Sons' sorrow

[Robertsons]

25 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

It's a hypothetical choice, that's for sure, but what will probably be more of a truth is that if you finish in the bottom two on a seasonal basis then sooner rather than later you are going down - that's something everyone, including the DFC Board, should consider even if we manage to stay up. 

Taking a look at the remaining eight fixtures there are only three that I think are realistically winnable, and with East Fife having revived recently we could well be avoiding the play-offs but not in a good way.

Agree. We’re looking, based on form, at 9th at best. It may take 35 points or 3 more wins from what’s left. This includes victory next Saturday and a further 2 wins to get over the line. 32 points could just make it again if we beat East Fife and then Clyde on the last day. Lose on Saturday and we’re staring at automatic relegation.

[sonsanorak]

I think I'd take Faz to be honest.  The last 2 games have seen us have horrible starts and then scrap away to half time.  Both 2nd halves we've come out with 3 at the back and had a real go at the opposition.  I'd accept that we never got anything from either game, but I think Faz and Franko can put out a decent team, once on the park it's up to the players.

There's not much any manager can do when Paton gets lippy to a fussy ref and sent off, or when Joe McKee needs 3 touches to miss a chance.

 

[FifeSons]

6 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Taking a look at the remaining eight fixtures there are only three that I think are realistically winnable, and with East Fife having revived recently we could well be avoiding the play-offs but not in a good way.

Only three, really? I would’ve said surely 4: East Fife, Alloa, Peterhead and Clyde are all very realistically winnable.

On Farrell, what I would hope is that we don’t stick with him if he takes us down. Something I have a horrible feeling we might do.

[FifeSons]

10 hours ago, optimistic said:

So farrell still in charge then

There was literally no chance we were sacking him at this stage. He secured his position until the end of the season with the East Fife win, IMO.

How he wasn’t sacked in the three month spell between October and January beggars belief.

I don’t have any confidence in this team or manager to stay up, despite us still having plenty of opportunity to do so. We’re such an amateurish, disorganised rabble under Faz. It wouldn’t shock me if that lack of professionalism is mirrored off the pitch too, with it all being a bit too ‘pally-pally’. Basically the exact opposite of what the special one, Ian Murray, instilled into the club.

Edited March 7, 2022 by FifeSons

[BallochSonsFan]

We've got players who should be doing better than they are. Part of that is absolutely down to the manager. His job to train them, motivate them and play them in something resembling their best positions. He absolutely takes a lot of blame for our current problems. That said, how many of the players have given up? McKee is better than he's been showing. Duthie too. McLean has it in him to be a very good player at our level, but he's too concerned with conning refs or making stupid tackles that  get him booked. Young Wilson looks to have absolutely no confidence right now. Orsi grafts but lacks composure, although he isnt really playing much as a striker.

The players deserve a share of the criticism.

Do we even know what our best formation is? Do we play back 4 or back 3? Wylde was supposed to be an attacking player for us but I wouldn't trust Paddy Boyle at left back and Sam Muir is either decent or terrible, as is typical of inexperienced young players. Josh gives us an option up front if we can get him fit. McLean needs to focus on playing the game rather than playing the ref. 

The mess we're in isnt entirely on the manager. There's plenty of blame to go round and it'll take improvements from everybody if we're going to stay up.

[Frank Quitely]

1 hour ago, BallochSonsFan said:

We've got players who should be doing better than they are. Part of that is absolutely down to the manager. His job to train them, motivate them and play them in something resembling their best positions. He absolutely takes a lot of blame for our current problems. That said, how many of the players have given up? McKee is better than he's been showing. Duthie too. McLean has it in him to be a very good player at our level, but he's too concerned with conning refs or making stupid tackles that  get him booked. Young Wilson looks to have absolutely no confidence right now. Orsi grafts but lacks composure, although he isnt really playing much as a striker.

The players deserve a share of the criticism.

Do we even know what our best formation is? Do we play back 4 or back 3? Wylde was supposed to be an attacking player for us but I wouldn't trust Paddy Boyle at left back and Sam Muir is either decent or terrible, as is typical of inexperienced young players. Josh gives us an option up front if we can get him fit. McLean needs to focus on playing the game rather than playing the ref. 

The mess we're in isnt entirely on the manager. There's plenty of blame to go round and it'll take improvements from everybody if we're going to stay up.

I don't argue with any of that but there is a lot of wishful thinking going on too.  With the exception of a few games we haven't looked a settled team all season and it's a big ask for things to turn around now.  But we need to hope they do.

[Jan Vojáček]

1 hour ago, BallochSonsFan said:

We've got players who should be doing better than they are. Part of that is absolutely down to the manager. His job to train them, motivate them and play them in something resembling their best positions. He absolutely takes a lot of blame for our current problems. That said, how many of the players have given up? McKee is better than he's been showing. Duthie too. McLean has it in him to be a very good player at our level, but he's too concerned with conning refs or making stupid tackles that  get him booked. Young Wilson looks to have absolutely no confidence right now. Orsi grafts but lacks composure, although he isnt really playing much as a striker.

The players deserve a share of the criticism.

Do we even know what our best formation is? Do we play back 4 or back 3? Wylde was supposed to be an attacking player for us but I wouldn't trust Paddy Boyle at left back and Sam Muir is either decent or terrible, as is typical of inexperienced young players. Josh gives us an option up front if we can get him fit. McLean needs to focus on playing the game rather than playing the ref. 

The mess we're in isnt entirely on the manager. There's plenty of blame to go round and it'll take improvements from everybody if we're going to stay up.

It's probably too late in the season to change things. But I actually think a 3-5-2 could suit us with the players we have. Wylde is clearly a wing-back imo, and Carlo is probably someone who could be effective in that position too. That lets us play McKee in central midfield with Carswell and Paton to do the dirty work - and then (in an ideal scenario) have Oyinsan and MacLean causing issues up top.

You'd then have a back three of Stanger (who looks more of a CB than a RB), Bronsky and Buchanan. It's not rock solid (or flawless by any means). But it might be the way to fit Carswell, Paton, McKee, MacLean and Oyinsan into the team in positions where they could have an impact.

It's quite harsh on Conner Duthie mind you. Who, despite his inability to stay calm in front of goal, has been one of our better players this season imo.

I reckon it's far too late in the season for such a drastic change in formation though.

[Jaggy Snake]

9 hours ago, FifeSons said:

15 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Taking a look at the remaining eight fixtures there are only three that I think are realistically winnable, and with East Fife having revived recently we could well be avoiding the play-offs but not in a good way.

Only three, really? I would’ve said surely 4: East Fife, Alloa, Peterhead and Clyde are all very realistically winnable.

On Farrell, what I would hope is that we don’t stick with him if he takes us down. Something I have a horrible feeling we might do.

You've got more winnable games than that. Your second last game is away to Cove and, given the current league table, there's a fair chance they could have the league wrapped up by then. From Dumbarton's point of view, you ideally want them to confirm it the previous weekend so they'll have spent the week celebrating. It's hardly rare for a team to lose after they've wrapped up the title.

Your game the week before that is at Airdrie and, if they fall further behind Cove but are still clear of Montrose, they could even just be coasting through to the playoffs by that point.

There's far too many teams still in the mix, and far to many unknowns, to be down and out yet.

Edited March 7, 2022 by Jaggy Snake

[BallochSonsFan]

56 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

It's probably too late in the season to change things. But I actually think a 3-5-2 could suit us with the players we have. Wylde is clearly a wing-back imo, and Carlo is probably someone who could be effective in that position too. That lets us play McKee in central midfield with Carswell and Paton to do the dirty work - and then (in an ideal scenario) have Oyinsan and MacLean causing issues up top.

You'd then have a back three of Stanger (who looks more of a CB than a RB), Bronsky and Buchanan. It's not rock solid (or flawless by any means). But it might be the way to fit Carswell, Paton, McKee, MacLean and Oyinsan into the team in positions where they could have an impact.

It's quite harsh on Conner Duthie mind you. Who, despite his inability to stay calm in front of goal, has been one of our better players this season imo.

I reckon it's far too late in the season for such a drastic change in formation though.

I'd go with a back 3 and 2 wingbacks as well. I think thats the formation that our players suit. 

[the snudge]

I'd take Duffy back at this moment. I'd take him in and have Co managers. Let Faz work on the attackers and Jim on the defence. 

[The Moonster]

Things are really bad when folk are asking for Duffyball. I still have PTSD from it.

[Johnny Red]

Things are really bad when folk are asking for Duffyball. I still have PTSD from it.

Could be worse, they could be asking for Gingeball

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

On 07/03/2022 at 00:27, FifeSons said:

Only three, really? I would’ve said surely 4: East Fife, Alloa, Peterhead and Clyde are all very realistically winnable.

On Farrell, what I would hope is that we don’t stick with him if he takes us down. Something I have a horrible feeling we might do.

Whilst I do agree that on paper those 4 SHOULD be winnable it would be a fairly dramatic upturn in form for a team to win 4 out of 8 when we’ve only managed to win 3 of our last 20 in the league. IMO there’s more chance of picking up no wins the rest of the season than winning half our remaining fixtures. 

Here is another stat that may shock some people. I was chatting with a fellow Sons supporter yesterday who informed me that in Stevie Farrell’s last 50 League 1 fixtures he has won 8 of them.

Hey, at least he gets on well with the staff and the volunteers!

[O'Kelly Isley III]

On 07/03/2022 at 00:27, FifeSons said:

Only three, really? I would’ve said surely 4: East Fife, Alloa, Peterhead and Clyde are all very realistically winnable.

On Farrell, what I would hope is that we don’t stick with him if he takes us down. Something I have a horrible feeling we might do.

No-one wants to talk up relegation but we also need to be brutally honest here; East Fife have recently improved results-wise, Alloa were by far the better team recently at the Rock and Peterhead will be looking for a clean sweep of wins.  In my book these three fixtures are a bit removed from 'very realistically winnable' for an obviously struggling team.  We obviously hope that we can somehow find performances to stave off the drop and I'll be happy to be proved wrong - a plus point this Saturday is that there will at least be a decent playing surface.

As regards Stevie Farrell's position, he is contracted for next season so a lot could depend on how this season pans out.

[George Parr]

Of the teams floating about the foot of the table i'll concede we are the most likely to sink to the bottom. 

East Fife appear to have stopped the rot with only 1 loss in their last 6 matches. Their next 3 games are fairly winnable as well. 

It's not over though by any means. We steamrolled Clyde recently and Faz needs to somehow eke out that level of performance from the squad in the coming weeks.

 

[FifeSons]

43 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

No-one wants to talk up relegation but we also need to be brutally honest here; East Fife have recently improved results-wise, Alloa were by far the better team recently at the Rock and Peterhead will be looking for a clean sweep of wins.  In my book these three fixtures are a bit removed from 'very realistically winnable' for an obviously struggling team.  We obviously hope that we can somehow find performances to stave off the drop and I'll be happy to be proved wrong - a plus point this Saturday is that there will at least be a decent playing surface.

As regards Stevie Farrell's position, he is contracted for next season so a lot could depend on how this season pans out.

Oh, I think we’re likely going down. More likely than not, in fact. But we definitely have plenty of realistically winnable games left. Now that’s to not say we will win all of those (or even any), but we certainly could win them without it being a shock.

[Turnberry Fields Forever]

I heard that Syvertsen has regained fitness, can anyone confirm this ?

[rockson]

3 hours ago, Turnberry Fields Forever said:

I heard that Syvertsen has regained fitness, can anyone confirm this ?

Is it April 1st?

[kenrobell]

Playing devil's advocate Faz was also backed more financially than Duffy and has got us in the exact same spot.
Gun to my heid I'd go Duff.

This is true director admitted to me they cut the numbers in the squad to get more experienced players who cost wee bit more seemingly what faz wanted

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

20 hours ago, kenrobell said:

This is true director admitted to me they cut the numbers in the squad to get more experienced players who cost wee bit more seemingly what faz wanted

We have a squad of 22 (24 if you include Hopkirk and Syvertsen). That’s the biggest squad we’ve had for years. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Bring Back Paddy Flannery