dumbarton82

Always been a good surface at the Millburn so don't blame you's for not wanting to share it

The park they used to play their home games at, Posties Park, has had a bit of money spent on redeveloping it. New gym, changing facilities and an athletics track are currently under construction. Might be an option for them but would likely need further money spent on it to get it up to Wos standard

Not heard anything locally about the FPs moving up to the pyramid system. Between there 2 teams must have close to 40 signed players so if they did make the move, could see them still having a presence in the amatuer game with there 2nd team.

St Pats 3-1 winners v St Joe's.

I doubt zander will be fit enough to play football now. He was forced to retire due to a back injury

Lol....you would be lucky to get a pint off rodgers never mind a wage. Funniest thing I have heard in a whilst

Well done...heard that it was a well deserved win and good luck in the next round. Not many teams get a clean sheet v st pats

Mixed fortunes for the Dumbarton sides yesterday...st pats progress after 4-3 win at westerlands but the accies edged out at home to eastfield 1 nil

From what I have seen it's much the same squad of players as last season. Got a couple back from injury/working abroad that were unavailable for large parts of last year but no new faces

Provided Dumbarton Accies get through there tie v Eastfield will be a cracker and one I am looking forward to seeing. I believe eastfield gave them a doing in pre-season but the accies have started their season well. They are a strong, fit and well organised team but fancy eastfield just to edge it

Yeah I agree will be more results like today. Thought the saints game was finishing a draw and would have got an extra 30 mins of a cracking game but they pulled it out the bag with 2 goals in last few mins

Cheers for confirming mate

Does anyone know the reason behind there being no extra time. Was at the st pats game today and they were a couple of minutes away from being taken to pens. Couple of folk on the sidelines were saying the reason it goes straight to pens is to help save clubs money as would need to take an extra hour on the pitch let. Not 100% sure how accurate that is so wondering if anyone involved with teams can confirm. Seems bizarre to me, can understand wanting games played to a finish to help ease fixture congestion but surely extra time should be played before penalties

Took in the St Pats and Nico's game today and although they lost a tight game was impressed with Nico's. Got an equaliser with a few mins left to make it 2-2 but then lost 2 goals straight after that, the 4th st pats goal being as good a goal as you will see this season. Well organised team and a few boys that were excellent on the ball. Reckon they would easily hold their own in the central

St Pats keeper should maybe have stayed on his stag do this week then...doesnt sound like he was needed

St Pats 7 nil v doune castle

Just been catching up on a few threads on the forum recently and we now have have the current Scottish and east of scotland champs folded. Farcical stuff and in my view we now have to many guys involved in amatuer fitba that are mercenaries. They don't understand the origins of amatuer fitba.clubs have traditionally been formed form local areas and are made up of local players. You now have clubs popping up that are built on sand and to reliant on 1 or 2 people to keep them going. Once they either get starry eyed and given an opportunity elsewhere "up the ladder" or the old guys running the club get scunnered then they hit trouble. Proper community amatuer teams will prob only ever get a once in a generation group of players that become major contenders. These mercenaries want immediate success and end up ruining a host of clubs in the process. Need the guys running clubs to look longer term and ensure their team is still going when their kids and grandkids are playing.

It looks like Fallin are going to be a team to watch in the coming seasons. Already causing some of the more established premier teams problems and looks like they will be in the mix for honours. The boy you are talking about for st pats is outstanding most weeks and is some talent. Great to watch and must be a nitemare for opponents to play against and also for the ref, as he does like a moan. It's no coincidence that since he moved to them 2/3 years ago st pats have started to challenge again after a few disappointing seasons at wrong end of the league

I noticed on the youth forum that there is a similar thread about the demise of under 21 football. Would it be a benefit to scrap under 21s and that would then make more players available to the amateur ranks. I know there is a few 21s teams linked to junior clubs so can see why they might be reluctant to this change, however they could work more closely with the local amatuer teams in their area to pick up the better players.

The change in people's working hours has definitely been the main factor in the reduction in players/teams playing amateur football. There is not many people working the traditional 9-5 Monday to Friday now...shift work and also the need to work away from home during the week means it's difficult for guys to commit to training and games every week. Also with many guys partners also working shifts it adds another difficulty especially if you have kids. The Pro Youth setup is also not helping and I see no benefit whatsoever to this. From a young age you are seeing kids being snapped up by pro teams to effectively make up the numbers for there youth teams as they are nowhere near good enough to have a full time career in the game. When they are eventually discarded at 16/17 they end up scunnered with football altogether and it's difficult to get them back into the game. The enjoyment of playing football is taken away from these kids at a young age and once that's away it will be difficult to get it back. All levels of the game are suffering due to the pro youth setup and can only see that continuing until a change is brought in.

Good luck with season ahead with the select team. As you have explained not always possible to pick the guys you want for various reasons but still have a strong team there by looks of it

Caught a bit of the accies game last night and they were well on top. I didn't notice any notable players missing and looks to be much the same squad as last season.

He is a cracking player. Has played at a higher level before and should still be but it suits him to play for St Pats. He won't be earning a penny with them

St Pats 2-1 win at Eastfield

There was a friendly down here at the weekend between dumbarton accies and glenburn that had 2 red cards for dissent towards the ref. Don't think discipline problems are only an issue for central teams