Sons' sorrow

[Sons FC]

To sack or even think of sacking aitken at this time would be foolishness. We have seen with the victories over st Mirren Morton and especially Hibs how well the team can play. The players are good enough to play in this division but seem to lack commitment and drive. They also seem not to communicate with each other as if they are strangers . Aitken should be prioritising the incentivising of the players and refinding the confidence which seems to slipping away.These players are good enough to stay up and aitken must find the best way of playing them.

I don't think it is commitment and drive. All the players are good enough for this level, it is consistency of performance that is lacking - on their day they can be just as good and better than other teams in the league.

[Thommo90]

Really? Brown is who you pick up on there? If Docherty's doing his job then there's no need for Brown to be helplessly throwing himself along the line to try and stop a 5 yard tap in that he has no chance with. Brown's done very little wrong there.

It's taken us 12 games but at least we've figured out our scapegoats for the season.

If his positioning was better he wouldn't need to be helplessly throwing himself anywhere. He gives up on it, no doubt about it, and that's not good enough.

Of course sparky shut off, if he tucks back in there's no goal, but that's obvious and already been pointed out.

[The Moonster]

If his positioning was better he wouldn't need to be helplessly throwing himself anywhere. He gives up on it, no doubt about it, and that's not good enough.

Of course sparky shut off, if he tucks back in there's no goal, but that's obvious and already been pointed out.

Where should he be? He's standing at his front post blocking any shot that Samuel might be able to get off. Funnily enough Samuel decides that shooting isn't an option and plays it across goal. Brown turns round to see our defender sleeping and Johnston ready to stick it in the net. From his front post position you're expecting him to cover roughly 8 yards in less than a second in order to stop the shot. Even if his starting position is closer to the far post by a yard (any more and his front post is open) it's still an impossible task. I'm all for holding players accountable when they've fucked up but Darren Barr and Mark Brown are taking unwarranted levels of abuse so far this season.

[Nowhereman]

Where should he be? He's standing at his front post blocking any shot that Samuel might be able to get off. Funnily enough Samuel decides that shooting isn't an option and plays it across goal. Brown turns round to see our defender sleeping and Johnston ready to stick it in the net. From his front post position you're expecting him to cover roughly 8 yards in less than a second in order to stop the shot. Even if his starting position is closer to the far post by a yard (any more and his front post is open) it's still an impossible task. I'm all for holding players accountable when they've fucked up but Darren Barr and Mark Brown are taking unwarranted levels of abuse so far this season.

Would agree with that. The highlights show we had plenty of the ball in Morton's penalty box. We had more possession and more shots than they did. Yet their keeper hardly had a save to make. It's at the front our main problems lie.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Would agree with that. The highlights show we had plenty of the ball in Morton's penalty box. We had more possession and more shots than they did. Yet their keeper hardly had a save to make. It's at the front our main problems lie.

We had 37% possession and 2 shots on target compared to Morton's 3.

According to the BBC match report anyway.

[Thommo90]

Where should he be? He's standing at his front post blocking any shot that Samuel might be able to get off. Funnily enough Samuel decides that shooting isn't an option and plays it across goal. Brown turns round to see our defender sleeping and Johnston ready to stick it in the net. From his front post position you're expecting him to cover roughly 8 yards in less than a second in order to stop the shot. Even if his starting position is closer to the far post by a yard (any more and his front post is open) it's still an impossible task. I'm all for holding players accountable when they've fucked up but Darren Barr and Mark Brown are taking unwarranted levels of abuse so far this season.

Well to me it looks like he's in two minds, come for the ball, or stay put.. Similar to the goal at east fife if I remember correctly.

As for saying Barr and brown are taking abuse this year, I wouldn't say criticising them on a football forum is "abuse" and i agree with a lot of the criticism they get on here as in my opinion it's deserved.

I will say that they are probably being directly compared with Rogers and Findlay who were simply far better than them.

[optimistic]

Brown is a yard past his post, steps back, and looks like he's going to step off the pitch, no need to be that far out,

[Dunning1874]

His positioning is poor: he shouldn't be leaving the frame of the goal. Still, he certainly shouldn't be expected to leaving his line for that as he quite rightly should expect Barr not to make a mess of it, and he can't be expected to be cutting out the cross having positioned himself to block a shot at his near post: Buchanan should have been positioning himself to do that and Docherty should have at least been trying to get in front of Johnstone. All three of them are far more at fault for that goal than Brown is.

[The Moonster]

Well to me it looks like he's in two minds, come for the ball, or stay put.. Similar to the goal at east fife if I remember correctly.

As for saying Barr and brown are taking abuse this year, I wouldn't say criticising them on a football forum is "abuse" and i agree with a lot of the criticism they get on here as in my opinion it's deserved.

I will say that they are probably being directly compared with Rogers and Findlay who were simply far better than them.

We'll agree to disagree. It's funny though, I don't hear much criticism coming Garry Fleming's way considering he's simply not as good as Chris Kane.

[bigmacDFC]

We'll agree to disagree. It's funny though, I don't hear much criticism coming Garry Fleming's way considering he's simply not as good as Chris Kane.

Because he doesn't let the team down with simple mistakes or what could be perceived as a lack of caring.

Those who are seen to give 100% every game will always escape criticism as opposed to those perhaps seen not to.

Edited November 5, 2015 by bigmacDFC

[Jan Vojáček]

Because he doesn't let the team down with simple mistakes or what could be perceived as a lack of caring.

Those who are seen to give 100% every game will always escape criticism as opposed to those perhaps seen not to.

That's a fair point, Garry's battling attitude on the pitch (and the fact he's a local lad who's came on leaps and bounds since we signed him) endear him to the home fans.

Although, would it be harsh to say that him trying an audacious shot from 30 odd yards, rather than playing in McCallum who would have been clean through was a simple mistake?

[Nowhereman]

We had 37% possession and 2 shots on target compared to Morton's 3.

According to the BBC match report anyway.

Sorry I meant to say that although they had more possession we had more shots than they did ( 9 to 6 ). My point was that we are not doing enough up front when we get chances.

[Nowhereman]

Because he doesn't let the team down with simple mistakes or what could be perceived as a lack of caring.

Those who are seen to give 100% every game will always escape criticism as opposed to those perhaps seen not to.

Garry missed an excellent chance in the first half and could have played someone in in the second half rather than going for the spectacular goal. Both simple mistakes but not as amplified as defenders mistakes as they tend to lead to goals.

[The Moonster]

Because he doesn't let the team down with simple mistakes or what could be perceived as a lack of caring.

Those who are seen to give 100% every game will always escape criticism as opposed to those perhaps seen not to.

As others have pointed out, Garry has made mistakes but he's a favourite of the fans so we can forget about them. I don't agree that Barr and Brown don't care and aren't trying. Scapegoats indeed.

[Darren1872]

And Fleming hasn't been particularly great this season tbh.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Sorry I meant to say that although they had more possession we had more shots than they did ( 9 to 6 ). My point was that we are not doing enough up front when we get chances.

Fully agreed. Watching us trundle forward at 2mph tapping the ball about the midfield until we lose it is painful to watch.

When we do create a chance we struggle to hit the target. 2 shots on target against a team we should be looking to compete with (at home) is poor. We cant have had many shots on target over the last 8 games.

[optimistic]

Whole team isn't bad, just unspectacular, we may be going through a poor run of form, including Garry, but we know we get a workmanlike shift off him, and always strong in the challenge, always positive, and still been one of our best performers this season, the rest have still to show the bottle and expertise to dig us out of this rut that we're in

[pleslie99]

Working hard for 90mins doesn't cover up the fact he lacks the quality to change a game. If we are in a battle he's a great player to have. Trying to create chances he won't manage many, wouldn't be averse to dropping him Tbh

[sonsism]

No questioning Fleming's effort but think he's been pretty mince recently after a good start to the season. Think he could make a decent impact coming off the bench if dropped.

[The Moonster]

By the way, I didn't bring up Garry's name as I felt he needed to take some flak, I was just using him as an example of someone who isn't playing the best and escapes criticism whilst others are taking all the blame.

The whole team need to raise their level.