Fantalk

Northern_Rover · Joined: 15 Jul 2008 Posts: 2725 Location: Granite City

We left Tannadice five points ahead of Utd having beaten them on their own patch.

Since then we threw away a winning position against Ayr who played a half with ten men, threw away a winning position against a rank rotten Arbroath playing a goalie up top, and been beaten by Airdrie away again and QP at home with a cobbled together back line. In amongst all that we beat the Pars.

By rolling out the "heads gone" phrase one presumes the above is quite acceptable to you?

I think it is right that expectations change as a season plays out and surely it's not entirely unreasonable to expect that we should have beaten Ayr and Arbroath in the above situation which would have given us a four point lead over Utd even allowing for the two defeats.

Given where we were and currently are, I'd see third or below as a failure. And my head has certainly not gone.

Franco · Joined: 10 Oct 2019 Posts: 1196 Location: kirkcaldy

There have been a few games this season when we have garnered three points when a draw would have been fairer on the other side. Yesterday we ending up with no points when we were worth a point ( no than that one ).
Queens keeper was on fine form but had his share of luck with The Hammer's shot off the underside of the bar.
I think that IM overplayed Murrayball yesterday and ended our chances of drawing level.
I think that the Cup game has come at a good time but Saturday will tell.
I would be keen to see Corr play next week. He does not deserve to be dropped after that display.

StarksBarmy · Joined: 03 Apr 2010 Posts: 4025

scotty · Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 9065 Location: Almost Dysart.

Apologies in advance for this monster post.
Back in August if you’d offered me the second week of January before we tasted btb defeats for the first time in the season, I’d have bitten your hand off for that.
However much has changed since then and yesterday’s defeat rankles me somewhat. I agree with much of Franco’s post but think Rovers every bit as much worth the 3 points as Queens. However I Don’t begrudge them the win overall and the time wasting by the keeper at the end is fine by me too, imo we have done the same and worse in recent times.
Saturday was a case of some chickens coming home to roost, “x” amount of last min equalisers and winners are great but you have to expect some to go the other way, and you have to take your chances when they come or it will come back and bite you…. and eventually it has done.

McNeil, had he Dabrowski’s height and wingspan he may have stopped the first, otherwise faultless. With better/stronger defending infront of him he could easily have had shut outs in his two appearances.
Mullin, great deliveries and a fairly decent game overall but totally lost the movement of Bruce for their first goal, this is what happens if you play an ageing midfielder out of position at fullback, McGill might have been a better option overall.
Dick, a couple of loose passes but otherwise ok, nothing outstandingly good or bad.
Brown, another that was ok but didn’t move to close down Bruce for the first (a weakness he shares with Muzza) for Christ’s sake Murray sign some defenders we need him infront of the defence not in it!!
Corr, solid performance other than the loose pass in lead to their winner.
Byrne, solid if unspectacular, could have done with more help in the engine room.
Turner, started like a train but ran out of steam as you’d expect from someone who’s not played a lot of minutes recently.
Connolly, Raith best player on the day but tbh not one of his best displays, his free kick was on target but needed just that wee bit more power.
Easton, did not have a great game by any means, needs benched. Another booking for mouthing off which meant he had to hold back in challenges thereafter, it’s an annoying trait to say the least.
Vaughan, not a good day for the wee man, never looked like troubling the defence or keeper, his free kick went in the right place but spent even longer in the air than Connolly’s.
Hamilton, tried like a bear but 1 goal from 5 chances is poor finishing, won everything he went for in the air and unlucky with the one the keeper made a great save from but the fact remains Rovers almost always didn’t benefit from anything that came off Jack’s napper.
Smith, did reasonably but I’d have had him on for Easton a lot quicker.
McGill, another who did ok but hardly any time to get going.
Gullan, great free kick, another who might have benefitted from longer on the park.

This ref was fairly clueless but in reality not really much better or worse than we’ve seen of late, ok so he might have given a foul on Easton in the run up to their 2nd but he’d let Rovers off with a softish one seconds before so maybe he was leveling things up or perhaps he was thinking “it’s that wee mouthy twat Easton again” who knows. Imo if the ref had a fault it was his total lack of understanding how to play the advantage, he was clueless on that one.

Over all? What goes around comes around and all that but some of the issues /causes were preventable. Milllen’s stupidity at Airdrie has cost us dear, Ian Murray team selection was hampered but other than Gullan and to a lesser extent Smith there was nothing on the bench that could come on to change things if need be. He said the players gave their all, did Ian Murray though?
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Competitive goals: Vaughan 18, Easton 11, Hamilton 10, Smith 9, Stanton 7, Mullin 4, Connolly 3, O'Reilly 3, Rudden 3, S Brown 1, Dick 1, Gullan 1, Masson 1, Millen 1, Mitchell 1, Murray, Watson 1, OG's 1,

scotty · Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 9065 Location: Almost Dysart.

Valleyboy · Joined: 27 Apr 2014 Posts: 417

Not sure Murray was being entirely accurate when he said that the players all gave everything they had in the match. Possibly being diplomatic in public, and said something different in the dressing room, or maybe he actually believed it, but to me we didn’t put as much effort into that game overall as did QP. There’s always the new manager factor to contend with, but after scoring our very early goal we seemed to take our foot off the gas and simply expected to win. Not enough energetic pressing when they had the ball, and not enough passing and moving into space when we were in possession. At our best, a few weeks ago, we were thrilling to watch going forward and harried the opposition into making mistakes, but recently we have lost an edge. Easton played at his best when Stanton was also involved and hopefully that will resume shortly. We’re almost certainly going to be involved in the promotion play-offs, good chance of being second, and possibly still a champions contender so much to play for. Let’s see how we react against Livi.

Specky Ginger · Joined: 16 Jun 2012 Posts: 4258 Location: Dysart