Sons' sorrow

[O'Kelly Isley III]

11 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

I’m quite surprised by Farrell’s interview. I expected him to just say everything’s great and it’s only a matter of time until we start winning and it all comes together…

I just hope he doesn’t start second-guessing himself and overthinking too much. He’s had a tendency to do that in the past (e.g. Finlay Gray on the wing) and it’s seldom worked out.

I think there will be mixed opinions on this in the fanbase. Some will say, it’s not working and we have to change it, others will say we are one game away from a great win. I think I’m in the latter. His comment about possibly having to start playing ugly has me worried. We’ve played well in pretty much every game. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

I think it was a really honest interview and I was interested in the reference to 'changing personnel'.  As a thought, is tomorrow the day the transfer window closes for clubs at our level ?

Watching us yesterday again failing to convert good chances I was reminded of the play-off second leg at Forthbank last season when the Binos pounded us for the last 30 minutes but looked absolutely frozen with fear when they were within scoring range.  In that respect Faz's reference to composure is spot-on, with Ruth, Orsi, Gray and Shiels all suffering a lack of it in the first half alone, followed by Mumbongo in the second.

Maybe he should play 'Relax' by FGTH in the dressing room five minutes before kick-off

[FifeSons]

4 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I think it was a really honest interview and I was interested in the reference to 'changing personnel'.  As a thought, is tomorrow the day the transfer window closes for clubs at our level ?

Watching us yesterday again failing to convert good chances I was reminded of the play-off second leg at Forthbank last season when the Binos pounded us for the last 30 minutes but looked absolutely frozen with fear when they were within scoring range.  In that respect Faz's reference to composure is spot-on, with Ruth, Orsi, Gray and Shiels all suffering a lack of it in the first half alone, followed by Mumbongo in the second.

Maybe he should play 'Relax' by FGTH in the dressing room five minutes before kick-off

I agree, but what worries me is we’re going back to first season in L2 Fazball.

[The Moonster]

As much as we're not tucking chances away these last few games, we've scored as many as Alloa, Stenny and Arbroath (more than ICT), yet Cove and Annan are the only two teams to concede more than us. I think Faz is right to say if we tighten things up in our approach we could get success, but it's how you do that without stifling our attack. 

[super-son]

6 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I certainly agree on the conceding of early goals but the first-half yesterday was very typical of what's going on at both ends.  Queens had an early flurry of attacking which forced a poor defensive header leading to a really good finish.  From then to half-time we had them firmly on the back foot but we failed to find the net.

Unfortunately, players who have never been regular scorers don't suddenly become them.  Orsi, Shiels, Gray, McGuffie and Niang are all in that category, ditto the bench, so there needs to be another solution.

As for Greg Young, well I'm as baffled as you.

Agreed, Orsi in particular has always had great feet and regularly get the best of his man turning him inside out all game but it’s extremely rare he puts a good delivery or shot on the end of it. I just wish he could kick a ball. His shots trundle out for goal kicks and his crosses fly over the bar and go for a goal kick. So it begs the question, what’s the point?

Niang isn’t in the team to score goals and he has being doing a great job in the middle of the park.

Ruth is more than capable and he needs a couple of goals to get firing again I reckon.

McGuffie looks like he could be capable of scoring as well if given the opportunity.

Greig Young should be starting now as well.

[Skyline Drifter]

1 hour ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I think it was a really honest interview and I was interested in the reference to 'changing personnel'.  As a thought, is tomorrow the day the transfer window closes for clubs at our level ?

Well the transfer window closes the same day for everyone and was the end of August. If you mean the extended month for domestic loans then yes, tomorrow is the deadline. Technically midnight tomorrow but in practice you need to be in process by 5pm as the SFA shut then and if they dont already know about it then it may not go through.

Of course domestic loan window only matters if you dont already have 5 domestic loans. We do so no relevance to us. Do Dumbarton have scope for more? 

Edited 5 hours ago by Skyline Drifter

[O'Kelly Isley III]

15 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Well the transfer window closes the same day for everyone and was the end of August. If you mean the extended month for domestic loans then yes, tomorrow is the deadline. Technically midnight tomorrow but in practice you need to be in process by 5pm as the SFA shut then and if they dont already know about it then it may not go through.

Of course domestic loan window only matters if you dont already have 5 domestic loans. We do so no relevance to us. Do Dumbarton have scope for more? 

Yes that's essentially what I meant and thanks for that clarity.  AFAIK young Ethan Brown from Killie who played yesterday is our sole loanee so whilst there is scope for more, I'm not confident we'll get anyone in, and especially a striker.

[squeezebox-son]

2 hours ago, The Moonster said:

As much as we're not tucking chances away these last few games, we've scored as many as Alloa, Stenny and Arbroath (more than ICT), yet Cove and Annan are the only two teams to concede more than us. I think Faz is right to say if we tighten things up in our approach we could get success, but it's how you do that without stifling our attack. 

Aye, I agree with this 100%. I think we do maybe need to hold back for the opening 20 mins and keep things tight. By doing so, we can hopefully turn on the fluent attacking stuff once we have settled into the match. It's a fine line between being a bit tighter at the back, protecting the full backs more etc and playing without any presence down the wings in the attacking third.

I do appreciate that none of that makes any difference if you are missing the target with 15/17 chances and not scoring, but I do think it must be hard for the guys to be conceding so early every week. Hopefully grinding out a couple of results could kick start our season and the confidence will grow. Ruth has missed a couple of sitters the last couple of weeks, but we know when he is in form he can score plenty of those kind of chances. But we just need that Monkey off our backs ASAP.

[BallochSonsFan]

A win would definitely raise heads and build a bit of confidence. We're not getting the results in some games that we should be with our possession. Unfortunately it isn't just back luck. We lack a clinical goalscorer and our final ball into the box is often poor. We have spells of good possession, but we're quite wasteful with it.

Durnan looks like age has caught up with him. His lack of pace is an issue. He ends up having to make risky tackles because his pace gives him issues with his positioning. We lose too many early goals and we're left chasing games, but we're not losing goals because we're being cavalier with our early attacking play. We've lost a few early goals because of defensive errors. 

Not sure how we change things. The only game that we've looked to get better after making subs is probably Caley away. Went to a back 3 and we were far better in that game. Most of the time we make subs and look like we lose any sense of shape. Sometimes it works, but it never looks like we've got a clear plan. It usually feels like it's effort and luck rather than any actual design that sees us equalise.

We have issues at the back. Clark has done a job for us, but teams clearly see him as a bit of a weak link and are targeting him. Shiels gave him absolutely no protection yesterday and we were exposed. Shiels either plays well or plays terribly and is either a real threat going forward or posted missing. Yesterday his positioning was shocking. Niang had a poor game yesterday and wasn't effective closing down. First QotS goal just shouldn't have happened.  Going forward? We were incredibly wasteful with our possession.

I'm not sure how we change things, but we need to try something different.