Sons' sorrow

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

As you all know I absolutely love a stat. So here's a few from this year in general.

• We've won 7 our of our 34 games this year - 20.5%
• We've failed to score in 17 of those matches - 50% of games
• We've lost 6-0 twice so far in 2016. The humiliating game at home to Rangers and the laughable day at Palmerston
• Without Christian Nade's goals and assists we would've been 8 points worse off than we were last season and would've finished 9th
• Stevie Aitken has won 14 of his 57 competitive games in charge - 24.56% win ratio (Ian Murray was 37.9%, Adamson 38.5%, Chapman 35.39%, McCabe 43.86%, Martin 17.91%)
• We haven't won an away game for (what will be by Saturday) 322 days. In that time we've played 18 competitive games, drawing 4 and losing 1 on penalties
• Under Aitken in total we have failed to score in 25 games - 43.8% of total matches
• We've only won by more than 1 goal 4 times under him (Alloa, 2-0, 5-0 and 3-1) Queen of the South (4-2) - 7% of his games
• We went from December until May last year without scoring a goal away from home
• We've lost to East Fife (twice), Queens Park, Forfar Athletic and Peterhead in cup competitions
• In all his games in charge we have scored just 61 goals in the 57 games he's been in charge of, conceding 101

The warning signs have been there this year, but I think maybe quite a few of us (including myself) have been trying to gloss over them with the (ever distant) memories of wins over Hibs and Dundee United. Unfortunately I doubt we can afford to sack him but, thankfully, his contract is up at the end of year and then we'll be able to get rid and start afresh. I think even the most staunch defenders of him are struggling to continue fighting his corner.

Say what you want about Ayr or Ian McCall, but I thought they were absolutely excellent yesterday. They were fantastically well drilled, setup and had a gameplan which they clearly believed in and stuck with. I can't remember us ever performing like that under Aitken. He's tactically very, very poor and is completely unable to set up a team to attack never mind react to falling a goal behind. Be honest, how many of you lot felt we would get something after Forrest's early goal? I certainly didn't.

By the way, subbing Garry Fleming on in central midfield when he's our best striker and our striker is having a shocker. Sometimes you really have to wonder what other people see!

You forgot to add that in all of his 57 competetive matches we have played a 4-5-1 which consists of a flat black 4, 2 CDM/ball winner type midfilders (unless we have injuries), 2 wingers, a player just behind the striker and 1 striker (generally a bigger guy).

We play the exact same system, in every single game. Without fail. Other than St Mirren away where we played pretty much a 4-6-0 I don't think we've ever lined up differently. Friendlies, cup games, league games, League 2 teams, League 1 teams, Championship teams, Prem teams, good teams, bad teams, full-time teams, part-time teams, home games and away games = 4-5-1 (with two midfield bruisers and very little attacking threat).

[Howlin' Wilf]

The game was gift wrapped for Ayr. You can't give away two silly goals and a penalty against the only other part-time team in the league and hope to get anything. The substitutions were indeed baffling.

Whilst Ryan Stevenson is decent at corners and set pieces, he is woefully slow. McCallum looked pretty lively when he came on. Surely he's worth a start as the man playing just off the striker? And why not bring Fleming in for Thomson to freshen things up? Has Aitken got blind spots like the other wee ginger manager in the news this week?

I don't want to add to the calls for Steve Aitken to go but I'm sure he'll know just how precarious his position has become.

Who would we replace him with though?

[Thommo90]

Aye, times up for Stevie.

A lot of our players are a joke, what good is it if we canny play a few passes into midfield, we panic and give it back to Martin (who looked rattled after his mistake) and get him to lump it to the donkey up front? It's howling to watch.

No tactics at all and if it weren't for Stanton in the second half we wouldn't have got into their box.

Absolute dug meat.

[Thommo90]

almost forgot..

Taking the wrong Thomson off sealed it for me, 400 home fans (is there even that many - rapidly decreasing) knew that was the wrong sub, how come he thinks it was the right one?

Would love a meet the manager session to ask this kind of thing but no chance of that happening

[pleslie99]

As you all know I absolutely love a stat. So here's a few from this year in general.

• We've won 7 our of our 34 games this year - 20.5%
• We've failed to score in 17 of those matches - 50% of games
• We've lost 6-0 twice so far in 2016. The humiliating game at home to Rangers and the laughable day at Palmerston
• Without Christian Nade's goals and assists we would've been 8 points worse off than we were last season and would've finished 9th
• Stevie Aitken has won 14 of his 57 competitive games in charge - 24.56% win ratio (Ian Murray was 37.9%, Adamson 38.5%, Chapman 35.39%, McCabe 43.86%, Martin 17.91%)
• We haven't won an away game for (what will be by Saturday) 322 days. In that time we've played 18 competitive games, drawing 4 and losing 1 on penalties
• Under Aitken in total we have failed to score in 25 games - 43.8% of total matches
• We've only won by more than 1 goal 4 times under him (Alloa, 2-0, 5-0 and 3-1) Queen of the South (4-2) - 7% of his games
• We went from December until May last year without scoring a goal away from home
• We've lost to East Fife (twice), Queens Park, Forfar Athletic and Peterhead in cup competitions
• In all his games in charge we have scored just 61 goals in the 57 games he's been in charge of, conceding 101

The warning signs have been there this year, but I think maybe quite a few of us (including myself) have been trying to gloss over them with the (ever distant) memories of wins over Hibs and Dundee United. Unfortunately I doubt we can afford to sack him but, thankfully, his contract is up at the end of year and then we'll be able to get rid and start afresh. I think even the most staunch defenders of him are struggling to continue fighting his corner.

Say what you want about Ayr or Ian McCall, but I thought they were absolutely excellent yesterday. They were fantastically well drilled, setup and had a gameplan which they clearly believed in and stuck with. I can't remember us ever performing like that under Aitken. He's tactically very, very poor and is completely unable to set up a team to attack never mind react to falling a goal behind. Be honest, how many of you lot felt we would get something after Forrest's early goal? I certainly didn't.

By the way, subbing Garry Fleming on in central midfield when he's our best striker and our striker is having a shocker. Sometimes you really have to wonder what other people see!

That's pretty conclusive stats as far as I can see. There is very few positives and it's not good enough. We're the ones that pay our money to watch the sons and what we get is simply not good enough. On paper we have a decent team, so something is clearly wrong and that starts with the manager! Unfortunately I doubt we will see Stevie sacked/leave until the end of the season, the board will do the easy thing and let him see out this year and when we go down claim we were the club with the smallest resources and couldn't compete,blah blah blah

[Jan Vojáček]

2 hours ago, Howlin' Wilf said:

The game was gift wrapped for Ayr. You can't give away two silly goals and a penalty against the only other part-time team in the league and hope to get anything. The substitutions were indeed baffling.

Whilst Ryan Stevenson is decent at corners and set pieces, he is woefully slow. McCallum looked pretty lively when he came on. Surely he's worth a start as the man playing just off the striker? And why not bring Fleming in for Thomson to freshen things up? Has Aitken got blind spots like the other wee ginger manager in the news this week?

I don't want to add to the calls for Steve Aitken to go but I'm sure he'll know just how precarious his position has become.

Who would we replace him with though?

This is something that's been said a lot this week about Strachan. The honest answer is that I don't know for sure. I didn't think we'd appoint Adamson when we sacked Chapman - we did, and he was a success. I then didn't think we'd appoint Murray when we sacked Adamson - in fact to be honest I had forgotten Ian Murray even existed, and I doubt I was the only one.

When Murray left there was no question that I wanted Aitken as the manager, and I was delighted when we got him. The fact it's not worked out as we had hoped is as good as proof as anything that every managerial appointment is a gamble.

The more I think about it, the more I think we need someone who is strong tactically. Ian McCall played us yesterday absolutely perfectly, Aitken has been far too predictable. I don't know if he'd be interested in the slightest, but someone like Billy Reid might be decent. Then again, what do I know!

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Frazer Wright.

[Mr.Blue]

1 hour ago, Sonsteam of 08 said:

This is something that's been said a lot this week about Strachan. The honest answer is that I don't know for sure. I didn't think we'd appoint Adamson when we sacked Chapman - we did, and he was a success. I then didn't think we'd appoint Murray when we sacked Adamson - in fact to be honest I had forgotten Ian Murray even existed, and I doubt I was the only one.

When Murray left there was no question that I wanted Aitken as the manager, and I was delighted when we got him. The fact it's not worked out as we had hoped is as good as proof as anything that every managerial appointment is a gamble.

The more I think about it, the more I think we need someone who is strong tactically. Ian McCall played us yesterday absolutely perfectly, Aitken has been far too predictable. I don't know if he'd be interested in the slightest, but someone like Billy Reid might be decent. Then again, what do I know!

Pretty sure Ive said this before on here. When we were looking to replace shiels I was wanting aitken in and could not believe that we went for Duffy over him. I genuinely thought aitken would have done very well at Dumbarton and moved onto a bigger club in 2/3 years. I'm not duffys biggest fan but Ill admit that he's doing a decent job (most of the time!). For the sake of the fans, most of whom seem a decent bunch on here I hope it's sorted quickly. 

[BallochSonsFan]

Yesterday was an abject failure. Ayr were only as good as they had to be because we were rank. Smith's stray pass for the turnover that lead to the opener was poor but it was far from a done deal and we didn't put up anything like an acceptable fight to win the ball back. Harkins still had work to do but we didn't make it difficult for him or Forest. From the 3rd minute we looked beaten. The heads went down and we were barely in the game. With that in mind it wouldn't have been right to award a man of the match. How could anybody pick from that? Sometimes its one of the few ways we can show frustration with a performance.

Aitken deserves praise when he gets it right. He deserves criticism when he gets it wrong. Summer recruitment was poor and there are guys who arent up to this level in the squad. We also have players who don't fit into a fast, counter attacking system and who slow the game down rather than press opponents.

Would anybody else do better? I'm not sure. We have who we have at the club and a new manager isnt going to make Stevenson a grafter or give him pace. Who can turn Thomson into a proven finisher? We can do better than yesterday - weve shown that against Dundee United, Morton and St Mirren and we made it tough for Hibs. Contrast that with Dunfermline away in the season opener where the score hides how poor we were, raith away and yesterday at home. Why was yesterday different to our home game v Queen of the South? We battled v QotS but that was lacking yesterday. What was the difference?

Its a frustrating time to be a Sons fan because we simply never know which Sons team will turn up? I'd like to see changes, if only to see the manager actually trying to manage his way to better results. Ultimately thats what will make or break him, whether with Dumbarton or with a view to whatever happens at the end of his contact.

We are where we are. We've got better performances in us than yesterday. Its up to the gaffer to find them.

[Turnberry Fields Forever]

In what looks increasingly like deliciously ironic timing, I understand that Brabco's plan for a new stadium on the Renton Road will be  presented next month to the Planning Committee of WDC.

The football side is going thro the mill, crowds are plummeting but it's heartening to know that the future is assured.

[Jan Vojáček]

Just now, Turnberry Fields Forever said:

In what looks increasingly like deliciously ironic timing, I understand that Brabco's plan for a new stadium on the Renton Road will be  presented next month to the Planning Committee of WDC.

The football side is going thro the mill, crowds are plummeting but it's heartening to know that the future is assured.

It's normally about November that we start getting the new stadium chat. I really did miss it last season. Perhaps it's the thing that will finally kick our season into life. What better way to celebrate relegation than with plans for a 4000 capacity stadium - where we only get 1000 at first, and the rest built in installments (sounds similar...) - in the middle of nowhere on a flood plain.

Cannot wait.

[son of a bankie]

Yesterday was one of the worst performances I have seen. Queens at Hampden and getting pumped by morton at home and few years ago.
The last two substitutions yesterday are the most bizarre I have ever seen. Stayed for full game and manager doesn't even have the courtesy to give us a clap or a look.
Embarrassed he may have been but to ignore the support is ignorance out the top drawer. Lost so much respect for him.

[cameron2000]

Yesterday was one of the worst performances I have seen. Queens at Hampden and getting pumped by morton at home and few years ago.
The last two substitutions yesterday are the most bizarre I have ever seen. Stayed for full game and manager doesn't even have the courtesy to give us a clap or a look.
Embarrassed he may have been but to ignore the support is ignorance out the top drawer. Lost so much respect for him.

He did acknowledge the fans although that doesn't make up for the brutal way he set us up.

[son of a bankie]

How do I get to send pm on this wanting to give curler and third rock my number.

[Nowhereman]

In what looks increasingly like deliciously ironic timing, I understand that Brabco's plan for a new stadium on the Renton Road will be  presented next month to the Planning Committee of WDC.

The football side is going thro the mill, crowds are plummeting but it's heartening to know that the future is assured.

Crowds arnt plummeting

[Howlin' Wilf]

30 minutes ago, son of a bankie said:

How do I get to send pm on this wanting to give curler and third rock my number.

Just click on their avatar/id at the left of one of their posts.

[sonsanorak]

Stevenson applauded the ayr fans on the way off the park.  Fair enough, we ve barely got a good word to say for him.

[son of a bankie]

He never I sit right up from the tunnel.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Crowds arnt plummeting

In the home end they are. On the away bus they are.

Don't let good away figures hide the fact the home end is absolutely dead. At one point yesterday the ball trickled out the park towards the front row and there was literally no one anywhere near it to throw it back. I've really noticed it this season.

I'm one who has stopped attending away games. I bought my first house this year and wasting 50/60 quid every couple of weeks to watch us shitfest our way to narrow defeats is way, way down on my list of priorites. I don't even need to talk myself into not going, it's actually the opposite, I'm currently trying to muster up the motivation to attend Tannadice next week.

The football is awful, the results are awful and the atmosphere is awful. Thank god some of us are blinded by loyalty or we'd be lucky to muster up a couple of hundred a week.

[son of a bankie]

Talking about the manager.