Just In From Kircaldy

[Fearchar]

A battling performance in the end, by which time it looked as if ten-man Thistle were more likely to grab a goal.

 

The referee began by being generous with cards, and made a mess of it as a result. However, the passing among the players was very disjointed, and they were too keen to accept the challenge of head tennis: Welsh and Erskine were notable exceptions, since they tried to kill the ball more often. Sinclair was rather lackadaisical, putting the defence under pressure needlessly.

 

A creditable point under difficult circumstances.

 

My man of the match? The twelfth man, without a doubt: well done, the Jags support.

[Gordie]

Poor game, Raith just hoof and chase and got in our faces. Some poor performances from Jags players but I suppose they are due one. Our full backs were not at their best, and Welsh was also not at the races.

 

As for the sending off,2 yellows prob justified however both came from short passes by S O' D. The 2nd could be argued that we gained no advantage from a foul on a Jags player.

 

Not a bad result tho.

 

[Gordie]

Just to add, the pitch looked ok from where I was sitting

[Jaggyman]

That wasnt a game of football it was a see who can kick the ball highest an furthest competition absolutely awful stuff. We were lucky to go in at half time level with Raiths constant arial bombardment causing us trouble Fox had 2 excellent stops in first half. 2nd half got off to worst possible start with Muirheads ordering off dunno who ref was but he ws abysmal and muirheads 2 yellows were probably a couple of his correct decisions. After ordering off we actually looked the better team but struggled to find any fluency. Bannigan had a god run and shot and Craig looked like he was hauled to the deck at a corner. Too many players had off days and given the circumstances it was imo an excellent point----monajags

[chunky jag]

I thought pitch was way too sandy.

 

Thought we were quite poor. Yeh, kept clean sheet again, superb, but not for the want of trying to concede at times! but when i consider we didn't have a shot at goal on target all night that i can remember, im disappointed in performance. Coped well when dowm to ten though.

 

Slack passing, really disjointed display, our fullbacks both had nightmares. Muirhead sending off deserved, 2 definite yellows and maybe lucky to not have one for bit of a lunge on graham in firt half. Would need to see replay.

 

 

[Willjag]

If there was sand on the pitch you can bet it was there to hide a multitude of problems. Doesn't suit our style of play so I'd imagine we had to try and adapt our style of play. A good result despite the performance under the circumstances I'd suggest.

[craigthepict]

McMillan slotted in well when he came on in difficult circumstances so a good debut for him actually. Pitch looked fine to me also so no excuses there. That animal Simon Mensing got man of the match presumably for being really good at pushing as that's all he done. Another clean sheet. Another point. 12? matched unbeaten.

 

It's easy to get greedy when the team has been so fecking good this season, credit for the battling in the second half which at the end of the day has resulted in going home with a point. It could EASILY have been worse.

[The Arch]

SOD sold Muirhead down the river for both his yellow cards. Both desperate challenges made after SOD played terrible passes to him.

 

Fox played well, and McMillan looks a good signing but not a great day at the office.

[uberteeb]

I thought pitch was way too sandy.

 

Thought we were quite poor. Yeh, kept clean sheet again, superb, but not for the want of trying to concede at times! but when i consider we didn't have a shot at goal on target all night that i can remember, im disappointed in performance. Coped well when dowm to ten though.

 

Slack passing, really disjointed display, our fullbacks both had nightmares. Muirhead sending off deserved, 2 definite yellows and maybe lucky to not have one for bit of a lunge on graham in firt half. Would need to see replay.

 

Bannigan hit a poor effort from about 20 yards that I could have saved but that was about it.

[jagfox]

0-0 with Raith having the better of the first half and they gave a spirited performance. Too many slack passes, as said by the OP two of these from SoD cost Muirhead a red card. We only had a couple of shots on target, Erskine in the first and Banzo in the second with what amounted to a passback largely to it being hit with his right foot.

Pretty horrible game on a cold night. Happy to take a point on reflection especially with a third of the game being played with ten men.

MacMillan did well when he came on and SoD raised his game. Raith seemed to fade out of the game in the last half hour and didn't threaten Fox's goal much in that spell.

Muirhead and O'Donnell had a wee go at each other in the first half, with fingers getting pointed at who they should have been picking up.

Muirhead was doing ok and Balatoni had a good game for me. Midfield struggled to find space for a lot of the game and misplaced a lot of passes.

Doolan struggled against the back three of Rovers but put in a shift.

Erskine kept going for the 90 minutes but didn't get the break of the ball.

Ref seemed a bit sluggish penalising Rovers players but can't argue with the yellows and subsequent red we picked up.

Oh well, probably more words than that game deserves, but 14/18 points in Fife is not bad in anyone's book and we are a point closer to the title, so keep believing troops

[northernsoul]

Ok, so it wasn't a great performance and we didn't make most of some promising opportunities and we didn't score.

 

But we didn't get beat either and it's a clean sheet away from home at a difficult venue.

 

There's a lot of positives you can take from that. Especially considering we were down to ten for 30+mins with pretty much all but one player playing their 4th match in 10 days. Going down to ten men sort of galvanized us and every player worked so hard for one another. The managerial team will be thrilled with the work rate.

 

That's league winning material. A fantastic point in the cold light of day. I'm delighted.

[MWM]

In the Dumbarton game minus Paton or Murray we were overrun for much of it but got off the hook, tonight was much the same and we failed to win. Against a Livi type team where you don't have to battle long ball merchants and hammer throwers we can get away without having one of them, but at least one was needed tonight and we sorely missed that sort of presence. The full backs had poor games too due to a lot of poor positioning and Sinclair in particular got no change going forward. Doolan had a very good game prior to Craig going off and won a lot despite having to feed off scraps from high balls. Impressed by McMillan as well when he came on.

[Armand2]

If we'd been offered seven points out of nine from three away games in Fife within six days, I'm pretty sure most of us would have taken it. Strange feeling when leaving the game though - relief that we had got a point with ten men and disappointment that we never capitalised on a gilt-edged chance to steal the three points. Pretty similar to the first game at Raith in that respect.

 

We looked extremely nervous throughout the game with very few players willing to take responsibility on the ball. The usually assured Muirhead and Balatoni were content to loft aimless high balls into the channels where the normal presence of Lawless, in particular, was completely absent. This contributed to sustained periods of pressure from Raith as the ball just kept coming back on top of us. We also lost, more or less, every single second ball throughout the entire game - whether that was through bad luck or poor positioning is open to debate. Welsh was terribly poor in possession and was lucky on numerous occasions when he attempted ill-advised cross-field passes which were duly intercepted. The midfield in general failed to impose themselves on the game in the first half although they weren't helped by the fact the ball was in the air for the majority.

 

The second half was largely more of the same although we did manage to start a couple of counter attacks which, by and large, were pretty non-threatening. The only exception to that was the aforementioned chance which Bannigan completely fluffed.; if he could finish, we would have James McCarthy II on our hands. Erskine also created a decent chance but Craig seemed to get in the way and possession was lost.

 

As it has already been mentioned, O'Donnell should be apologising to Muirhead for two ridiculously short passes, the first in particular which left him with little option but to bring the Raith player down. How Craigen never got booked, I'm not sure but certainly not complaining.

 

On the bright side, McMillan came on and did very well. Seems like a good talker, is quite mobile and can bring the ball out of defence well. I would imagine it'll be a straight swap for Muirhead for the Morton game. Fox was outstanding and played a significant role in winning us what could turn out to be a vital point. More so than most, Erskine worked his bollocks off which cannot be said for Aaron Sinclair; he is one lackadaisical player (or a lazy b*stard, if you prefer). I lost count of the amount of times he could have overlapped but didn't, could have got to a ball earlier to give himself more time but didn't, could have played the ball up the line to Erskine but didn't. Never mind your Ronaldo chops, just get up the f*cking line.

 

I'm not particularly looking forward to playing Raith again in a fortnight. When we do, I would be inclined to start with Craig for his experience and hopefully Paton will be back.

 

Anyway, it's another point on the board and another ahead of Morton. Let's go and win the diddy cup now.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Armand2

[1 John Lambie]

Probably our worst performance of the season & Raith should have been a couple up at HT. Saying that though we did have chances & on another day could have snatched all 3pts. 7 from 9 away in Fife over a week is very good, this point could just be the one that wins us the league. Beat Morton next week we'll be a minimum 5pts ahead with a game in hand, big ask but doable.

 

Echo the comments about Sinclair, was caught ball watching I don't know how many times in the 1st half, not going to call him a lazy ******* as he's not but he certainly wasnt at his best tonight, like a number of the team. Tiredness/nervousness? Maybe a mixture of both but Raith should be credited with how little space & time they afforded us, that was probably the key factor in us playing so badly at times.

 

Ref called the red card right, 2 very avoidable bookings though. 1st I can understand why Muirhead dived in as it was a dangerous position but I think he needs to be more aware of his surroundings on the halfway line & not dive in blindly when it is likely that a player will be trying to nick the ball ahead of him. Very lucky to escape punishment in the 1st half on Graham it looked like too, high challenge & a scissor action, dangerous.

 

Onwards & (further) upwards, definitely make afew changes for the Cup Final, some players must need a rest for what cold be the title decider.

Edited April 2, 2013 by 1 John Lambie

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Most been said already.

There's no way you can credit our defence for a clean sheet as by the law of averages Raith should have been one or two up at half time. Willing tho' to say that while Raith were unlucky not to score we seemed to miss out on the bounce of the ball more often than them. I'd thus be equally willing to accept that the pitch was worse than it looked and players on both sides made to look sillier than they were.

When Bannigan was booked for his first tackle I said the ref was going to have a busy night. He then booked the Raith player for an equally soft tackle to even up the score. Thankfully he wasn't consistent and thereafter showed more tolerance tho' not enough to keep Muirhead on the pitch.

Not sure whether a point tonight and a suspension to a key player is a good result but we created few scoring chances and i suppose we should be chuffed.

[lewcal]

Probably the worst iv seen the jags play this season and hopefully it'll serve as a wake up call that although we're still a very good side we're not bulletproof. To be as slack and disjointed as we were tonight,play 30+ mins with 10 men,at a notoriously hard venue and still get a point bodes well for the remaining games.

I'll enjoy Sunday when it comes but it's the Morton game that's on my mind now and the butterflies have started already!!!

[The Cuddly Toi]

This was our 3rd game in 7 days. The team were tired and boy did it show. Misplaced passes, hospital balls, inability to control the ball, failure to win the 50/50s, headers lost to pygmies, poorly timed tackles, all classic signs of tired players. And Raith realised we'd be tired and buzzed around like mad, creating a lot of chances but spurning all of them. Bizarrely, the empty goal that Doolan missed was the easiest chance of the first half.

 

After the sending off the ten men really got stuck in and finally started spraying passes around. Bannigan created but failed to take an excellent scoring opportunity. Until then only Erskine had shown any sort of sparkle. Raith fell out of the game until the last five minutes, when we survived some scary moments.

 

The Thistle Fans were magnificent. They knew the lads were tired and didn't dwell on the mistakes and errors, but cheered and chanted and sang and encouraged. And in my opinion it was that encouragement that kept the players running and covering and tackling and blocking until the final whistle.

 

So well done the players and well done the fans

[Alan100]

I agree with most comments. We were second best for most of the game with few players gaining pass marks, but they looked tired and Archie and Shaggy will need all their experience to prepare them for Sunday and Wednesday.

Who should play alongside Balatoni against Morton? McMillan, Dowie, Archie? If Paton is out we need someone to anchor midfield.

[Joroshjag]

Can't understand why people are saying the team looked tired IMO they finished the game stronger than Raith and were still getting up and down the park. Think we have to play McMillan against Morton, the last thing we need are a huge number if changes. We all would have taken 5 points ahead with 6 games remaining at the start of the season.

[jags on tour]

seems as though we all agree for once we played crap, just about deserved a point and done well to hold on with 10 men.

A few tough calls for Archie to make now for Sunday, with Muirhead suspended against Morton does he play McMillan and Balatoni in defence to get them used to playing together? do we stick with Doolan against Queens as I think Archie will prefer playing Craig against Morton? I really hope Paton is back for the Morton game or I can see us struggling, our midfield didn't know what to do against Hardie, we were all scared of him. I can't see us beating Morton to be honest as we struggle against big physical teams full of giants as we did last night and playing one man upfront against the likes of Reid, Mcglaughlin,Rutkiewicz isn't going to win us the match.

[Willjag]

McMillan is cup tied for Sunday JOT.

[jags on tour]

McMillan is cup tied for Sunday JOT.

 

ah right cheers, well Muirhead and Balatoni to start then!

[H Wragg]

Thought the pitch, although it looked quite good, was in a bit of a state. Untrue bounces, dead bounces and quite a bit of sand spraying up.

[Jaggernaut]

Under normal circumstances a clean sheet and a point at Starks would be deemed OK, but given our recent excellent form it felt like a disappointment. Some terrible, terrible "passing", either in extremely tight, static wee triangles that were going nowhere and we eventually lost the ball, woefully inadequate cross-field trundlers that got intercepted, and clueless punts.

 

Both O'Donnell and Sinclair were well off form. Early on Aaron got nicely down the wing then completely blasted a cross way beyond the goal and out; after that he mostly made mistakes. O'Donnell was really just off the boil. It is a shame that he seems to have been told to hang back on not go on those runs that he can do so well, so instead he punted it (poorly) on several occasions. Also basically got Muirhead sent off.

 

Sure, our defensive record looks excellent since Archie took over, but there can be little denying that we've lost much of our threat from our fullbacks belting down the wings, which they're normally great at doing.

 

Too much slackness in midfield too last night, either getting caught in possession or gifting the ball right to Rovers players. But our best couple of chances came from surging runs right through the midfield. What a pity that Bannigan couldn't finish his great run with a high curling shot instead of his low, weak effort right at the keeper.

 

Many of our players (and none of theirs) were slipping around last night, both in defence and in attack; we're lucky that on at least one occasion it didn't allow them to score, and unlucky that it stopped one excellent chance for us (when Sinclair was on the bye-line and about to cross).

 

Man of the Match without a doubt: Scott Fox.

 

Runners up: The big and vocal Jags support.

[Duke Gekantawa]

Jaggernaut said:

 

"Sure, our defensive record looks excellent since Archie took over, but there can be little denying that we've lost much of our threat from our fullbacks belting down the wings, which they're normally great at doing."

 

...and yet we've been scoring for fun in that time- averaging 2.4 goals a game since Archie taking over. By comparison we averaged 2.0 goals per game in the 10 games immediately preceding Jackie leaving. And this is just slightly short of the 2.5 average over the first 10 games. So it seems to me Archie's tactics are spot on.