Raith v Ton 1st November 2025

[Mr.Blue]

Understandably not been much chat of this game following last weeks performance and the season overall so far. Dougie saying again that the team have reacted well in training and trained well is becoming tiresome. All well and good but they need to carry that through to games. Thought his wee dig about winning a couple of games and everyone is happy and then losing a few and we see the real support and not just those who criticise was strange given how poor we have been recently. 

Starks is a place we have a decent record but they had a good result against Partick last week so will be confident. Dougie will do what he does but McPherson and Corr need to be as far away from that starting 11 as possible. Longridge coming back is a real boost as he's been one of our best players so far. Id also love to see us ditch this inverted winger pish.

Storer

Ballantyne Moore Longridge Delaney 

                  Shug.   Blues

McKay.        Lyall.       Garrity 

Brophy 

 

I know McKay won't start but I'd love to see him get a start. His pace and strength could be a real asset. 

Going to be optimistic and say 2-1 ton. Bounce back from last week.

[RossMcC1874]

Don't go into this with any optimism but like you said our record up there isnt half bad. 

Longridge back is a boost you have imagine Corr has to come out after last week not that Moore was particularly good either but I prefer him to Corr at this point. 

I can't see him dropping Shaw or MacPherson but would love to be proved wrong. 

Would probably be happy with a point in all honesty but I fear another long day. 

[SpoonTon]

I'm assuming, given the his pre-match comments, that Imrie will be dropping Ballantyne and bringing Comrie back in. I also expect Delaney to come back in. 

He replaced Lyall and Robertson at half time last week, so I would expect either or both will be dropped this week. 

[dunning1874]

Imrie singling out the full-backs for not giving the centre backs enough protection last week when we could all see what the midfield were doing is certainly a hot take.

If it's a back four it has to be Moore beside Longridge. It wouldn't be the first time Imrie has responded to poor results with a switch to a back three/five and Comrie played on the right of a back three regularly for Dunfermline, so you could go Longridge - Moore - Comrie with Delaney & Ballantyne as wing backs, but I'd still rather see a four and a narrow midfield. Packing the middle of the park is more important than packing the defence and I'd be worried that we'd be too short in midfield with a back three, with past attempts at it seeing us play more of a 3-4-3 than 3-5-2.

Flood the midfield with central midfielders. Wilson, Blues, Lyall and one of Gillespie or Robertson. You aren't going to get 90 minutes out of Gillespie but having him sitting would allow Blues to go properly box-to-box rather than needing him to be more reserved to support Wilson defensively. Whether you want to call them a diamond, a 1-3, a 3-1 or a 2-2 I'm not particularly fussed, but we need bodies in there to stop being so easily overrun every week. Garrity with freedom to drift playing off a centre forward, I'd lean to Adeloye as he's more of a goal threat but Brophy will cover more ground.

[vikingTON]

3 hours ago, Mr.Blue said:

Understandably not been much chat of this game following last weeks performance and the season overall so far. Dougie saying again that the team have reacted well in training and trained well is becoming tiresome. All well and good but they need to carry that through to games. Thought his wee dig about winning a couple of games and everyone is happy and then losing a few and we see the real support and not just those who criticise was strange given how poor we have been recently. 

And more strange given that we haven't recorded a couple of wins in the leagur at all, with this dung style of play and bloated mess of a squad. 

Tbh they need to dial down the level of engagement with the Tele, as it does neither Imrie nor the players any favours to have this weekly cycle of self-delusion. 

1 hour ago, dunning1874 said:

Imrie singling out the full-backs for not giving the centre backs enough protection last week when we could all see what the midfield were doing is certainly a hot take.

He did state that we allowed them to play right through the middle of the team and that we're still allowed to tackle earlier in the week, so I don't think they're being singled out. 

Either way, Corr should not be cutting around at all after his disgrace of a centre back performance last week. 

[SpoonTon]

12 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

And more strange given that we haven't recorded a couple of wins in the leagur at all, with this dung style of play and bloated mess of a squad. 

Tbh they need to dial down the level of engagement with the Tele, as it does neither Imrie nor the players any favours to have this weekly cycle of self-delusion. 

He did state that we allowed them to play right through the middle of the team and that we're still allowed to tackle earlier in the week, so I don't think they're being singled out. 

Either way, Corr should not be cutting around at all after his disgrace of a centre back performance last week. 

I think taking Robertson and Lyall off at half time shows that he wasn't just singling out the full backs, but saying in the pre-match that he'll take the heat for the performance then identifying the full backs was pretty poor. Gillespie didn't have a good game at left back, but none of the goals came down his side. 

The goals didn't particularly come from playing through the midfield either. We conceded the corner for the first goal after giving the ball away, and two of the other goals started with giving the ball away in dangerous positions as well. Corr's defending at the other goal was atrocious. He had somewhat improved briefly, but there are parts of his game which seem a long way off this level. 

We were never going to be good last Saturday. The general performance was dreadful and the St Johnstone keeper barely touched the ball. But without MacPherson and Corr being individually incompetent it wouldn't have been nearly so bad. If Imrie was really taking the criticism for the defeat he should've just said that he got it wrong and left it at that (which he did, he got it badly wrong - for the second week in a row). 

[Mr.Blue]

All good Imrie taking the flak but I really hope he isn't tearing strips off the player's behind closed doors especially the guys who have been absolute rotten.

[Chicken_Soup]

Plenty of options for us, including a switch to a back 3, a front 2 or 3 and playing with or without wingers. I’m happy for us to try any of the above, but I’d like us to start With Storer, Longridge, Moore, Delaney, Wilson, Blues, Lyall and work everything else around that. Either right back and either striker is fine with me. If we go with wingers, it’s Garrity and one other. I just don’t want to see Corr or MacPherson after last week and I don’t want us inviting pressure by overplaying slowly at the wrong times. Let Blues lead the press, vary our play, be more aggressive in the transitions and try quick, direct, counter attacks at least some of the time.

Raith aren’t St Johnstone and we’ve typically bounced back well from results like that under Imrie. Hoping for another example of that today. 

[dunning1874]

Sadly predictable that we'd still have two wingers and the biggest problem in the midfield, there's no reset happening here. Extremely bold of Imrie to persist with this.

[Stevie Aitken's Love Child]

Insisting with th same formation, and keeping Cammie MacPherson in the team, is quite a take.

It's a level of stubborn that might just lead to Dougie losing his job.

[GiGi]

Wilson and MacPherson makes no sense to me. Keeping MacPherson in at all makes no sense. 

I predict more pedestrian football at the back being steamrolled by a high press and our front 3 to see very little of the ball. 

[Mr.Blue]

10 minutes ago, Stevie Aitken's Love Child said:

Insisting with th same formation, and keeping Cammie MacPherson in the team, is quite a take.

It's a level of stubborn that might just lead to Dougie losing his job.

For the first time ever I wouldn't argue with that.

[Tonton Zola Moukoko]

Good to see Longridge and Moore back together but the problems run far deeper than which back 4 start the game. Obviously I’d love to see the team perform well and pick up 3 points but I just don’t see it right now, especially seeing this line up and the formation and game plan I’m assuming comes with it. More than happy to be proven wrong though. 

[Chicken_Soup]

At least with Wilson there, MacPherson might lose posession 10 yards further forward with a safety net behind him, rather than doing it right in front of our centre backs. 

[SpoonTon]

Probably just about what I expected. At least we will be better with Longridge returning. And Wilson/Blues should make the midfield more solid. Better players in there for set pieces as well. 

[Mr.Blue]

Saw a bit of the first half and it looked like the usual passing the ball sideways, backwards and then launching it forward. Not surprised to see Raith winning 

[Cappiecat 1.2]

Grim.

[Mr.Blue]

Reminds me of Airdrie last season under mccabe where they tried to play 'good' football but we're absolutely shite 

[Mr.Blue]

This is absolutely woeful at the moment. We are completely toothless in the final third. 

[so72]

One of the worst squads we have built in years. Total waste of the extra cash, signing more players rather than good players.