THE CHOSEN SON

Looking forward to a relegation play-off at Brechin, accompanied by Faz in the hedge arguing with fans next season.

You’re on a public forum naming individuals involved and coming up with theories on how the police became aware of it. Have a bit of sense.

Is it ridiculous to suggest we stage a protest? My only worry is that any sort of protest against the club and/or manager will be met with a statement, condemning a ‘minority of troublesome characters who don’t represent the real fans’ or some drivel. Even if the board took heed of a protest, who in their right mind would want to get involved with the son’s circus… What a time to be a Dumbarton fan.

You’re right. At least we still have a small section of passionate, intelligent fans that can spot what’s happening to the club. As each week comes and goes, that section of fans gets smaller and we’ll be left with the happy-clapper, echo-chamber lot who are happy to turn up “give the boys some backing” thinking it’ll solve everything. I’m not knocking how they chose to support the club here - merely pointing out how easy it’s going to be for the club to sleepwalk into relegation in the very near future under current manager / leadership.

Farrell needs emptied. This is without a shadow of a doubt, the least amount of enthusiasm I’ve ever had for Dumbarton. With the Doctor and Faz at the wheel, we’re at risk of turning fans away with this mind-numbing nonsense, right before we start the slump towards lowland league football (to be honest the process is well under-way).

I was just talking about seeing such a huge difference between the Shiels we had a few seasons ago to the Shiels we have now and how key he was going to be for us…. Was his contract up or have we gotten a few for him?

Put in a shift and didn’t get completely pumped and we’ve made it through the TV coverage without the club doing something embarrassing. Ruth, Orsi, Carlo and Shiels all impressed but everyone put a shift in. Blair at LB was a mistake and hopefully that’s the last we see of Broun in a Sons shirt - no offence or disrespect meant to the lad but he’s absolutely nowhere near the level required.

Surely the logical option here is for our glorious leader Alan Martin to get the gloves back on

Replays not come into play from round 4? I could be wrong.

That’s probably the worst draw we could’ve got. Silver lining is the chance of TV money. Perfect scenario is a draw at the rock, live on telly followed by a famous sons win at Ibrox - also on the telly. $on$

I’m hoping for Broomhill away

Rumours of Armand One signing I’ve heard

I could be jumping to conclusions here but a loans company appearing at the same time as promises of an artificial pitch is dodgy… I seriously hope we’re not borrowing money from this lot. An artificial pitch should absolutely be a target for us but not if it means borrowing money - we should be looking at grants and community funding.

Enjoyed watching that today, something I’ve not been able to say for a long time - kudos to Faz for changing it up. We done everything but score today. A wee bit more willingness to attack crosses and a wee bit more composure in and around the box needed and we win that game 5-0. Midfield tiring in the second half allowed Bonnyrigg to come into the game. Relentless pressing fell on its arse when Wallace, Wilson and Blair started to look leggy and we stopped scooping up all the scrappy 2nd balls. First time I’ve seen us this season. Impressed with Ruth’s energy, he looks like he just needs a bit of belief in front of goal. Grieg Young had an impressive first half, maybe let a bit of naivety creep into his game second half but encouraged by his performance. Durnan and Crighton look as solid a pairing I’ve seen for Sons in a few years as well.

I hope Farrell is just being nice in giving Lyon/Layne somewhere to train and get fit. He’s been plying his trade for a Sunday league team up here for the past few months and is miles off it (albeit it’s the same Sunday team Joe Bevan came from).

Would we be due any sort of development fee - due to his age - for Finlay Gray if he were to run his contract down and leave on a free next summer? Don’t know how long a player needs to have been at the club for that to apply.

Like selling Broomhill a pipe dream about a huge 10,000 seater stadium, with an artificial surface, hotels and a gym attached? All funded by the sale of the current land for a housing project? Sounds ridiculous. Nobody would ever dream of such a thing.

There were definitely grants available for astros a few years ago - not sure if it was part of Commonwealth / Euros money. There’s a lot of hurdles to jump through from my very limited knowledge and I highly doubt our current chairman is invested enough or adept enough to deal with it. ETA, maybe there’s someone on the Broomhill side willing to put the work in to get us community grants for an Astro pitch?

As baffling as this is on our end, who the f**k at Broomhill thought Dumbartons tattie field was a better choice than the countless other Astro parks in West/Central Scotland. Total madness all round. The only silver lining (and I’m really clutching at straws here) is that before Broomhill joined with Open Goal, they had a number of exciting young players coming through - Finaly Gray being one of them. Maybe good links between the clubs will see them become a bit of a feeder club for us… Like I said, I’m really clutching at straws.

Does it involve a groundshare? Those pesky Broomhill rumours haven’t gone away….

Ryan Oné

Worth noting we only actually have 14 players signed up (with rumours of one leaving), so of course the squad is looking imbalanced. 7 guys capable of playing in midfield might seem overkill but 4 of them have been deployed in other positions and looked just as handy there. I get the criticism re lack of creativity but it seems quite shrewd business to get good, versatile players in. It saves a bit of budget for Farrell to get a creative spark and / or a 15 goal a season striker, both are very hard to come by and don’t come cheap. Over to Farrell to see if he can convince such a player to ply their trade on a tattie field otherwise the versatile grafter route could go tits up.

I hope we’re building depth and versatility - Malcolm, Wallace and Carlo can be deployed in a few positions - and I’d hope there’s plenty more to come. Another couple of defenders, a couple of wingers and a striker.

Haven’t seen much of Durnan since our championship days, quick glance at his last 3/4 seasons would suggest he’s been a bit hit and miss or maybe struggled with injuries. Hopefully it’s a case of him finding his level at his age, rather than a slow regression down the leagues. Seems a solid enough signing anyway if he’s still the same player he was years ago and he bring some much needed experience to the back line.

Suppose we don’t need anyone capable of playing killer passes when we’re only looking to hoof it long