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As an aside, driving home from the game, I heard John Robertson’s report on Sportsound. He gave the assist to Duffy. What a ball that was by Wotherspoon to set Mckay up. As mentioned in the thread, we need to improve at throw ins and leave someone upfield when defending set pieces, but my other bugbear is when we always seem to make a pass when a shot is on. It happened several times yesterday particularly in the first half. The way the ground was, any shot could have bobbled and caught the goalie out.

I really hope DF has a good scouting network, and that he has the names of good quality strikers in his mind for January, as we are sorely lacking in that department. Sheridan gives us nothing when he comes on, and having subbed possibly our best two players, we lost any chance of holding on to our one goal lead. Billy will chase and win lost causes all day and can make a goal out of nothing, while we have no threats on the bench now I'm afraid. We need to bring in players to challenge for the first team jerseys, as I cannot see any of the squad players having the quality to dislodge any of the current first eleven. We were never going to go through the rest of the season unbeaten, but that was a very sore one to take, being so close three points, and ending with nothing.

We clearly lost something when Mckay and Wotherspoon were replaced, but to be fair, I think they were pretty much spent. Billy in particular had been running his socks off in closing down defenders to harry them into rushed passes. When defending a lead you need the guys up front to do that and you need guys with pace so that you can hit the opposition on the break. The problem was that other than act as a target man, Sheridan offered nothing. Although fresh, he didn't put the Raith defenders under any sort of pressure and that gave Raith time to build constructively from the back. I also agree with Robert about our shyness in having a shot. We've been like that for a while. One would have thought that with all of our last 3 managers having been fine strikers in their playing days, looking for and taking the opportunity to take an early strike would be embedded in the playing culture. We are averaging just a goal a game in the league. If we don't improve on that, we will most definitely end the season at the wrong end of the table. The goal we did score yesterday was very well taken by Billy, but we were pretty fortunate. It was awful defending and Billy shouldn't have been allowed to get anywhere near the ball.

November started away to Dundee United and a 1-1 draw followed by a home win 3-1 against Ayr United, the next away game against Dunfermline was also 1-1 and to finish of the month our Scottish Cup win over Cowdenbeath 2-0. The clear winner for November is David Wotherspoon second Billy Mckay and third Max Anderson. The leader for the Player of the Year is still Nathan Shaw, second Keith Bray and third Nikola Ujdur.

Only if it’s Rangers

First draft of CTO Report

That was a sore one to take,but Raith showed why they are second in the league.The first half was all Raith and they should have been one up by half time.I think the whole ground saw it was a clear goal for Raith.The ref then tried to make amends by giving every split decision and other non incidents to Raith.I felt we were missing Carson on the right. Second half better, as we had a better tempo and we upped our game and I even thought we would steal it,although I would have settled for a draw even then. The draw came and I was sure we would hold on,all we had to do was keep the ball out of our box. Big Dunc must have the hide of a rhino.We were all wrapped up in everything we could wear and he was standing there in his shirt and jersey. One loss in 8 is not so bad so lets pick up points in the next three games. I didn't think things were that bad that we needed Sheridan to come on. In his day he was s reasonably good player but alas.

Something we have learned from the VAR era is that with the curvature of the ball, you need to be able to see a few centimetres of grass between the ball and the line for all of the ball to be over the line. There must have been thousands of wrong decisions in football before this became a thing! Remember this from the last World Cup, eventually everyone agreed that the ball had not crossed the line.

I totally agree that we are shot shy, and have been for the last few seasons. We seem to pass it along from player to player when a shot looked the best option. You hear the fans shouting 'shoot', but they never do, and more often than not we end up getting caught in possession and our opponents mount a counter attack. Any shot could result in a goal, a corner, a deflected goal or a penalty, but you have take the shot in the first place. Did we have a shot on target in the first half? I can't remember any.

from Raith tv

We have an available squad which lacks any quality in depth at the moment, and that limits our options when it comes time for subs or backfilling for unavailable players. This won't be the last time we lose a game in this manner as a result of that, but hopefully Ferguson can find a way to improve the situation when the January window comes around. Unfortunately, the way we're run off the pitch is likely to severely hinder the available finances for that, so it will likely need a great deal of creativity and wheeling n dealing.

It’s tight this year Gringo: only 12 points between first and eighth!

Now that we've lost a game, at least it means Big Dunc can wear a jacket at the next match.

That’s a sore one to take but in reality we were outplayed until we took the lead against the run of play. If Raith had had their shooting boots on, they’d have been out of sight by half time. We were much better in the second half, but the goal was a surprise when it came. We then had our best spell and created several chances, coming very close when Anderson (by then playing in a more advanced role) cannoned one off the post. Then the late equaliser meant we looked like getting a point (which we’d all have taken at half time) but the stoppage time penalty was a sickener. Losing Devine meant a change of shape to 4 at the back, but I felt we played better with two wide players than we had with Duffy and Harper being wing backs. I’m not blaming the changes as Mckay and Wotherspoon had worked their socks off, and it seems to be the norm that they give us 100% for 70 minutes before being taken off. It is maybe the reality check we need, as our results have been better than our performances. If we had to lose our unbeaten run, I’d rather it was today than in any of the next three against the teams below us, Queens Park, Morton and Arbroath.

Morning NAPers - up to now there have been 8 postponements so with that in mind I am going to cancel the weekend NAPs - I know it leaves 7 games remaining with 6 being the minimum but the chances of everyone noticing and changing predictions is slim. For a level playing field it's better all round. *** Edit - it's only 6 games going ahead as it stands so makes decision easier

A big game for the women in January.

Goal or no goal. That is the question?

Think it goes without saying that the ref didn't have a bloody monkey what he was doing. Absolutely blatant goal for Raith at the start, then calling time when it was very obvious we were on the attack in the final third and thats not even mentioning the dozen and one stonewallers. Scottish football is back baybeeeee

Definitely looked like it from where I'm sitting too ! And I also thought Wallace clipped Easton at the penalty appeal after he got by him.... Hopefully we get a goal in the second half to warm us up

That was over the line btw. Hopefully we can take advantage of that rub of the green