Raith Rovers v St Mirren

[Bud the Baker]

Certainly a setback, Raith looked to be in freefall until last night.  Ayr are still catchable although I think we really have to reduce the gap this weekend. Perhaps fatigue was a factor last night which might be a worry for the game against Dunfermline but I still think we've got a better squad than either Ayr or Dumbarton.

Never Surrender!

Edited March 9, 2017 by Bud the Baker

[faraway saint]

14 minutes ago, Bud the Baker said:

Certainly a setback, Raith looked to be in freefall until last night.  Ayr are still catchable although I think we really have to reduce the gap this weekend. Perhaps fatigue was a factor last night which might be a worry for the game against Dunfermline but I still think we've got a better squad than either Ayr or Dumbarton.

Never Surrender!

Ayr are still catchable, only 5 points.

Dumbarton, 7 points, that's a 3 game turnaround taking goal difference into account.

Raith, 9 points.

Who knows, it's all very much in the balance but games are continuing to run out, only 10 remain.

[Drew]

Realistically, we need to hope for 9th. Anything better would be a huge bonus.

[Froggie]

Lol, even the Frog was being slightly diverted from the relegation certainty for a few days but following 2 straight defeats it seems back on track now for the 3rd division. I felt pretty sure we would lose last night as Kirkcaldy is not a good place traditionally for us and so it proved.

By my reckoning we have won only 1 "must win" game so far, with the next arriving this Saturday. Had 3 pts been gained last night, who knows what kind of crowd might have turned up at home on Saturday, in the (probably false) expectation of closing the gap. This result though will have taken the wind out a few sails - mine included - and a hat trick of defeats now looks on.

Given our parlous league position all season, it probably is unrealistic to have thought we can avoid demotion. Unfortunately, unlike a certain Catalan outfit we don't have 90,000 fans, the cream of S American players or the referees in our pocket to reverse the un-reversible.

[Soctty]

Plenty of time, buy we played as if we thought we had a right to win the game last night. Complacent performance, got what we deserved. Beat Dunfermline and things will look a lot rosier again.

[BuddieinEK]

We were never going to win all our remaining games, and I don't recall anyone suggesting we would.
Raith have been shite, and many of us reasonably expected to beat them, but we didn't. Hibs are sitting top of the league - few of us held out much hope of picking up all the points in that one, but we did. So it goes.
We need points. At the end of the season, it won't matter where we picked them up from. We might well have a few more unexpected results, and can only hope that more of them will be of the Hibs variety.

If we only took 3 points from games v Hibs and Raith, it matters hugely where they came from.

Had we lost to Hibs and defeated Raith then we would be closer to the pack.

Our inability to beat teams just above us is what will kill us.

[Luther G. Presley]

Last nights result is a massive setback no doubt about that, but nothing is decided yet and this is still in our hands.
3 points are a must on Saturday and as long as Ayr don't pull off a shock at Falkirk we will only be 2 points behind them, with them still to visit us in a few weeks.
But it would be looking so much easier this morning if we had got the 3 points last night, but when do we ever make it easy for ourselves.

[flyingscot]

It was a disappointing performance, especially given Raith's form (but Raith had chucked their manager and Hughes hasn't lost at Kirkcaldy). Raith were deep behind the ball and sat on McGinn and Mallan and gave us no space to make anything happen. The pitch was difficult too. 

It was massively important in the context of the season but if it is 1 blip we can move on and recover from it. 

Edited March 9, 2017 by flyingscot

[Lord Pityme]

Last night was another in a string of passed up golden opportunities to get wins, heap pressure on the teams above us and drag another mob (Raith) into the dogfight we are in.

away at Dunfermline in Jan, at Home to Falkirk and now away to a Raith team who are actually worse form wise than us. These may be the fixtures that tipped the balance? There are still a lot of points to play for, and if we win on Saturday and Ayr or Dumbarton lose it would heap pressure on them. Our problem i believe is a naivety in tactics, and silly team selections.

coupled with that last night, McGinn and Mallan should have at some feckin point realised we were running into a brick wall down the right, and hit quick switch balls to put pressure on the Raith centre backs. The continual waste down the right, and pointless 10-20 yard lobs to Sutton were meat and drink to their centres.

[St.Ricky]

800 fans through in Kirkcaldy on a Wednesday night and the third game in 7 days. I was there with my son and grandson. Great backing for the players who gave all they had against a very stubborn and fired up team. It just wasn't our night. Onwards and hopefully upwards. 

[Sonny]

Raith were pretty shit last night and extremely fortunate to get 3 points. We were just knackered. Need to move on although some players looked like they could do with a couple of days off.

[beyond our ken]

i am enthused, Brendan Rodgers was nice about us and no doubt Yogi will be magnanimous in his comments.

 

we just need to lose badly on Saturday to collect another bouquet from Alan Johnson, how great wil that be?

 

that is what really counts

[faraway saint]

Just now, beyond our ken said:

i am enthused, Brendan Rodgers was nice about us and no doubt Yogi will be magnanimous in his comments.

 

we just need to lose badly on Saturday to collect another bouquet from Alan Johnson, how great wil that be?

 

that is what really counts

Sarcasm......................

[Soctty]

2 minutes ago, beyond our ken said:

i am enthused, Brendan Rodgers was nice about us and no doubt Yogi will be magnanimous in his comments.

 

we just need to lose badly on Saturday to collect another bouquet from Alan Johnson, how great wil that be?

 

that is what really counts

I was shot down by some on Sunday for saying we needed to forget those comments. We looked as though we thought we had a divine right to win last night. The pressing and harrying shown against Hibs last midweek was nowhere to be seen. 

 

Let's get back to working hard, rather than believing we're the finished article, a team for too good to go down. Quality is one thing, fight and determination is also required to get us out of the mess we remain in. We have what it takes to do it - now we need to show we can work for it.

[faraway saint]

2 minutes ago, Soctty said:

I was shot down by some on Sunday for saying we needed to forget those comments. We looked as though we thought we had a divine right to win last night. The pressing and harrying shown against Hibs last midweek was nowhere to be seen. 

 

Let's get back to working hard, rather than believing we're the finished article, a team for too good to go down. Quality is one thing, fight and determination is also required to get us out of the mess we remain in. We have what it takes to do it - now we need to show we can work for it.

You were indeed but there were also plenty putting far too much importance on it, hence BOK's post.

I was surprised at reaction from some of our support as most comments from any manager, never mind an OF manager, are dismissed as pish.

[Soctty]

You were indeed but there were also plenty putting far too much importance on it, hence BOK's post.
I was surprised at reaction from some of our support as most comments from any manager, never mind an OF manager, are dismissed as pish.

It meant nothing on Sunday, and means even less now. Time to get back to working hard.

[Lord Pityme]

Yogi takes a call just before last nights game from Brendan telling him what to expect.

 

[DougJamie]

Raith said we are the worst team the have played domestically this season.........................

Ok light of day time- Lets be constructive- we easily could have won last night- we seemed to panic every time we got near to goal, but we still created......  Individual errors cost us.......as long as it makes us stronger as long as we learn

 

We have 11 Cup finals literally....................

[Sonny]

6 minutes ago, Soctty said:

I was shot down by some on Sunday for saying we needed to forget those comments. We looked as though we thought we had a divine right to win last night. The pressing and harrying shown against Hibs last midweek was nowhere to be seen. 

 

I didn't think that was the case. Raith only needed a point and had everyone behind the ball when we had it and tightly marked McGinn and Mallan. In the other games the opposition were playing open football and attacking us but not last night - it was up to us to break them down which we failed to do as we were running into brick walls all night. I thought the attitude of the players was ok but Yogi got his tactics spot on. Sunday's game was  a distraction we could have done without but a totally different set of circumstances from last night.

And we were the better team and did create far more chances than Raith.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Sonny

[Soctty]

I didn't think that was the case. Raith only needed a point and had everyone behind the ball when we had it and tightly marked McGinn and Mallan. In the other games the opposition were playing open football and attacking us but not last night - it was up to us to break them down which we failed to do as we were running into brick walls all night. I thought the attitude of the players was ok but Yogi got his tactics spot on. Sunday's game was  a distraction we could have done without but a totally different set of circumstances from last night.

We weren't terrible by any means, but we didn't have the same drive we showed against Hibs. We created very little. Maybe we showed some fatigue from having played Saturday-Wednesday-Sunday in the previous 10 days? Whatever the reason, we were before par.

[Sonny]

A couple of players failed to win individual battles and it looked like tiredness to me. McKenzie and Davis strolled last night and Raith hardly had an effort on our goals whereas we missed the chances we created. We had 11 corners and they had 2 maybe gives an idea of which team was sitting in and which team was going for it.

[faraway saint]

3 minutes ago, Sonny said:

A couple of players failed to win individual battles and it looked like tiredness to me. McKenzie and Davis strolled last night and Raith hardly had an effort on our goals whereas we missed the chances we created. We had 11 corners and they had 2 maybe gives an idea of which team was sitting in and which team was going for it.

Slightly skewed stats here...............yes, correct on the corners and we also had considerably more possession but the shots were 11-12 and shots on target were 4-2, more important than corners IMO.

Suggests that the game was pretty even, except the 2-0 in goals.

No real point bleating about how much better we were, we've been here before.

 

[Pepé Le Pew]

17 minutes ago, Lord Pityme said:

Yogi takes a call just before last nights game from Brendan telling him what to expect.

 

Small mercies it didn't finish shree nil

[East Lothian Saint]

3 hours ago, TopCat said:

So posting my opinion on the team before the game means I thrive on us losing? What if we had won?

What a brass neck
 

 

 

Neck is shining this morning after all the positive vibes I've been throwing about. That was hard to take last night.

The fans played their part though. we turned up in force and sung our hearts out. Performance on the park wasn't so good.

Lots of silly little mistakes where we gave away possession too easy. Almost in the first minute Billy "the fish" was forced to make a save after sloppy defending gave the ball away in a dangerous area. Stelios was woeful last night and very little of what he tried to do came off, McGennis got some woeful service but even when the ball reached him he couldn't control it. St Mirren tried to play football but they couldn't break down the Raith defence and their big Centre half mopped up everything. The Saints seemed reluctant to shoot and always took too many touches. Everything just fizzled out. Billy O'Brien obviously thinks he's a bit of a player a lot of the Build up from the back relied on his kicking and sometimes he even fancied a wee bit of dribbling. Made me awful nervous in the first half. 

The periscope Saga was a slight diversion and the whole support got Behind Div in an effort to keep the broadcast going. "Your just a CNUT in a jaiket" and "Let's all get our phones out" was possibly the highlight of the night.

Then Ryan Hardie came on and it all turned to shite. Billy was a Fish and I'm being nice here. I really want the boy to do well but he was floundering last night.

Feck I thought we had turned the corner and Jack Ross's plan was all coming together. I hope we still make it though and I'll try and stay positive but what do I know I'm just a CNUT in a scarf.

COYS

 

[Sonny]

6 minutes ago, faraway saint said:

Slightly skewed stats here...............yes, correct on the corners and we also had considerably more possession but the shots were 11-12 and shots on target were 4-2, more important than corners IMO.

Suggests that the game was pretty even, except the 2-0 in goals.

No real point bleating about how much better we were, we've been here before.

 

Not suggesting we were much  better. It was a dour game where we were trying to break down a team looking for a point. I really never thought Raith would score last night. Thought the worst we would get was a 0-0 draw until Raith's fortunate goal from nowhere when Hardie wasn't even looking at where the ball was going. After that went in I knew we were beaten.