Raith Rovers - 8th April

[Duke of Inverness]

1-1 IMO. 

[Robert]

We need a win to stay in play off contention.

Our record against Raith is very good, but that makes us vulnerable as it must end some time: it must not be Saturday!

Ayr are playing Morton, so at least one of the teams we are trying to catch will drop points.

We have a big fortnight with 5 of our last 6 league games:

Raith on Saturday at home.

Arbroath at home on Tuesday.

Cove away next Saturday.

Hamilton away the following Tuesday.

Dundee at home in a fortnight.

We are on a decent run but need to keep it going. I’d target 13 points out of 15.

[+Gringo]

Saturday is crucial. Drop points and it's all over. 

[Jaggernaut]

We need a Queens Park win against Partick tonight, and for us to beat Raith on Saturday to keep the pressure on the teams above or it's, thank you and goodnight.

[tm4tj]

 A must win game

 

Raith Rovers head North this Saturday for a 3:00pm kick-off at the Caledonian Stadium looking for their first win over the Caley Jags since October 28th, 2000. Yes, it really is that long since they beat us over ninety minutes. Once upon a time, Raith were one of the benchmarks for a rising Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Since we started beating them there has been no going back. However, there are no easy points at this stage of the season and this amazing run will come to an end one year, Let's hope it's not this Saturday. If this is not seen as a must win game, then it's certainly in the category of must not lose, and that applies to both teams.

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Match/Ticket Info

AGM

Hampden Calling

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Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	20	13	5	2	38	15	+23
Away	17	9	5	3	34	21	+13
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	37	22	10	5	72	36	+36

It's unbelievable to think that Raith's last win over Inverness over 90 minutes was almost 22 years ago. Mind you, Raith had a pretty handy team back then and they had won four of the previous five encounters since we met them in the big boys leagues, with the other one drawn. Since then, we have literally swamped Rovers with 22 wins, 10 draws and zero defeats. Getting back up to date over the last ten, it's 4 wins, 6 draws and zero defeats. Starting to level out a bit, but still no wins for Raith.

Here's who played for them last time they won: Peter Hetherston was player manager back then.

Van de Kamp; McCulloch, Dennis, Hamilton, Browne, Black, Hetherston, Ellis, Mballa, Clark, Stein

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

3 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

0 - 0 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

0 - 0 (H)

Last Raith win: Oct 28th 2001 - 1 - 2. Injury-hit Caley Thistle lost this game because of a poor first half display. Despite this they nearly took the lead in 13 minutes when a David Bagan shot was blocked by Greig McCulloch and spun over the bar. Raith scored first in 16 minutes when Jim Calder failed to hold a Shaun Dennis cross and Jay Stein hit home the loose ball from six yards. In 21 minutes a poor headed clearance by Stuart McCaffrey was picked up by Andrew Clark and he set up Ivan Mballa and the Frenchman slammed the ball into the net from 12 yards. ICT had a penalty claim turned down in 38 minutes when Charlie Christie was brought down by Paul Browne. After the break the home side improved but Guido Van de Kamp denied them on several occasions. Paul Sheerin pulled one back in 79 minutes when he netted from close range after a good cut back by Roy McBain. Four minutes later Sheerin watched in frustration as Van de Kamp saved his low shot. As time ran out he came close twice more but Raith held on to win. Report by Ian Broadfoot

Last Time Out

Inverness pulled off a good win at Cappielow last weekend beating Morton 2-1 with super strikes from Scott Allardice and a late one from David Carson, only his second goal for the club. Pretty much a replica of his other goal against Dunfermline Athletic. Another few replicas would not go amiss. 

 

Raith Rovers failed to capitalise on their game in hand by going down at home to Hamilton Accies by 2-1 on Tuesday night. That result keeps them one point behind Inverness in the race to get into the play-offs. Time Accies did us a favour instead of beating us all the time!

Encounters this season have been tight affairs. A Scott Allardice penalty and a late Billy Mckay strike were the difference between the sides at Kirkaldy back in September. There followed two draws since then home and away. The 1 - 1 draw at Inverness saw a tremendous header from Robbie Deas cancel out a Sam Stanton strike. That was the game where Deas broke his leg late in the game. Remarkable that he has made such progress since then.  2 - 2 in the last one at Stark's Park with Billy Mckay once again saving the day with another late goal to frustrate Rovers once more. Rovers had led twice through Lewis Vaughan and Aidan Connolly but Jay Henderson then Mckay squared matters.

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Table ahead of Partick v Queens Park tonight at 7:45 BBC Scotland TV 1. Queens Park 31 16 6 9 58 41 54 2. Dundee 30 15 8 7 54 32 53 3. Ayr United 31 14 7 10 56 40 49 4. Partick Thistle 31 14 6 11 54 40 48 5. Morton 30 11 10 9 42 37 43 6. Inverness CT 30 11 9 10 42 42 42 7. Raith Rovers 30 11 8 11 42 39 41 8. Arbroath 30 6 13 11 28 41 31 9. Hamilton Ac. 30 7 7 16 27 55 28 10. Cove Rangers 31 6 8 17 34 70 26

Friday 7th April

Partick Thistle 4-0 Queen's Park

Saturday 8th April

Arbroath v Dundee

Ayr Utd v Morton

Accies v Cove 

Inverness CT v Raith Rovers

Latest Team News

Danny Devine, Wallace Duffy and Roddy MacGregor all missed out at Cappielow last week leaving us with a sparse bench. Jay Henderson came off injured after ten minutes.

Here's Dodds to spill the beans...

 

Raith Rovers top scorer is Aidan Connolly with twelve goals followed by Dylan Easton seven goals. Connolly is the big danger here, not just his goals but he is also credited with seven assists, much greater than any of his team mates.

 

 

[Robert]

13 hours ago, Jaggernaut said:

We need a Queens Park win against Partick tonight, and for us to beat Raith on Saturday to keep the pressure on the teams above or it's, thank you and goodnight.

0-0 at half time in a poor game. Only two attempts in the half.

[Robert]

Partick 1 up after 50 minutes. 

[Robert]

2-0 midway through the second half. This game is doing us no favours.

We need to win tomorrow and hope Ayr either lose or draw so we start to close the gap on them. 

[Satan]

We should've done ourselves favours,  many times over this season.

Can't depend on others to do the work for us.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Satan

[Robert]

21 minutes ago, Satan said:

We should've done ourselves favours,  many times over this season.

Can't depend on others to do the work for us.

Agreed.

We still have a chance but can’t afford to slip up in the run in.

4-0 approaching full time. 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Robert

[CaleyCanary]

Massive result for Partick. We need to peg back Ayr or they’ll be out of sight, so either a draw or Morton win tomorrow is crucial. However, it means bugger all if we don’t beat Raith!

[+DoofersDad]

Queens Park have lost their last 3 games.  If they continue to play like they did against Partick then they could lose out on a playoff place.  It is still possible for us to finish 6 points ahead of them.  Having said that, whilst it is no longer possible for us to finish bottom, it is still possible for us to be relegated.

[+Gringo]

That was a poor game at Plastic in the first half. Two quality team goals in the second set up the Plastic for the three points. Spiders offered nothing in return. With the match entering the last ten minutes I switched off...and missed two goals . Plastic are certainly knocking in some goals just now and are looking good.

Anyway..enough about them. As mentioned, three points is crucial for us today. It's also true to say we shouldn't be relying on others but, in our self made situation, we have too. The chance is still there hanging by a thread so lets grab hold of it and do this.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

I sense that the patriotic positivity is on the wane. Only way to keep the Fat Lady and the negative forum following off the stage is to maintain the improved performances and rewards. 12 points from the next four is not unacheivable and then who knows. Keep the feckin faith dudes.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

14 hours ago, Satan said:

We should've done ourselves favours,  many times over this season.

Can't depend on others to do the work for us.

Precisely- we are paying for a collection of feck ups earlier in the season - what we have to do now is win, win etc., etc. This is a league where everybody beats each other. I think that Dungdee and Plastic may be out of reach and even the Spiders may come down the spout but is the Hair Bear Bunch that has the most difficult run of matches. But as Satan alludes to it is ALL down to OUR results and performances. In many ways the play offs are actually in our own hands.

[tm4tj]

Thought we were bad.... Raith with only three outfield subs???

 

 

 

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

X-Rays suggest that the fat lady has turned blue and the red blemish is suggestive of the development of laryngitis

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Would it be sanctimonious of me to politely suggest that Henderson and Shaw May be improving because of being in a more settled team, having more experienced players around them and not having so much responsibility on their shoulders. 

[Caley Mad In Berks]

Good win, which keeps our play off hopes alive.  Morton drawing with Ayr was good for us too.  So it is in our own hands now, keep winning and we will be in the play offs.  Thereafter it is in the lap of the Gods.  Well done lads.  Onwards and upwards.

[Douglas Mackenzie]

Good comfortable win today over a poor Raith.Carson,Ridgers,Shaw and Henderson stand out,although the team did well.Amazed how lethargic and lack of desire shown by Raith.Even the Manager and coaches spent most of the game in the dug out.It was like they accepted they are out of top four and no getting relegated,but what about passion and pride.ICT up to 5th

[Robert]

Pretty comfortable afternoon with the game going flat after Shaw’s goal and Raith rarely challenging.

Both goals were well taken and Doran should have added a third. We didn’t create much else.

The play offs are now within our own hands given we have Ayr at home on the last day of the season.

We are quietly on a good run, with three league wins in a row and four in the last five in the league.

We need to keep this run going, with the next three games against the bottom three. We must target 9 points.

A pleasant afternoon sitting in the sun!

Well done boys! Keep it up!

Edited April 8, 2023 by Robert

[Satan]

We owe Hamilton a serious doing.

But first we need 3 points off Arbroath on Tuesday followed by Cove on Saturday. 

Then we can focus on giving Hamilton a good going over.

 

[jed5697]

Spent most of the afternoon slapping on the coconut oil we never let Raith get a sniff...good team performance...deserved win and could have scored a few more...

[Jaggernaut]

We did what we needed to do by getting the win and a valuable three points, but we had a chance to increase our goal difference against a poor Raith team and we eased up in the second half when I believe we could have scored more. With our last game of the season against Ayr, it may come down to goal difference, so we should have done what Partick did to a poor Queens Park last night, and went for it.

Good performances from Carson, Shaw and Ridgers. On to Tuesday now, and hopefully another home win.

 

[CELTIC1CALEY3]

Counts for very little if we struggle and lose against Arbroath, then Cove, and of course Hamilton. However, there are signs that we want to keep grinding out results to see if we can make more progresss. That said, we do generally struggle against teams from the bottom three places in the Championship. Here's hoping we can squeeze something out of Arbroath.  Pointless worrying about other teams and their results.