Sons' sorrow

[Silverton End]

8 hours ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

I thought the majority of our Surridge kits looked like pub team efforts. The fact they were horribly baggy made it ten times worse.

At least Joma know how to produce a semi fitted top.

The white Surridge shirt with the diagonal gold & black band across the front was a very, very nice shirt. Also, the Gold home shirt with black pinstripes (Ballantine's sponsor) was excellent quality, if a tad baggy. The Surridge offerings went downhill rapidly after the aforementioned tops. Joma may make a 'semi fitted top' but the quality & design is decidedly average. 

ETA - our home shirt from Joma last season being the exception.

Bespoke design. 

Edited August 6, 2016 by Silverton End

[the snudge]

16 hours ago, lorenzo71 said:

I gave him the red dot because he gives me a red dot for every single post.All the negatives i have had came from him.So if he wants to be childish i can too.

Tag, you're it. 

It's pretty much because you bore and annoy the mamaries aff me.

[lorenzo71]

1 hour ago, the snudge said:

Tag, you're it. 

It's pretty much because you bore and annoy the mamaries aff me.

GIRFUY

[the snudge]

9 minutes ago, lorenzo71 said:

GIRFUY

[holmparkheroes]

To the ' Dumbarton fan living in Clydebank ' thanks for the plastic ties you left for us, appreciated. Good luck to the Sons for the coming season. ps, spoke to Bankies Alive this morning, thankfully he's managed to recover most of his toys !

[BallochSonsFan]

Pettigrew is fucking pish. If he spent more time defending and less time arguing with the rest of the defence then we might not be losing this one.

[pleslie99]

This could be a long hard season

[The Moonster]

Pettigrew with Smith in front of him just won't work. Smith is fine when he has the ball but defensively he's dreadful. Pettigrew wasn't at right back the whole game and looks well out his depth.

Tactics are terrible. First 11 looked fine but we set up all wrong. Stevo needs to be next to Thommo, ridiculous playing him at defensive mid. Until Stevie shows some baws away from home we'll come away with f**k all.

[O'Kelly Isley III]

1 hour ago, BallochSonsFan said:

Pettigrew is fucking pish. If he spent more time defending and less time arguing with the rest of the defence then we might not be losing this one.

Hmmm...that's dispiriting to hear.  The game has just finished and it sounds like a pretty grotesque scoreline if we are to believe the (very patronising) summaries of Charlie Mann on the BBC.  No word whatsoever on Joe Thompson, Alan Martin or Daniel Harvie and I'd be interested to hear some opinions.

It sounds though as if Darren Barr may need to return in defence.

[The Moonster]

Martin made a ridiculous save in the first half and looks to be a solid keeper. Harvie was okay but has a hint of the Creaney hoof about him and I don't think throwing him in against Higganbotham was a good idea. Thomson was played in the wrong position, looks good enough on the ball though. Tactics and defensive errors our enemy today and I expect for the foreseeable future.

[Jan Vojáček]

No Mark Brown on the bench today, we thinking he's away?

[optimistic]

General opinion

[Thommo90]

Hope brown is away.

Play Thomson sitting mid, let stevo go forward. What's the point playing stevo in a position where it's hard to get anything going and somewhere where his shite tackling is highlighted??

Pettigrew is mince and I can't believe we let taggart go - don't blame him for wanting to go elsewhere tbh.

Doc shouldn't have been dropped.

Two mistakes cost us, they only had two more shots on target than us despite some people saying they should have ran away with it.

[BallochSonsFan]

1 hour ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Hmmm...that's dispiriting to hear.  The game has just finished and it sounds like a pretty grotesque scoreline if we are to believe the (very patronising) summaries of Charlie Mann on the BBC.  No word whatsoever on Joe Thompson, Alan Martin or Daniel Harvie and I'd be interested to hear some opinions.

It sounds though as if Darren Barr may need to return in defence.

Some opinions on today and on the team in general OK3.

Alan Martin looks to be a very useful keeper but his kicking isn't great. He gets distance on his kicks but his accuracy is poor. A lot of his kicks went wide left (he's left footed) and it was usually a battle to try to win the ball in the air or to stop it going out for a throw in. Joe Thomson worked hard but I dont think he's suited to the role Aitken asked him to play today. Harvie looked lost for much of the game and his clearances regularly gave possession away and allowed Dunfermline to come right back at us.

Some other thoughts on today:

Thompson is a grafter up front. He's strong and capable on the deck as well as in the air. Unfortunately with nobody helping him he isnt going to do it on his own. If he's dropping deep or going wide to look for the ball then he needs help. That could be a wide man cutting inside or Josh Todd pushing on from midfield. As much as McCallum is still raw and can't be relied on, it may even have to be young Donald

Smith and Stirling weren't really in the game today. I still believe that going with 2 proper wide men is the way to go, but they didnt really pay off today. Thats maybe because we were overwhelmed in midfield. Dunfermline enjoyed far too much unchallenged possession today. Stevenson isnt a holding midfielder. He didnt get any joy closing Dunfermline players down and that put a lot of pressure on the guys around him.

We were all over the shop at the back. Two absolute howlers but we never really looked solid all day. Frazer Wright must still be carrying an injury because if he isnt then he's finished. It's a season too far for him. Harvie was like a rabbit in the headlights at times and Wright never really looked settled because he knew what would be coming down that side. On the other flank, Pettigrew was absolutely woeful. If he wasn't arguing with Buchanan and Wright, he was arguing with the referee or arguing with our midfielders. Pointed the finger at everybody without ever taking responsibility for his own performance. Again Buchanan was run ragged trying to deal with an ineffectual right back, a poor performing central defensive partner and absolutely no protection from anybody in front of him.

We desperately need a first choice holding midfielder (Joe Thomson may do the job but only if the gaffer plays him there) if Barr isnt going to be fit. Even if he gets fit, Barr might be needed at centre half or right back because right now neither Wright nor Pettigrew fill me with any confidence. Its another disappointing performance where organisation seems to be non-existent and thats possibly the biggest worry. We have the squad we have for better or for worse and we have to be sure that the gaffer and his assistant are getting the most from them. Right now? I'm far from convinced that the boss has them organised and after 5 competitive games where we've shipped 17 goals and managed 2 draws against lower league opposition from the 5 matches, the gaffer has a hell of a lot of work still to do.

[rockson]

22 minutes ago, BallochSonsFan said:

 

Alan Martin looks to be a very useful keeper but his kicking isn't great.

Martin had one great save and several good ones. I agree about his kicking and I also thought he didn't dominate his penalty area enough. We looked very vulnerable at corners because he didn't come off his line. And he should have hoofed that ball instead of playing it to Frazer Wright (who is himself clearly carrying an injury) before the mistake at their third.

And...... he takes an incredible number of drinks. Every stoppage (barring corners and free kicks in our half) he was sipping away at his bottle.

Way better than Mark Brown though.

[Jan Vojáček]

Just now, rockson said:

Martin had one great save and several good ones. I agree about his kicking and I also thought he didn't dominate his penalty area enough. We looked very vulnerable at corners because he didn't come off his line. And he should have hoofed that ball instead of playing it to Frazer Wright (who is himself clearly carrying an injury) before the mistake at their third.

And...... he takes an incredible number of drinks. Every stoppage (barring corners and free kicks in our half) he was sipping away at his bottle.

Way better than Mark Brown though.

To blame Martin for rolling the ball out to a centre-half when it was obvious his long kicking wasn't working is a bit mental. If Wright wasn't comfortable he shouldn't have made himself available, or should have got rid of the ball as soon as he got it.

He always drinks his Lucozade, then washes his mouth out with water (spitting that out), carefully puts both back on his towel and dries off the fingers he used to open it on the towel. It's the most care and attention I've ever seen a 'keeper put into his in-net equipment. 

[sarti pooh]

Was always going to tip either way throwing 3 new signings in to the starting eleven.

I think Martin and Thomson played well but I think harvie struggled but I wouldn't dare judge him on that performance as sparky should never have been dropped and the pars away was always going to be a big ask.

Cracking day out anyway and East end park didn't turn out to be the shite hole I thought it would be!

[lionel wickson]

BallochSonsFan, that's pretty much word for word how I would have summed up today. I thought Joe Thomson was one of the few bright spots, along with the fact that we scored three away from home for the first time since 31 January 2015. However, those three goals skewed the reality of what should have been a much more comfortable win for the Pars. Stevie said after the Peterhead game that they would be working on the defensive side of things in the build up to this one. I'm sure he wasn't envisaging two awful individual errors for goals three and four, but there's going to have to be a significant improvement for next week. Harvie looked a bit jittery, but he's young so I hope people don't get on his back, even if he keeps Docherty out next week. Stevie should have had someone monitoring P&B, because it took him an age to spot the obvious, before  switching Stevenson and Thomson. I thought this game highlighted how much we're missing someone like Routledge at the moment.

[DumbartonTheSons]

I wasn't there today, and while it's a disappointing to lose and concede four goals in the process, surely scoring three goals away from home is a big plus.

It's a shame to read the disappointment from the guys and gals that travelled, what with positional issues with the line-up and tactics and to score three goals away from home and lose is galling, but I'm hopeful we can shore up a bit in the coming weeks.

I understand I wasn't there so maybe don't appreciate fully the defensive horrors, but I'm hopeful that the return of Barr, coupled with continued improvement going forward will herald improved overall performances and obtaining of points in the coming games.

[pleslie99]

People saying Thomson should be playing CDM. I agree however there seems to be some sort of stigma about playing young guys there, who was the last 'young' guy u seen play there? Always seems to be guys in the twilight of their career, hence the Stevo role perhaps, can't help but think it was a role created back in the day to accommodate the Gerard's of this world and everyone has jumped on the bandwagon, a few years ago Stevo was a striker, why does Stevie think he's a CDM all of a sudden. I like Stevie but I worry about the season ahead. Granted I don't see many games due to work commitments but from what you guys report the tactics seem to be severely lacking. At least under Murray we made progress, then when it stagnated he left.