They used to be sh!te, but now they're alright

 

Inverness face a treacherous trip to the home of the new, improved version of Raith Rovers. This would have been a game where we might have expected to pick up at least a point over the last twenty odd years. However, they are more resillient of late and testament to that is our two meetings this season when late goals saw Rovers snatch all six points from Inverness who deserved more from both games.

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All the ins and outs

Match/Ticket Info

Scottish Cup v Hibs

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Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	22	14	5	3	41	17	+24
Away	18	9	5	4	34	22	+12
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	40	23	10	7	75	39	+36

Raith broke the mold back in September when they won for the first time in 23 years:  Record Breakers

Never had there been a better time for Raith Rovers to break the Caley Jags hoodoo! Inverness, without a win in their last eight games, and Billy Dodds and the management team under fire. A 23 year run of games without a win for Raith Rovers was brought to an end today when Jamie Gullan smashed home from 15 yards with five minutes left. It was harsh on Inverness who dominated for long spells earlier in the game, but it leaves the management with some tough decisions to make. There will be dancing on the streets of Raith tonight!

1 - 2 (H)

0 - 1 (A)

2 - 0 (H)

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

3 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

0 - 0 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

And in December:  Just Like Buses

None for 23 years then two in a row as Raith came from behind to win with a time added on penalty converted by Jamie Gullan. Billy Mckay had opened the scoring with a header on the hour but a late surge by Rovers won it. Lewis Vaughan four minutes from the end then the penalty to take the win at the death scored by Jamie Gullan. We should have had a penalty of our own after that, but Mr Williams chose to ignore it. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and that one hurt.

Championship Points

Dundee Utd    - 44

Raith Rovers   - 44

Partick Thistle -36

Airdrieonians - 27

Morton -           26

Dunfermline  -  23

Ayr United    -   23

Inverness CT  -  21

Queens Park  -  20

Arbroath FC  - 18

 

Latest Team News

Inverness Last 5 Championship results:  D D L W L 

Big Dunc has been dabbling in the January sales both in and out over the last couple of weeks.

Out:  Sean Welsh, David Wotherspoon, Cillian Sheridan, Zak Delaney, Harry Hennem (departed), Lewis Hyde, Keith Bray, Ethan Cairns (loaned out)

In: Striker Alex Samuel, the rest are all defenders:- James Carracher, Cammy Kerr, Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen, Remi Savage

 

Raith Rovers have suffered three defeats on the trot: Airdrie & Queens Park in the Championship and a 2-1 defeat to Livingston in the Scottish Cup last weekend.

Zak Rudden, Shaun Byrne and Kyle Turner are new additions in the January sales. Rudden was the latest signing and he will be available for tomorrow.

Jamie Gullan has left Rovers to sign for Dundalk.

Last 5 Championship results: D D W L L 

 

Team v Livi in the Cup last week

Dabrowski

 

Millen   Brown   Dick

 

Connolly   Mullin   Byrne (Gullan 83)   Turner (Easton 67)  Smith

 

Hamilton   Vaughan

 

Subs Not Used:  Thomson; Masson, Hannah, McGill, Corr, McNeil, Murray

That was sweet. Never in doubt even after going behind. When I saw the orange strips it took me back to November 2001 when we went behind to a Nacho Novo penalty and won 5-1. 
Sure the last 20 minutes were nervy but that was all in our heads. A lot of that spell was Rovers knocking it about in their own half looking for a gap. The players looked composed and some of the passing was superb. Hamiltons goal was really sloppy on our part with two newbies in the back three so they will need to work on who is picking up at corners. 
No failures today and we looked physically strong and made Rovers look a shadow of the side which was flying earlier in the season.

The double- barrel Jeremiah looked very impressive apart from his blunder which let Vaughan away to score for 3-2, which made the second half a much less comfortable watch. The other three were solid too. Cammy Kerr, Savage and of course Samuel - Machine #2. What a warrior. On another day Billy might have grabbed a fourth but his touch let him down. 
A bit risky changing defenders late in the game but hey, it made no difference to the result and we got a chance to see Duffy’s haircut.
We have lost 10 games and have probably left too much to do for the playoffs but we should be looking up at Dunfermline, Ayr and Airdrie. At least watching ICT isn’t a chore any longer.

Edited January 27, 20242 yr by The Mantis

Great win!  Really important 3 points...  Now can we please get a home league win to keep us suffering home fans happy?

Was thinking that Dunc clearly wants a stronger more solid pool and the five who came in seem better and stronger than the five that left.We all were concerned that after our first 11 we did not have strong fringe players to call upon.Now we have bolstered our pool taking one in from Dundee,one from Ross County one from Wigan and I cannot recall where the other two are from.Already,the pool is stronger which allowed Dunc to take three defenders off today and put back on three equally strong defenders.Maybe an attacking midfielder would be the icing on the cake.It should make a difference having a strong bench to call upon.

Its all about going on a run ( easier said than done but as a group hopefully the team gels) and see where it takes us. There's been little realistic expectation recently of a playoff spot so if safety could be established we can at least play without pressure and hopefully Morton's run hits the buffers as they currently look most likely for 4th spot on current form.  That said there are plenty games left  and a tight mid table to call with Ayr welcoming a new manager and the Pars with key players out recently. Airdrie could actually be the dark horse given recent results. 

Their 1st goal was poor defending from a corner. Devine got bullied by the scorer who towered over him to head down and up to roof of net. Devine started on ridgers for not coming the couple yards of his line to catch. Truth be told devine won very few headers today. Waiting for ball rather than attacking it plus being out jumped regularly.

Samuel didn't give their back four a seconds rest, he was awesome. 

Dunc has done well so far in this window. We can now bring on subs who don't weaken the team.

Oh and I thought kerr had an excellent game, a proper right back.

8 minutes ago, bishbashbosh said:

Devine started on ridgers for not coming the couple yards of his line to catch.

Ridgers seems to be slower off his line and increasingly reluctant to come for balls recently, so that may have been a good shout by Devine.  I await the highlights to see.

Important 3 points today.  We continue to be able to turn it on against the teams above us and I wonder if that's because they come at us more and we know how to exploit that? (This is why I think we have more than half a chance against Hibs) Teams around us seem more content to sit in a bit more and let us pass the ball around in front of them where we're not creating any threat, and we can't break that down.

Hopefully the new players give us options to change that.  Next week will be the test.

The initial team sheet looked risky. However, the new lads added real athleticism to the team. We went to sleep at the corner and Hamilton scored a really good goal. However, we did not lose heart and out of nowhere Samuel scored an incredibly quick hattrick. Aged 28 he has now bagged 4 goals in two games with us and if he keeps scoring he could double his career total this second half of a season. Once again he worked his socks off and has certainly released Billy to be more influential and creative. 3-1 at half time felt like a dangerous score to take into the second half and so it proved. However, and this felt like the first time Duncan has brought on substitutes when danger threatened. Rather than wait until we were 4-3 down with 4 minutes of added time left, substitutes were deployed quite early and liberally. Again if looked quite high risk with so many but it worked. This actually felt like an ICT that might now make progress if we can take that performance to next week's home game. Cammy Kerr was a great addition. No fist pumping from Duncan at the end - he let the players do the talking with Samuel hugging the match ball. 

 

Devine looks as though he is fouled at the first goal, Hamilton climbing all over him.

8 minutes ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

No fist pumping from Duncan at the end  

He'd possibly just been told the Everton score 😤

Just watched highlights of Maidstone’s remarkable win at Ipswich (shots 38-2 but goals 1-2) and saw Manny Duku playing up front for the visitors. He only signed for them a few days ago after spending the first half of the season with a side in Gibraltar!

Three good goals by Samuel.

For Raith’s first, Ridgers looked to be blocked as well as Devine being pushed.

A good highlights package by Raith. 

13 minutes ago, Robert said:

Three good goals by Samuel.

For Raith’s first, Ridgers looked to be blocked as well as Devine being pushed.

A good highlights package by Raith. 

The commentators seemed certain the tug of the shirt at the end was a penalty. I thought the same at the time but looking back probably the right call. 

32 minutes ago, ICTPaisley said:

The commentators seemed certain the tug of the shirt at the end was a penalty. I thought the same at the time but looking back probably the right call. 

Maybe there is a benefit to playing in orange 

Samuel was very sharp and alert, and  took his goals well…but some of the defending made it a bit easier for him..

For his first, watch the Raith no. 3 who is too busy claiming for offside when he should have been getting back as quickly as possible and could have got a challenge in if he had.

For our 3rd, Raith’s 21 was sleeping and failed to get a challenge in.

Once again a very very enjoyable away game - atmosphere first class, away support loud and positive.   That’s why away games are so much more appreciated than at Inverness where atmosphere is nil, any singing is in very distanced groups.  Can we find anyone within ICT (or anyone anywhere) willing to suggest some constructive ideas to replicate the atmosphere within ICT fans who were at Raith today ?     

We could move the stadium 3 hours away from Inverness.

8 hours ago, tm4tj said:

 

Thanks for adding.... What a pass that was for Samuel's first goal...not sure who played it but clearly someone with a sweet left foot!

Great victory and second what Lizi said about the difference in atmosphere between home and away games.

Samuel would have impressed the new Chief Executive of Raith Rovers - Andrew Barrowman scored 2 in 30 games for ICT!!!

7 hours ago, lizi said:

Once again a very very enjoyable away game - atmosphere first class, away support loud and positive.   That’s why away games are so much more appreciated than at Inverness where atmosphere is nil, any singing is in very distanced groups.  Can we find anyone within ICT (or anyone anywhere) willing to suggest some constructive ideas to replicate the atmosphere within ICT fans who were at Raith today ?     

Lizi,

I don’t think lack of atmosphere is owned by ICT.

the away games I have been at this season our guys(  not me, home and away I just sit there and watch the game, cheer a goal) sing “ what a shi1ey home support. I didn’t detect any atmosphere from the home support yesterday, maybe I was too engrossed watching us come from 1 down to 3-1 in 9 mins.

Our home games away guys do similar, “ what a shi1tey home support to us.

took my Dingwall grandkids to Tynecastle few weeks ago. Told them one of the best grounds in Scotland for atmosphere. Apart from the gudgies behind us singing from start to finish, as our guys did yesterday, didn’t hear a sound from the home support the whole first half, until they booed hearts of at half time. When county went 2 up hearts fans become more vocal, but didn’t sound like support to me.

my brother in law, living in Edinburgh area goes to all our away games, home games for him. His fav ground, tynecastle,(AH the glory days) but not that day he said.

Can’t see what club or anyone else can do to make people change their nature, not possible. 
I didn’t sing yesterday, nor anyone around me, did you belt out a few songs yerself. 

11 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Just watched highlights of Maidstone’s remarkable win at Ipswich (shots 38-2 but goals 1-2) and saw Manny Duku playing up front for the visitors. He only signed for them a few days ago after spending the first half of the season with a side in Gibraltar!

You should get a free mug for providing all that detail.

3 hours ago, robbo1985 said:

Thanks for adding.... What a pass that was for Samuel's first goal...not sure who played it but clearly someone with a sweet left foot!

Great victory and second what Lizi said about the difference in atmosphere between home and away games.

Nathan Shaw made the pass for the first goal. 

11 hours ago, Robert said:

Three good goals by Samuel.

For Raith’s first, Ridgers looked to be blocked as well as Devine being pushed.

A good highlights package by Raith. 

If Bonnyrigg can get praise every week from League 2 fans for their highlights, we’ve really no excuses for how poor ours are. 

1 hour ago, Robert said:

Nathan Shaw made the pass for the first goal. 

Thanks Robert , that explains it then.... ! 🙂

12 hours ago, lizi said:

Once again a very very enjoyable away game - atmosphere first class, away support loud and positive.   That’s why away games are so much more appreciated than at Inverness where atmosphere is nil, any singing is in very distanced groups.  Can we find anyone within ICT (or anyone anywhere) willing to suggest some constructive ideas to replicate the atmosphere within ICT fans who were at Raith today ?     

As money has made the game elitist in certain parts of the world so society has moved on and the well established working class ritual of attending a football match has been diminished by the removal of terracing to comply with "requirements". Perhaps if proper inspections had been introduced by the Taylor Report for clubs of a certain size safe terracing could then have been introduced incrementally instead of going from one extreme of dilapidation to plastic central on a budget. The legacy is we are left with half empty stadiums everywhere devoid of atmosphere as costs of regular attendance have risen and the attraction has paled. Away fans buck this seating requirement by standing up for 90 minutes and making a day of it.  Historically If you wanted to sweetie rustle there was always the main stand. Fans historically were also left to get the atmosphere going.. without pyros as we couldn't crowd fund back in the day or source them they were the preserve of foreign clubs .. (ironically health and safety now doesn't extend in reality beyond plastic seating & bovril being served luke warm ) you also weren't choreographed over the head and reminded it was happening " Right here Right now" or whatever guff at full volume. Fair enough a club tune as teams come out but loud music on a loop pre kick off is just awful. Should we trust clubs to get even more innovative we'll probably get music blaring from an electric organ every time the ball goes out for a shy or a corner, ice hockey esque 

Rant over 🙂