Sons' sorrow

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Mostly negatives from yesterday's performance but some positives. I will start with the positives. Big Thomson up front put in a decent shift we just need someone feeding off him as he holds the ball up well at times. The kid from Celtic looks decent so too does our new keeper.

Negatives: our full backs are a major weak link especially as our centre halfs are slower than a week in jail. Pettigrew is rank, gives the ball away constantly and I don't think he knows what to do (I think there are a few in this category mind you). The kid from Aberdeen looked like a rabbit caught in headlights yesterday. Why do we still not have a defensive midfielder? I know Barr will probably play there but we need more than one. Every single Sons fan can see that Stevenson isn't suited for that role (or Fleming)- he needs to be higher up the pitch. Not convinced with Smith, reminds me of Chris Hamilton- bit of a headless chicken. He has great pace but crossing is hit or miss and defensively he is all over the place. 

If I had my way I would punt a few players: Brown (2 year contract is a joke), Doherty (lack of pace, decision making is poor), Gallagher (not good enough for this level). Pettigrew is another one who ain't up to it for this level of football. I would have kept Taggart. 

We look ok going forward but maybe Stevie has forgotten to do  defensive drills of any kind! 

 

 

 

We do have a CDM. He's called Thomson and he was played as a CAM yesterday.

Stevie just doesn't fill me with confidence, he never has. He gives off a sense of panic and I believe that is starting to transfer to the players.

When Stevie was gaffer at Stranraer I always got a sense of a real good team spirit. The players were all like best mates and would run through a brick wall for each other. Our mob seem like the complete opposite.

Also worth noting that when Stevo got hooked yesterday he looked furious. Threw a bit of a frustrated tizz as he was sitting down. Who knows whether it was frustration borne out of playing deep midfield, the teams general performance or the fact he felt he should have remained on the park.

Concerning.

[DumbartonTheSons]

I wasn't there yesterday but always read with interest the thoughts of those who were.

I do hope that some people are wrong that there are dressing room issues at this stage. It is however concerning that almost everyone seems to be in agreement (excepting Aitken of course) that we're playing players in the wrong position and it's a case of square pegs in round holes. Again. Remember Ian Murray's penchant for playing four central midfielders in a flat midfield four?

I'm struggling though to see how Mark Brown could've been 'wronged' by Stevie though. He was poor last season, and Stevie has moved to replace him, albeit very close to the start of the league season. That happens all the time, are we to believe that Mark Brown has never been dropped, been second choice or just not been or become not what the manager fancies as his goalkeeper. It seems to me like MB has majorly taken the huff here, and so has his missus. Hopefully we can get shot and free up funds, but I wouldn't be confident we'll be able to do that. If he does feel he's been 'wronged' he could well dig his feet it and sit in the stands until May, all the while bleeding our budget with us getting nothing in return...

Difficult times for Stevie.

[Thommo90]

So does nobody know about the training situation?? Pure concerning..

[Pachyderm I]

3 goals! great start... 

[Pachyderm I]

just me but our kits and such are on point this season! 

 

1.  
   
   home kit
   
     
   
   away kit

    

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[pleslie99]

Just watched the highlights, 3rd goal was horrible but it was an individual error. These things happen occasionally and I'm sure he will bounce back. What's more concerning to me is the 2nd and 4th goals. 2nd goal there was plenty bodies there to deal with it and Cardle still managed to get a shot through them. 4th goal was poor defending and simply outmuscled. These are the things that Stevie needs to sort out. Players need to be stronger and want the ball more than the opponents, doesn't look like it happened yesterday.

[Sweet Pete]

Couldn't give a shite about a keeper taking a huff. But training on a mini pitch for little time is downright scandalous for this level and if true needs corrected without delay. That's worse than amateur.

[Thommo90]

Couldn't give a shite about a keeper taking a huff. But training on a mini pitch for little time is downright scandalous for this level and if true needs corrected without delay. That's worse than amateur.

Exactly, wish these things and the reasons behind it were out in the open for us.

Just seen on ayrs page they are linked with Jordan McMillan - worth a punt surely..

[Sweet Pete]

McMillan is a player I've always liked

[cedrick1]

Even by our levels we are seeking a new level of negativity this easy in season. All the stuff about training ,unhappy played,losing the dressing room.

think we need to settle down a bit.

in terms of football I didn't think we were too bad yesterday  considering the goals we lost..

you have to say they certainly kept going to the end.

an issue would be that we rushed the 2 new signings in and probably played joe Thomson a bit out of position to begin with.

we created more chances yesterday than we did in second half of last season away from home.

again we missed a proper central defensive midfielder who could scrap for the ball a couple of our players seem short at this level in pettigrew and smith. I thought Todd showed as much as u have seen from him.

2 goals in injury time maybe papered cracks on what would have looked a whipping but I believe game wasn't 4.1 in terms of play.

interesting to see how we build once squad full and players settle in .

regarding all the other stuff going on .dont know anything about it and will leave it till facts come out rather than speculate

 

 

 

[sonsism]

Looks like the the name of this thread has come full circle.

[squeezeboxson]

Could maybe be worth looking to loan Mark Brown out to someone? I get that if he doesn't want to go then he is fully entitled to sit in the stand until his contract is up and take his wage. But if he does want to play, we could possibly look to get him out and have some part of his wages covered that way.

In regards to the 2 year contract thing, it does seem ridiculous now but last year when we signed him we were (most of us anyway) delighted and thought it was a very good signing. So on that one I don't particularly blame Stevie. We are a small team and we just have to deal with the fact that we (the manager) got things wrong this time.

Edited August 7, 2016 by squeezeboxson

[lorenzo71]

2 hours ago, sonsism said:

Looks like the the name of this thread has come full circle.
 

Lets hope for another 5 years of the same.I say give stevie time to try and sort it ...if 6 games in we are no better then maybe....

[DumbartonTheSons]

I too would definitely want us to give Stevie time to sort it. We haven't had a good start to the season, either yesterday or in the diddy cup, but it's still very early.

We conceded four yesterday and by all accounts were abominable defensively, but we scored three goals away from home. How many times did we manage that last term? Maybe someone like S08 with his impressive statistical memory can give us a figure.

If we still have the old Eurovision of 'nil points' after another 5/6 games, then yeah, it would need to get looked at, but with a new team, and a half-new back line, it wouldn't take too much to arrest our awful defending and make us a bit more solid.

[Jan Vojáček]

14 minutes ago, DumbartonTheSons said:

I too would definitely want us to give Stevie time to sort it. We haven't had a good start to the season, either yesterday or in the diddy cup, but it's still very early.

We conceded four yesterday and by all accounts were abominable defensively, but we scored three goals away from home. How many times did we manage that last term? Maybe someone like S08 with his impressive statistical memory can give us a figure.

If we still have the old Eurovision of 'nil points' after another 5/6 games, then yeah, it would need to get looked at, but with a new team, and a half-new back line, it wouldn't take too much to arrest our awful defending and make us a bit more solid.

First time we've scored 3 away from home since Falkirk in January 2015 (finished 3-3 with David Smith scoring the Bairns late equaliser). I do like the you score 4 we'll score 3 approach when compared with the miserable you score 2 we'll have 1 shot on target approach from last season - at least it's losing away games with a bit of drama!

Home form will be the key - along with patience obviously - to staying up, and a result against Dundee United (even a point) would go a long way to dispelling some of the negativity around the place at the moment. If we are only training 1 night a week now though I strongly doubt we'll manage to get anything from it.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Sonsteam of 08

[Nowhereman]

Yesterday we quadrupled the number of league goals we have scored away from home this year

[DumbartonTheSons]

First time we've scored 3 away from home since Falkirk in January 2015 (finished 3-3 with David Smith scoring the Bairns late equaliser). I do like the you score 4 we'll score 3 approach when compared with the miserable you score 2 we'll have 1 shot on target approach from last season - at least it's losing away games with a bit of drama!

Home form will be the key - along with patience obviously - to staying up, and a result against Dundee United (even a point) would go a long way to dispelling some of the negativity around the place at the moment. If we are only training 1 night a week now though I strongly doubt we'll manager to get anything from it.

In that case, I'd try and look at scoring three as a big step forward. Ok our defence needs work, a lot of it by the sound of it, but ok.

I like you, would prefer we out scored the opposition. Last season was turgid at times, concede first and you know it's going to be a climb akin to Everest to get anything from the game. No thanks.

Ok, we'll take a few spankings this year, but we know that. As you say, home games could and probably will be key. If we can make our place a place teams don't really want to come, no matter if we're part-time or not, then we'll take a big step towards where we want to be.

We do need to be more resolute away from home and wether home sides' onslaughts much better than we were last season and were yesterday, but at least there's an identifiable problem that we can target on improving.

[big al]

this the season sons sorrow becomes reality?

the bubble has to burst sometime soon and the championship is tougher this season.

alloa and livi went down replaced by dunfermline and ayr. dunfermline definitely wont go down and will finish above dumbarton so the squeeze at the bottom increases.

at least if you go down you wont go down again the next season, we are a million miles from your level now.

training once a week? wow thats sunday league stuff. i played saturday ams and junior for 20 years and never been at a team who only trained once. 

 

[cameron2000]

Training once a week is absolutely sh*te. Aitken said in the interview after the match that he only see the players 3 hours a week like he normally says. If that had changed I'm sure he would be desperate to let everyone know. Coincidently Jamie Ewings thought his and Darren Barr's injuries stemmed from the training surface.

[lionel wickson]

I guess it's still very much a "work in progress", when you consider that only two of our starting eleven featured for us last season.