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Sons' sorrow


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According to the Sun Stevie will meet with the board today to discuss his future. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a Gordon Strachan situation. I get we can't sack him, but surely we could come to some sort of mutual agreement with him - it's not exactly doing much for his reputation.


I think Stevie would be mad not to agree a deal. IMO I think were currently doomed for relegation and if he stays on with that and the cup defeat he would do much more harm to his reputation than leaving now.
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21 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

I'm still absolutely spewing. Folk in work speaking to me like there has been a family bereavementemoji38.pngI thought one guy was about to hug me and let me weep on his shoulder.

f**k off Dumbarton, you minter inducing arseholes.

This reminds of an old Simpsons episode where Homer finds he's dying and goes through the 5 Kubler-Ross stages

I'm currently at stage 5... :(

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Right, here goes. Time for a rant that's been cooking up inside me all night.

Aitken absolutely 100% has to leave the club. Whether he resigns or is punted shouldn't hide from the horrific form of the last year, which has been covered over by a few decent results. What I'm about to say is exactly what I said at Raith Rovers in September after the third goal went in. It's harsh in the extreme, but now's the time to put it out as I doubt I'm alone.

The good results under Stevie (and by that I mean wins) have been (with one or two exceptions) all flukes. Let's go right back to the start, July last year against Morton. You know what? We deserved to win that day, it remains one of the best performances under him. We were dynamic, attacking, showed no fear and plenty of movement. It was smashing to watch.

A week later we went to East Fife, drew 1-1 and lost on penalties. That was the first warning sign. I ignored it, still buzzing from Cappielow a week earlier, I don't think I was the only one. In that game we were dominated by a League Two side who, to tell the truth, deserved to win.

I also tried to put a positive spin on the fact he stripped Andy Graham - arguably our best player the year before - of the captaincy in favour of Darren Barr. That was a weird decision at the time, but new manager, new ideas. I suppose I tried to understand it. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong.

The opening two games of the season were great. The win over Hibs after some Willie Gibson magic was deserved, before we all got into a frenzy after beating St Mirren in Paisley. What we overlooked at the time was that they were dross and everyone beat them. That bought Aitken plenty of time.

Then came a run of six winless matches. He kept Eamonn Brophy on the bench in favour of guys like Grant Gallagher upfront because they were more physical. Again I overlooked it. The football was becoming poor. Again, I overlooked it. The 0-5 defeat at home to Falkirk was a worry, the defeat to a poor Morton side and the 3-3 with Raith. What always gets forgotten about that game is that we were absolutely brutal for 81 minutes. Willie Gibson dug us out a hole.

In fact come December the 1st last year we had won just 1 more game than we had on August the 20th. Three wins in a row quickly put an end to any grumbling - albeit two were against a dire Alloa side in disarray and one was a narrow victory over Ian Murray's St Mirren (good performance mind you).

We then went on a run of not scoring an away goal from the 16/12/2015 to 1/5/2016. Remember that? The 6-4-0 against St Mirren was the moment I started to strongly doubt Aitken. Then we had the Osei-Obengo signing, then Heffernan. What was the point? Shunting Jamie Lindsay out wide to accommodate his favourites in the middle? Madness. As this all went on Nade single handedly saved us from relegation. I had no reason to complain, he'd kept us up that was all that mattered.

Excuses have been everywhere since the start of the year. The squad depth is the most common issue. HE BUILT THE SQUAD! As BBPF did earlier lets look at his summer business and see if it gives an insight into why we are where we are.

In: Robert Thomson (Brechin City), Andrew Stirling (Stranraer), Craig Pettigrew (Stranraer), Ryan Stevenson (Ayr United), David Smith (Falkirk), Jamie Barclay (Stenhousemuir), Josh Todd (Annan Athletic), Daniel Harvie (Aberdeen, loan), Alan Martin (Hamilton Accies), Joe Thomson (Celtic, loan), Sam Stanton (Hibernian, loan)

Out: Scott Taggart (Alloa Athletic), Kevin Cawley (Alloa Athletic), Mikey Hopkins (Burnbrae Amateurs), Jordan Kirkpatrick (Alloa Athletic), Paul Heffernan (released), Jon Routledge (TNS), Jamie Lindsay (Celtic, loan expired), Calum Waters (Celtic, loan expired), Tom Walsh (Rangers, loan expired), Kler Heh (Sheffield United, loan expired), Steven Saunders (TNS), Andrew Biddulph (Clydebank), John Cunningham (released), Christian Nade (Stranraer), Ryan Clark (Kilwinning Rangers, loan), Amadou Kassarate (Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, loan)

Thomson's confidence is clearly shot. Being a striker in our team must be murder. In saying that his finishing has been poor, although I still think he could be a decent player. Stirling is unable to cross a ball. 80% of the time it's underhit, 20% it's overhit. I don't think he has an assist this season, and that's hardly a surprise.

Pettigrew? God only knows. Stevenson? If the figure on here is true then it's madness. He must've only signed him because he's his pal. Smith has been decent. Todd is suffering from Grant Gallagher-itis where he's been shifted into so many roles it's difficult to tell what he's actually good at. Harvie and Thomson have been good and Martin is sublime.

In fact without Alan Martin we would not have a single victory this season. I'd go that far.

Is it just me who doesn't get the point of the Stanton signing either? He's had a couple of decent games, but he's not the sort of player we needed. We have guys capable of playing neat wee touches in the middle of the park, or out wide. Pointless signing and, I'd imagine, he's on decent money.

Don't get me started on the fact he put all his eggs in the Saunders basket and let Scott Taggart go. The fact he was open about wanting the Raith job when we had two signed players. Aye, cheers Stevie.

This season I don't need to rant. His excuses have been brutal from the start. The Betfred Cup was still pre-season, squad depth, injuries, playing against top, top sides. Newsflash Stevie, Dunfermline and St Mirren are rancid. They are not "Premiership quality".

Was the result yesterday a surprise to any one of us on here? Aside from the 'Aitken's Army' I doubt anyone was remotely shocked we lost yesterday. That's how bad it is at the moment.

Ian Wilson said it was crucial that we stayed up this season. Well, Ian, time for you to put your money where your mouth is and sack him. If you don't then it confirms what we've all known about you all along - you don't care about the football side, no matter what you claim. You are just in it for the money. So cut the drivel about wanting the club to succeed.

This is my most unstructured, ranty post for a long time. Last night I was being laughed at by Killie fans (not even Pete). That shouldn't happen to anyone!

Edited by Sonsteam of 08
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2 minutes ago, DanMc99 said:

not a dumbarton fan, but i am from dumbarton and did go to matches years ago but can someone explain to me how they can go from a good result like saturdays to that last night at home aswell!

We were dreadful on Saturday but got lucky courtesy of a smashing goal and a dodgy penalty. We also played a side who looked about as motivated as ourselves. Last night we didn't get any lucky decisions - actually we did, they had a decent looking goal chalked off - and faced a team who were playing for their manager and wanted it.

As you may be able to tell losing last night was not a shock to many Sons' fans.

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2 minutes ago, sarti pooh said:

Anyone else taking an absolute pounding in work?

I must be quite lucky in that most of my workplace is filled with "who's yer big team" types that don't take the slightest notice of our results. There is one guy who takes an interest but he's off on holiday at the moment so I just get to sit here looking miserable as f**k, muddling through my work with my head resting on my hand and occasionally grunt at folk who ask me for things. Just like every other day I suppose.

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13 minutes ago, DanMc99 said:

i hope they can stay up but the way fans are talking about them it does not sound good. as i say i haven't seen them in a while but seems change is needed

What was the last Dumbarton team you watched? I'll happily compare them with this current crop to give you an idea of what it's like to watch.

11 minutes ago, sarti pooh said:

Anyone else taking an absolute pounding in work?

 

10 minutes ago, Boghead ranter said:

Me, but then again I'm a male prostitute.

:lol:

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