stanton has been every bit as important, if not more so. Thus benching him would not be a good example of IM’s normal way of doing things, so I suspect Stanton comes back, despite Easton’s contributions. If one or both had niggles, all bets are off.

Brown? Scott Brown who played 90 minutes on Saturday? 

[TxRover]

21 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Brown? Scott Brown who played 90 minutes on Saturday? 

It was 0630, and it’s cooler and raining, so I’m completely distracted…SMB (sorry, my bad) 

…I meant Millen, but now I remember IM saying he’s nicked. So adjust above accordingly….

[Juanjo Nostalgia]

Caley to lose

Dodds to stay

Fans to tweet

Repeat, repeat

Edited September 11, 2023 by Juanjo Nostalgia

[Enigma]

It not been a great start but is it really sacking territory for Dodds already? Seemed like you were doing well last season when not ravaged by injury and he got you a Scottish cup final, which by some accounts probably saved you lot from admin? Deserves a bit of credit for that, no?

[Stephen Malkmus]

Away win.

[MC_Lachlan]

Feeling confident going into this fixture makes me unconfident. 

[CityDave94]

Starting to read like this will be Raith Rovers biggest game of the season.

They are finally seeing an opportunity to get that one win to add to the other 5 against the club formerly known as the Barcelona of the Highlands now more like Scunthorpe Utd of the Highlands in a huge game that will bring in the crowds from all over the Kingdom to the San Starko with the anticipation to match the confidence we are reading on this forum.

This is going to be the equivalent of Hibs reaching a cup final and they can dream of that 6th win against us and a memorable 3 points but at the back of their minds will always be the ever present fear just like Hibs fans that their team left their bottle in the changing rooms.

Regardless that we are absolute dogshit right now.

 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

2 minutes ago, CityDave94 said:

Starting to read like this will be Raith Rovers biggest game of the season.

We've still to play Hill of Beath in the Fife Cup.

[PB1994]

6 hours ago, Enigma said:

It not been a great start but is it really sacking territory for Dodds already? Seemed like you were doing well last season when not ravaged by injury and he got you a Scottish cup final, which by some accounts probably saved you lot from admin? Deserves a bit of credit for that, no?

Absolutely fucking not.

[sophia]

7 hours ago, Enigma said:

It not been a great start but is it really sacking territory for Dodds already? Seemed like you were doing well last season when not ravaged by injury and he got you a Scottish cup final, which by some accounts probably saved you lot from admin? Deserves a bit of credit for that, no?

There is footage of our chairman celebrating our Scottish Cup progress and his relief was as obvious as his delight so at the very least, there was a huge financial easing.

Of course Dodds deserves credit as you describe and only performative or churlish contributors would suggest otherwise.

However, there have been poor decisions recently made and I feel an autumnal chill that Dodds would do very well to insulate himself from.

[McGuigan1978]

Had a look at our current winless runs (in 90 minutes) against the rest of the SPFL, and it makes our record against ICT look even sillier.

From what I could see, our poorest sequences against sides from the Championship downwards are; Inverness Caledonian Thistle 32, Ayr United 3, Partick Thistle 3.

Even if you take the Premiership into account, the only side we're into double figures with are Celtic. It doesn't make a lick of sense.

 

[Broken Algorithms]

Can see us having Thomson out for Saturday, no recall on McNeill, and a red card for Dabrowski at some point. Is this niche circumstances? Absolutely, but this is Rovers versus Caley.

[lellywong]

This losing run v Caley Thistle has to end at some point, Saturday would be a great place to start.  Almost different team, different mindset and a manager that will make sure the players are more than up for it, keep the faith 

[TxRover]

6 hours ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Can see us having Thomson out for Saturday, no recall on McNeill, and a red card for Dabrowski at some point. Is this niche circumstances? Absolutely, but this is Rovers versus Caley.

Nay problem, McGill to Keeper.

[renton]

27 minutes ago, lellywong said:

This losing run v Caley Thistle has to end at some point, Saturday would be a great place to start.  Almost different team, different mindset and a manager that will make sure the players are more than up for it, keep the faith 

Ive lost count of how many times ive said that. Less than 32, certainly but not by much.