All Activity

I would’ve expecting Dowds to also sign for Ayr, so still doesn’t make sense

The Raith manager Ian Murray was at the game on Friday night, in the interview he said he was at the away game on Tuesday night, I have sat near him twice in the past few weeks, he must have a 200 hundred page dossier on us at least by now..

Never really made sense. BBG has the shirt for now.

George Oakley looks set for Ayr. I suppose he didn't fancy sitting on the bench.

Not having a pop at him, I like him, just think he was looking very tired on Friday for longer than the last 10 mins.

I think he is getting a bit unfairly maligned for Friday. He started the move for the 1st goal and it was only in the last 10 minutes or so that he noticibly tired.

Bannigan in for Neilson for me too. I'd start with McBeth and Muirhead at the back, but be ready to bring on O'Reilly and push McBeth in to midfield depending how things are going. Last season we appeared to catch Ayr cold at this stage. Could that happen again? Rovers haven't had recent playoff experience.

Neilson also looked like he was towing a caravan on Friday, looked really off the pace. I’d be happy to see Bannigan in and not sitting so close to our back line and not affording Raith the same amount of midfield dominance that Airdrie had.

If the fans bring the same energy I’ll raise that to 60/40 tomorrow night at least.

Nah - boy bouncing up and down waving his crutches in the air.

MOTM: Wasiri Williams

Can't see us bossing the midfield unless raith sit back. Our style is very much counter attacking, which can work with a decent defence, so I suspect much of the same. Think we have a 50/50 chance. No matter what looking forward to it.

Great coverage of the JL stand here:

We know Raith are more competent than Airdrie in the final third so we have to take control of the midfield to limit the supply. Bossing the midfield allows greater freedom for McMillan and Milne to be creative when Fitzy is being babysat by more than one defender.

To beat Johnny Jackson’s appearance record, someone would need to play every single game, including some decent cup/playoff runs, for 7 seasons. Whoever does that will be a legend

We got lucky against Airdrie, though, in that their strikers aren’t as good as Raith Rovers. Although I thought Neilson had a decent game on Friday he is a defender and is too close to the defence and not close enough to the forwards and Stanway kind of takes his cue from him, leaving the huge hole in midfield.

But that's been the same story all season. We seem to have just accepted that we can't see a game out comfortably (we have next to little possession late on) and thus will have to defend deep. I feel the only positives now, as opposed to a month or so ago, are the shoring up of the defence with personnel change, and we appear to do the last ditch stuff that bit better. Still not good for my blood pressure.

Strange how perhaps both our best goal of the century and arguably our most important goal of the century were against the same team in the same season.

He got very little on Friday. Airdrie had the freedom of Firhill, at least outside our penalty box.

Favourite Firhill goal would be Dorrans overhead kick vs. Peterhead, shame we lost 1-3. Away goal, probably Doolan vs. Hibernian.

Raith went through a lot of the season scoring in the last few minutes. I don't know whether that was down to superior levels of fitness or good substitutions - or perhaps both. Conversely, we for a spell conceded late goals as we remember all too well. So I think Doolan has to be super smart with his initial line up and substitutions, and have a clear plan for the whole 90 minutes. His focus I think should be in getting more from our midfield, and through that taking some of the pressure off Fitzy.

Assuming no injuries I don't think we need to change the starting XI. We are tho' entering a phase of the play offs where fitness levels have to be considered. With that in mind if the occasion arises I wouldn't be surprised if we protected a thin one goal lead. Positives I can take from last week's games are firstly Fitzpatrick switching wings now and again causing problems for the opposition (eg 1st goal Fri night) and secondly the relative ease we display changing to a back 3/back 5. Doolan's game management home and away v Airdrie has been significant. Could be construed by many as a bit negative, but then again if he's looking at games ahead then you could argue he's being positive. Whatever I feel we're less predictable in play of late.

I’d retain Stanway. 2-1 Jags

I think it probably was their squad. They also had a couple of players who knew how to score. Onto the game, it will probably be the same 11, although we can’t concede the midfield the same as we did against Airdrie. There’s a couple of options to change, I suppose. Ngwenya for Stanway to add a bit more pace or Bannigan for Stanway to give us a bit more control of the ball. Both would be harsh on Stanway who has been decent.

As the joy of Friday settles down we are right back into the mania of the playoffs tomorrow against a team we have struggled to get results against this season. There are arguments though that we could have got more from each and every game though. As an outsider I find it hard to analyse Raith and how they lineup, indeed apart from having a good squad of players what has made them a decent team this season? Anyway, from a red and yellow perspective it is all about what we can bring to the table. Taking a win, however slender up to Kirkcaldy for the second leg would be vital, I feel. I don't see any drastic changes to how we line-up. Despite the results the games have been close and I hope we can get the first part of the job done on Tuesday night. TL;DR - A tight game but Jags to edge it. C'mon the Jags.