Raith at Kirkcaldy

[Jag36]

Just now, javeajag said:

Ok we have have played 15 games and conceded 25 goals which means basically we need to score at least 2 goals a game to have chance of drawing or winning … that is just not good enough … we scored 3 goals tonight but conceded 4 you don’t need yo be a genius yo know the issue  

Either give Mitchell a chance or the priority in january needs to be a solid confident goalkeeper

[Duke Gekantawa]

8 minutes ago, Fearchar said:

Poor from Sneddon and Milne, who left position repeatedly, giving room to RR again and again on their right wing.

Yes, Williams has been far better defensively. While I understand the temptation to bring Milne straight back, he simply has not been as good a left back as Williams. this season. Definitely time for Mitchell though. I think he offers so much more going forward also.

[JAG1970]

We’ve now conceded 25 goals in the league, 3 more than bottom club Morton and the same as second bottom Arbroath. Raith have conceded 17 and fourth place Dunfermline 14.
It’s not hard to see where the problem has been all season. It’s not just the goalkeeping position or the back four, it’s the lack of any quality defensive midfielder.

[laukat]

We were poor first half but we actually looked like we had a midfield for most of the second half. Not having Bannigan on the park meant we moved the ball much quicker and much more direct.

Milne looked back to his best but McMillan and Lawless never got going. Beginning to think teams have figured them out.

Adeloye looked miles off it when he came on but Diack has something about him.

Game was lost when Raith's centrehalf went off. Raith's manager took the opportunity to go for it, Doolan stuck with what he had. If Doolan had put on a second striker at that point the game was ours. Doolan really needs some help with his subs, they are too slow, too timid and often just like for like. 

In saying all that I thought we would have got turned over tonight so to only lose by one was better than I hoped for.

[Fearchar]

2 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

Yes, Williams has been far better defensively. While I understand the temptation to bring Milne straight back, he simply has not been as good a left back as Williams. this season. Definitely time for Mitchell though. I think he offers so much more going forward also.

Yup. 2 goals conceded at the near post is poor for any goalkeeper.

[javeajag]

4 minutes ago, Fearchar said:

Out of likes, but yes - we're facing at least two clubs wirh much bigger financial backing (one of them tinight's opposition), yet we're well in the running for a playoff position.

I’m not sure the financial gap between us and Raith is that significant … they had a free agent starting tonight …. The idea that Muirhead is a good CB id worrying 

[Albert's Ghost]

Great game mind.

[Fearchar]

1 minute ago, javeajag said:

I’m not sure the financial gap between us and Raith is that significant … they had a free agent starting tonight …. The idea that Muirhead is a good CB id worrying 

New owner bounce?

[jaggy]

Our defending is diabolical. Just saw the winner again. It’s never a free kick but any of our opponents would stand over the taker or kick the ball away but we stand back and get caught with the quickly taken free kick again. 

[Duke Gekantawa]

5 minutes ago, javeajag said:

Ok we have have played 15 games and conceded 25 goals which means basically we need to score at least 2 goals a game to have chance of drawing or winning … that is just not good enough … we scored 3 goals tonight but conceded 4 you don’t need yo be a genius yo know the issue  

I think the management know that our defence have been very poor. The management have said that a defensive midfielder is a priority. Conversely as an attacking force we’ve been excellent. Much of the time we’ve scored that 2 or 3 goals our defence deems necessary. This has averaged out as a comfortable third place. I really don’t think that’s as bad as being made out

[Duke Gekantawa]

2 minutes ago, jaggy said:

Our defending is diabolical. Just saw the winner again. It’s never a free kick but any of our opponents would stand over the taker or kick the ball away but we stand back and get caught with the quickly taken free kick again. 

I think it was Neilson that was very naive there- he is very young I suppose. There was some bad luck you touch on though. The first goal was never a corner, and as you say I really don’t see how that was a free kick either 

[JAG1970]

3 minutes ago, jaggy said:

Our defending is diabolical. Just saw the winner again. It’s never a free kick but any of our opponents would stand over the taker or kick the ball away but we stand back and get caught with the quickly taken free kick again. 

Yes, it seems they all switched off and Neilson practically jogged back but the whole team mindset was not one of “switched on”.. pretty naive 

[Duke Gekantawa]

7 minutes ago, javeajag said:

I’m not sure the financial gap between us and Raith is that significant … they had a free agent starting tonight …. The idea that Muirhead is a good CB id worrying 

Maybe not, but nor have we been on the pitch- a draw and a loss by the odd goal in 7. They are possibly benefiting from a manager with a little more experience. I think Doolan’s doing fine in the circumstances, but he’s still very much a rookie.

[fenski]

Find it hard to be overly analytical of a game we lost by the odd goal in seven away on a plastic pitch in the rain. Shit happens.

[jaggy]

14 minutes ago, JAG1970 said:

Yes, it seems they all switched off and Neilson practically jogged back but the whole team mindset was not one of “switched on”.. pretty naive 

Nelson was penalised and tried to block the free kick but was too slow to react and was 30 yards out of position as a result of quick thinking by Raith, something they did all night. 
 

I’ve noticed many times recently that when we win free kicks the opposition either get hold of the ball or stand over it. Quite often they seem to have 1 or 2 players delegated to do that task. It’s something we’re quite naive with. 

[fenski]

I think we've been slow to get the ball moving again from set pieces for years.

[Duke Gekantawa]

4 minutes ago, fenski said:

I think we've been slow to get the ball moving again from set pieces for years.

We’re definitely slow at moving from the back when Sneddon’s playing, which is the main reason for my preference for Mitchell. I accept both are capable of displays such as Sneddon’s today, from a pure goalkeeping point of view

Edited December 8, 2023 by Duke Gekantawa

[Albert's Ghost]

Rovers have won 10 in the league so far.  All by a single goal.  Now that is something.

[fenski]

23 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

We’re definitely slow at moving from the back when Sneddon’s playing, which is the main reason for my preference for Mitchell. I accept both are capable of displays such as Sneddon’s today, from a pure goalkeeping point of view

Totally agree. Mitchell's distribution is well ahead of Sneddon's. Not sure when we'll get to see him though given Doolan's approach to team selection. Maybe if we lose again next week, we'll see a change.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I'd like to thank fenski for his las three posts 👍. Saves repetition from me.

[partickthedog]

Terrible start to second half. Came back into it through the fortunate own goal and then played really well from being 2-1 down to 3-2 up. Fitzy began running at the defence and they had no answer to him. Real spirit and drive, but then when we had the initiative we unaccountably sat back and invited Raith to take over the game, which they happily did to good effect.

Tremendous away support tonight which really lifted the team back into the game.

The main positive to take is that the team did not give up at 2-0 down and playing poorly, but somehow clawed their way back. The third goal was excellent.

Diack looked much more of a threat than Adeloye.

[Muscat Jag]

1 hour ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

I’ve never understood this sort of post personally. Raith have excelled all season in snatching wins at the death. Meanwhile we’ve not lost much late on this season, except to Raith. Maybe Raith are just better than us this year?

It's been a recurring theme for years and years. Off the top of my head from last season Dundee and Cove. It was the same last week when we were hanging on for grim death. 

Defending a lead isn't necessarily a bad thing if you actually know what you're doing. Problem is we are absolutely shit at it. We completely lose our shape and drop deeper and deeper. Watch Raith's equaliser, a complete replay of the two late goals at Firhill, pass the ball past the statues and you've scored.

About the only respite in recent years was the end of last season and the playoffs where when we were on top we kept going for the jugular.

It's not so much that we got beat tonight, Raith were the better team, but when we went ahead they were on the ropes until we decided to see it out. Normal service has been resumed. 

[jaggy]

1 minute ago, Muscat Jag said:

It's been a recurring theme for years and years. Off the top of my head from last season Dundee and Cove. It was the same last week when we were hanging on for grim death. 

Defending a lead isn't necessarily a bad thing if you actually know what you're doing. Problem is we are absolutely shit at it. We completely lose our shape and drop deeper and deeper. Watch Raith's equaliser, a complete replay of the two late goals at Firhill, pass the ball past the statues and you've scored.

About the only respite in recent years was the end of last season and the playoffs where when we were on top we kept going for the jugular.

It's not so much that we got beat tonight, Raith were the better team, but when we went ahead they were on the ropes until we decided to see it out. Normal service has been resumed. 

Bang on MJ. Tonight's winner was just like the RC equaliser that led to our demise in the play off final, a quick play at a set piece completely took us apart. I really wonder if we need some form of defensive coaching as our management team were both forwards

[Duke Gekantawa]

6 minutes ago, Muscat Jag said:

It's been a recurring theme for years and years. Off the top of my head from last season Dundee and Cove. It was the same last week when we were hanging on for grim death. 

Defending a lead isn't necessarily a bad thing if you actually know what you're doing. Problem is we are absolutely shit at it. We completely lose our shape and drop deeper and deeper. Watch Raith's equaliser, a complete replay of the two late goals at Firhill, pass the ball past the statues and you've scored.

About the only respite in recent years was the end of last season and the playoffs where when we were on top we kept going for the jugular.

It's not so much that we got beat tonight, Raith were the better team, but when we went ahead they were on the ropes until we decided to see it out. Normal service has been resumed. 

It was indeed a problem in our premiership era. Of course it was. I don’t agree it’s been a significant problem since then. Obviously we’re going to concede late goals when defending a lead sometimes. Every team does. That is entirely natural when the normal dynamic is one team throwing their everything at the other. It’s when it happens an unnatural amount of times that it becomes an issue.

I’ve looked through all last season’s results and this season’s to date, and there are very few which have ended by us losing points in the last 5 minutes and not many points lost from winning positions. Our record from winning positions in the past 18 months or so is in fact excellent.

I suspect you might still be unduly traumatised from the premiership years,

[Muscat Jag]

3 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

It was indeed a problem in our premiership era. Of course it was. I don’t agree it’s been a significant problem since then. Obviously we’re going to concede late goals when defending a lead sometimes. Every team does. That is entirely natural when the normal dynamic is one team throwing their everything at the other. It’s when it happens an unnatural amount of times that it becomes an issue.

I’ve looked through all last season’s results and this season’s to date, and there are very few which have ended by us losing points in the last 5 minutes and not many points lost from winning positions. Our record from winning positions in the past 18 months or so is in fact excellent.

I suspect you might still be unduly traumatised from the premiership years,

No it's mostly about the entire team dropping back to the 18 yard line en masse, mainly since we were relegated from the premiership. I've lost count of the number of times I've been part of the Jackie Husband stand all urging our team to get up the park. At least keep your shape.