Pars vs Rovers Episode V - Really, again?!

[Salvo Montalbano]

1-0 Rovers, get it in the books now. 

Hopefully when all our players are back we scud them when it really matters, in the play-offs. (Not that we'd win the play-offs anyway but still).

[Raith Against The Machine]

We've been off the boil the last two games, but it should be a relatively easy fix, if Murray wants it. 

Shaun Byrne comes back into the midfield alongside Scott Brown, who then has the job of driving us forward. Callum Smith probably the unfortunate one who drops onto the bench. 

A straightforward 4-2-3-1 and we should have enough to get by this Pars side that's severely hampered by injuries. 

It won't be as simple as that, of course, it never is, but that's going to give us the best platform to work from. 

[Fifes Elite Force]

2 minutes ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

We've been off the boil the last two games, but it should be a relatively easy fix, if Murray wants it. 

Shaun Byrne comes back into the midfield alongside Scott Brown, who then has the job of driving us forward. Callum Smith probably the unfortunate one who drops onto the bench. 

A straightforward 4-2-3-1 and we should have enough to get by this Pars side that's severely hampered by injuries. 

It won't be as simple as that, of course, it never is, but that's going to give us the best platform to work from. 

And tbf, smith off the bench if we are holding out isnt the end of the world. I always seen him as a good impact player.

[Raith Against The Machine]

3 minutes ago, Fifes Elite Force said:

And tbf, smith off the bench if we are holding out isnt the end of the world. I always seen him as a good impact player.

Yeah, we're very fortunate that we've got this stable of attacking players we can turn to. You've really got Vaughan, Smith, Mullin, Easton, Connolly and Gullan all competing for the three spots behind Jack Hamilton. Part of our travails in the last three games have been down to Murray trying to get an extra one of them on the park from the start, but it makes us too top heavy. 

[Fifes Elite Force]

3 minutes ago, Raith Against The Machine said:

Yeah, we're very fortunate that we've got this stable of attacking players we can turn to. You've really got Vaughan, Smith, Mullin, Easton, Connolly and Gullan all competing for the three spots behind Jack Hamilton. Part of our travails in the last three games have been down to Murray trying to get an extra one of them on the park from the start, but it makes us too top heavy. 

2 ex pars, a guy who lives in the toon, a guy who loves a hatrick against us and Gullan/mullin two decent-ish c***s.

Looking forward to the onslaught.

Maybe I will get pished the night and change my tune and be cocky and positive tommorow.

[raith1974]

53 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

1-0 Rovers, get it in the books now. 

Hopefully when all our players are back we scud them when it really matters, in the play-offs. (Not that we'd win the play-offs anyway but still).

But the only playoffs you'll be in are at the bottom end of the table. 

[stevoraith]

1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

 

Hopefully when all our players are back we scud them when it really matters, in the play-offs.

Oh Christ, that’s something I hadn’t thought about- there’s a reasonable chance we end up playing each other 8 times this season!

It would be just the thing too that we end the season 25-30 points ahead of you then get scudded in the play-offs!

[The Toun Clock]

3 hours ago, CallumPar said:

If McCann’s out for 6 weeks or so, we might have to look at recalling Taylor Sutherland when the window opens.

He’s only on loan at Bonnyrigg until January so I’d imagine as of tomorrow he’s a Dunfermline player again. I’d keep a hold of him. It’s a sorry state of affairs when I’m getting excited about a teenage striker coming back from a loan spell in league two where he scored twice and hasn’t featured much since the start of December. He does seem to be a bit of a natural finisher, so hopefully keep him with the first team.

As for the game, given our injury situation I can’t see past an away win. Like I said on another thread, it’s one step forward, two steps back with injuries at the moment. We get someone back, then two more drop out. Or in our luck, we get two back, two drop out then another four get injured including the ones that just came back. If this was a Football Manager save I’d frisbee the disc into the Forth.

I think it’s a bad time to catch Raith. They’ve been impressive, resilient and hard to stop this season. Their last two home games haven’t gone to plan, Ian Murray slaughtered them last night in his post match. I’d say they’ll be very much up for Tuesday.

Rovers fans, do you expect to strengthen in January or will it be a case of keep the group you have and only add if necessary? I think Dundee Utd will definitely strengthen after your win on Tayside earlier in the month. 

[Ro Sham Bo]

I think this will be the match where the run ends. The warning signs are all there. 

[Cardle is Magic]

13 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

I think this will be the match where the run ends. The warning signs are all there. 

Nothing more intimidating than playing your rivals when they’re struggling to field 11 senior players.

[CallumPar]

15 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

I think this will be the match where the run ends. The warning signs are all there. 

What warning signs? Genuine question, as I don’t see anything to suggest we’ll win this one.

[Offshore Rover]

7 minutes ago, Cardle is Magic said:

Nothing more intimidating than playing your rivals when they’re struggling to field 11 senior players.

 

6 minutes ago, CallumPar said:

What warning signs? Genuine question, as I don’t see anything to suggest we’ll win this one.

See Raith Rovers V Arbroath, Saturday 30th December 2023. Arbroath resorting to playing their reserve GK upfront, worked out well for us … 

 

In all seriousness though, I do expect some fight from the pars, when teams are struggling for players they tend to rally round together and have a bit more team spirit. At the same time, I do think with all your injuries we will be too strong for you lot this time round

[CALDERON]

12 minutes ago, CallumPar said:

What warning signs? Genuine question, as I don’t see anything to suggest we’ll win this one.

I'd imagine Dunfermline will be better than Arbroath were for 75 minutes yesterday, and we ballsed that up tbh.

[SirJimmyofNic]

36 minutes ago, The Toun Clock said:

He’s only on loan at Bonnyrigg until January so I’d imagine as of tomorrow he’s a Dunfermline player again. I’d keep a hold of him. It’s a sorry state of affairs when I’m getting excited about a teenage striker coming back from a loan spell in league two where he scored twice and hasn’t featured much since the start of December. He does seem to be a bit of a natural finisher, so hopefully keep him with the first team.

As for the game, given our injury situation I can’t see past an away win. Like I said on another thread, it’s one step forward, two steps back with injuries at the moment. We get someone back, then two more drop out. Or in our luck, we get two back, two drop out then another four get injured including the ones that just came back. If this was a Football Manager save I’d frisbee the disc into the Forth.

I think it’s a bad time to catch Raith. They’ve been impressive, resilient and hard to stop this season. Their last two home games haven’t gone to plan, Ian Murray slaughtered them last night in his post match. I’d say they’ll be very much up for Tuesday.

Rovers fans, do you expect to strengthen in January or will it be a case of keep the group you have and only add if necessary? I think Dundee Utd will definitely strengthen after your win on Tayside earlier in the month. 

Hard to tell if we'll strengthen, Murray talked about a speedy winger, but with Stanton out and no news on Watson returning he may need to do something there, alas dont forsee anyone coming in before Tuesday's game.

[Salvo Montalbano]

1 hour ago, raith1974 said:

But the only playoffs you'll be in are at the bottom end of the table. 

What. A. Zinger. I might have to delete my account after that burn.

1 hour ago, stevoraith said:

Oh Christ, that’s something I hadn’t thought about- there’s a reasonable chance we end up playing each other 8 times this season!

It would be just the thing too that we end the season 25-30 points ahead of you then get scudded in the play-offs!

Aye, it's the only problem with the play offs being so big and over two legs. We played Dundee United 7 times in one season quite recently I think (4 league, 1 Challenge Cup, 2 Play-off) but in the days of Scottish Cup replays and League Cup groups you could in theory get 11 games between the same sides (LC Groups, LC Knock-Outs, Scottish Cup, Scottish Cup Replay, Challenge Cup, 4 x League games, 2 x play-offs). If the LC knock out tie was the 2nd round, Challenge Cup and Scottish Cup in the first round we entered and the playoff the quarter final, that would mean a total of 11 games out of 46 games in total of a season, or 24% of your entire season! 

The football gods have a weird sense of humour, so if you want to have a wee security bet on your scenario just in case, I wouldn't think any less of you!

[CallumPar]

48 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

I'd imagine Dunfermline will be better than Arbroath were for 75 minutes yesterday, and we ballsed that up tbh.

We were a lot worse than Arbroath last weekend. Particularly before their players started fighting with each other.

[Cardle is Magic]

Apart from Morton, I can’t remember a good 90 minute performance from us at EEP this season tbh.

Always feels like the opposition dominates the middle of the park and we rely on good balls over the top or crosses/cut-backs to create any chances.

Feel Moffat and Summers can provide more creativity in the middle but Chalmers and Allan have really struggled to make any impact in most of the games I’ve seen.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Cardle is Magic

[ExiledLichtie]

19 minutes ago, CallumPar said:

We were a lot worse than Arbroath last weekend. Particularly before their players started fighting with each other.

Are you lot really trying to claim your injury problems are worse than ours?  Really?  We haven't had a full bench all season, and we had to play an actual goalkeeper outfield, while having a backline of 3 midfielders and a full back.  Its quite pathetic listening to the big full time team trying to claim they are somehow much worse off than anyone else.

[CallumPar]

7 minutes ago, ExiledLichtie said:

Are you lot really trying to claim your injury problems are worse than ours?  Really?  We haven't had a full bench all season, and we had to play an actual goalkeeper outfield, while having a backline of 3 midfielders and a full back.  Its quite pathetic listening to the big full time team trying to claim they are somehow much worse off than anyone else.

What? Sorry, but this is a terrible case of wee man syndrome from you. My post was clearly saying that you played better than us when we played you last week, at least until your players started fighting each other. It had absolutely nothing to do with injuries. How on earth have you taken that as an insult? At no point did I say our injury troubles are worse than anyone else and the post I quoted didn’t mention injuries either. What an odd rant.

Edited December 31, 2023 by CallumPar

[ExiledLichtie]

1 minute ago, CallumPar said:

What? Sorry, but this is a terrible case of wee man syndrome from you. My post was clearly saying that you played better than us when we played you last week, at least until your players started fighting each other. It had absolutely nothing to do with injuries. How on earth have you taken that as an insult? At no point did I say our injury troubles are worse than anyone else. What an odd rant. 

Its not an insult, I just think its quite pathetic listening to Dunfermline fans trying to claim that somehow they won't be able to put out a team.  I've looked at your last 3 matches.  7 on the bench, 8 on the bench, 9 on the bench.  Its not like you're really struggling to get 11 players to play.