Raith boss John McGlynn wants to bring '˜proper football' to Stark's Park

Raith Rovers manager John McGlynn hopes to deliver the League One title by bringing a brand of '˜proper football' to Stark's Park.
Raith v Arbroath 6 Oct 18 Arbroath Raith gaffer John McGlynn and No 2 Paul Smith.Raith v Arbroath 6 Oct 18 Arbroath Raith gaffer John McGlynn and No 2 Paul Smith.
Raith v Arbroath 6 Oct 18 Arbroath Raith gaffer John McGlynn and No 2 Paul Smith.

McGlynn has been encouraged by the talent pool inherited from Barry Smith and believes a possession game will be best suited to the players at his disposal.

Home fans got a glimpse of the style McGlynn wants to adopt in the 1-1 draw with Arbroath on Saturday, particularly in the first half as Rovers dominated the ball, albeit without creating enough chances, a fact recognised by the manager.

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With no fixture this weekend due to the international break, McGlynn will continue to work on the system ahead of the Stranraer game at Stark’s Park a week on Saturday.

“We showed signs of playing some good football, however we chose the wrong option on a number of occasions, which we will get better at, just by getting to work with the players over a longer period of time,” McGlynn told the Press.

“There will be some people who don’t care how we win, as long as we win, and I understand that.

“I think, with the players we have, you have to play to their strengths, which is what I would call proper football, and trying to pass the ball.

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“There will be certain fans who will hopefully enjoy seeing us play attractive football. It’s the way forward. The modern game is more based on that rather than just lumping it up the park and hoping for the best.

“There’s still teams doing that and being successful, but I don’t think that fits the profile of the players we have.

“We have players who have got an ability, who can pass the ball, and who have good intelligence of the game that we can develop.

“They’ve taken a lot on board in a short period of time and for the majority of the time, they’ve executed it quite well.

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“We overdid it at times on Saturday but I wouldn’t say that was down to tactics or anything technical.

“I was just surprised at times that we weren’t being more incisive in the final third because we had opportunities to be more penetrating, and for some reason we didn’t pull the trigger.

“We need to be improving in that department, albeit the previous week we scored five goals.”

McGlynn also believes that keeping the ball on the deck will make best use of the artificial surface in place at Stark’s Park, and at various grounds across the league.

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“We train on the pitch every day and from what I’ve seen the players can pass the ball very well on it,” he said.

“That was evident for long spells on Saturday. Training on this pitch, then going into matches should be an advantage.

“Synthetic pitches are not new - they’ve been down, up and renewed - but it’s certainly new for Stark’s Park and we have to take advantage of that.

“In this league we’re playing more than half the games on astroturf, and no doubt there will be slight differences here and there, but generally you tend to find the newer ones have a bit more give, and ones that have been down for a while are a bit more compact, slidier and more difficult to play on.

“We’ve got one that’s in pristine condition right now and it’s allowing us to play some good football.”