Sons' sorrow

[cameron2000]

What was Buchy's injury?

[harry94]

Tatar able to play at centre back or was he more of a right back?

Dundee needing a centre back and wouldn't surprise me if Hartley has enquired after our friendly. I do remember him standing out a bit.

[harry94]

Oh and to add - sign a 'keeper ffs. It's infuriating as an outsider to see you persist with two goalies who are blatantly not good enough for the level.

[Silverton End]

3 minutes ago, harry94 said:

Oh and to add - sign a 'keeper ffs. It's infuriating as an outsider to see you persist with two goalies who are blatantly not good enough for the level.

Jamie Ewings was excellent for us last season, fully deserves his place this season too.

[squeezeboxson]

2 minutes ago, harry94 said:

Oh and to add - sign a 'keeper ffs. It's infuriating as an outsider to see you persist with two goalies who are blatantly not good enough for the level.

To be fair Ewings came in for the 2nd half of last season and completely proved myself and many other wrong. He was actually being considered for player of the year by one or two people I know, just because in the rest of the squad not many stood out all that much.

 

Sadly, we made the mistake of signing Mark Brown on a 2 year contract last preseason.

[Jan Vojáček]

12 minutes ago, harry94 said:

Tatar able to play at centre back or was he more of a right back?

Dundee needing a centre back and wouldn't surprise me if Hartley has enquired after our friendly. I do remember him standing out a bit.

Tatar's a centre-mid mate.

Jaz was excellent last season, probably alongside Nade our best player in the second half of the season. I've got nae issue with him making the odd error in pre-season, every 'keeper makes mistakes...in fact so does every player, it's just there's are punished more blatantly.

I do agree with you on Brown. Anytime he goes to kick the ball/a cross comes in he gives me the fear.

[The Moonster]

13 minutes ago, harry94 said:

Oh and to add - sign a 'keeper ffs. It's infuriating as an outsider to see you persist with two goalies who are blatantly not good enough for the level.

FWIW, Dundee signed the keeper we were after last year and only played him twice. Terrible waste of a keeper who's good enough for this level.

[Jan Vojáček]

1 minute ago, The Moonster said:

FWIW, Dundee signed the keeper we were after last year and only played him twice. Terrible waste of a keeper who's good enough for this level.

Mitchell's out of contract this summer isn't he? I wouldn't be surprised - assuming Stevie's still here - if we had him next season.

[optimistic]

When Brown kicks, it's like his foot is under the ball too much, which in turn gives it too much elevation, I'd prefer if he just put his foot through it, and got it forward to the front men, 

Without doubt ewings was outstanding in the second half of last season, he fully deserves his chance at number one

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Tried to have a look for the fugure quoted for Todd's compo but can't find it.

Got to feel a bit for the lad, not many clubs at this level will fork out compo for a player from League 2 minus one or two. That might stop him from progressing his career until he's 23.

[Jan Vojáček]

That was actually quite an enjoyable game today, despite the result, and weather, and fact it was a friendly.

Squad depth is evidently our biggest issue, but I liked the way we lined up. The 4-5-1 come 4-3-3 worked well, with Gallagher, Gaz and Stevo all looking solid in centre mid and the front three being as impressive as they were in the previous two games this week.

Best I've seen Stevo play, and he certainly looks to be getting fitter as time goes on. Played some absolutely beautiful passes today and he's dead ball delivery is fantastic. I even saw him run a few times, not to mention that wee roulette round the guy when he was *almost* sprinting. He could be the defensive splitting midfielder we lacked last season, though I still won't get carried away given what Ayr fans said about him.

Berbathom, Stirling and Smith look like they'll be very good for us, and already have an impressive understanding. Thommo is just wonderful to watch, he's so graceful with his flowing locks and dreamy first touch, before he smashes into the defender and links play up. His goal just summed him up, effortless overhead kick!

The more I see of David Smith the more I like him. He's obviously very quick, but I like how direct he is. He gets the ball and he runs at people, that's good to see. Also stuck in a few cracking balls.

I see a wee bit of Stevie Murray in Stirling - though it could just be his build and his jinky wee movements - him cutting inside at pace is a glorious site and I was sure his shot that won the corner we scored from was going in.

Stevie's clearly looked at where we were weak last season, and has addressed it. Cawley dithered on the ball too much, and we didn't really have a consistent starter on the other wing. That lead to him going too defensive, which lead to us playing dross football and losing. Hopefully he's brave and starts all 3 next week as they're cracking to watch.

Pettigrew's looked fairly solid at the back, though the goal was a disaster for him and Jaz. Good job it was only a friendly, but I've every confidence it won't happen again. 

Gallagher was *checks to see if pig is flying and moon is blue* actually fairly decent, particularity in the first half in centre mid. Got me thinking about what FF said on here way back about him doing the dirty work and then passing it to a guy to do the other stuff. Alongside Stevo and Garry - who are always looking to make something happen going forward - he might just be alright...Although he was good last pre-season too!

Todd looked useful when he came on, but we won't be able to pay compensation for him. It's a ropy deal that considering he came through the youth system at Carlisle, but there's nothing anyone can do about it. I'd imagine he'll have to do another season with Annan as I doubt anyone will fork out for him.

I'm assuming Fraz was injured and that's why he went off at HT? Gaz in at CB was something I didn't think I'd see, and he was decent enough to be fair to him, but we could potentially be without him, Barr or Buchanan next week and that would be a major blow.

Counting down the hours until I can see Thommo again 

[Skyline Drifter]

22 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Tried to have a look for the fugure quoted for Todd's compo but can't find it.

Got to feel a bit for the lad, not many clubs at this level will fork out compo for a player from League 2 minus one or two. That might stop him from progressing his career until he's 23.

Its a bit further back than I thought but speculation on p903 of our thread from early June.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Its a bit further back than I thought but speculation on p903 of our thread from early June.

Cheers SD.

Can't see anyone paying that for his services tbh.

[Jan Vojáček]

 

[Howlin' Wilf]

I liked Mr Findlay's announcement of the goal "Scorer for Dumbarton - Bryan Prunt - sorry Robert Thomson"

[cedrick1]

Pretty much ok today until the late positional changes as said by others.

probable like most sons fans concerned with the volume and depth OS squad.i assume a couple of loanees as we have done in past seasons will be likely as doesn't seem to be any more signings on the radar.

next Saturday is when the business really begins.

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Remember folks, save for Ainsworth and Moult this was essentially a Motherwell youth side on display today, so let's not go overboard.  There were however pleasing things from our point of view but I do wonder about a forward player on each wing, it leaves a helluva shift for the central midfielders.

And we do need a partner for the impressive Thomson up front; should he get injured it's difficult to envisage an alternative goal threat.

[ayetherock]

When Brown kicks, it's like his foot is under the ball too much, which in turn gives it too much elevation, I'd prefer if he just put his foot through it, and got it forward to the front men, 

Without doubt ewings was outstanding in the second half of last season, he fully deserves his chance at number one

Maybe he will try it after reading this post. You would make a good gk coach

[Boghead ranter]

9 hours ago, Sonsteam of 08 said:

Here he is, anybody got any idea who he is?

John Inglis.

[Jan Vojáček]

1 hour ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Remember folks, save for Ainsworth and Moult this was essentially a Motherwell youth side on display today, so let's not go overboard.  There were however pleasing things from our point of view but I do wonder about a forward player on each wing, it leaves a helluva shift for the central midfielders.

And we do need a partner for the impressive Thomson up front; should he get injured it's difficult to envisage an alternative goal threat.

That's a fair point, although I suppose (with my positive pre-season hat on) you could also look at a few factors that were in the young Motherwell sides favour.

We had only 3 outfield subs, two of them youngsters, one of them a trialist which meant that we ended up with a striker at centre back, and a midfielder at right-back. Motherwell must've subbed about half their team and that, combined with their full-time training (yes that old chestnut again) meant that we were always going to struggle as the game wore on.

When Thommo was limping against Stranraer I was panicking a bit, and that's just going to continue to worry me all season I reckon. Much like Nade last season we have a very good striker who we can build a team around, but when he's not fit the options are, at best, fairly bleak.

On the lineup, I'd definitely be keeping the front three the same. Whilst it does perhaps leave us slightly exposed a disciplined back four, and three deep lying centre mids (especially ones with the engine that Fleming and, for all his flaws, Gallagher possess) should be able to keep things tight enough. If not we'll just have to out score the opposition, and that was good fun a few years ago!