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Dumbarton -vs- Bonnyrigg Rose - Part Two

Jan Vojáček

By Jan Vojáček
in Domestic Cup Football

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DumbartonTheSons

DumbartonTheSons

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Posted

First of all, fair play to Bonnyrigg, they were the better side and we're lucky to still be in the competition. No doubt about it.

But that was embarrassing. We were second to every ball, countless simple passes were intercepted and our end product both in terms of shots and deliveries into the danger areas was nothing short of woeful.

I'm in agreement on young Donald McCallum sadly. While his effort and work ethic can't be faulted, he's just too lightweight, and against big, bruising Junior defenders, it was never very likely to and didn't, work at all.

That said, the first one I'd have subbed would be Stevenson. His delivery is woeful, constant pinged crosses like a lob wedge, and his 'shot' from the free-kick epitomises his end product. Whether he's frustrated with himself or not I don't know, but he doesn't look at the races at the moment for whatever reason.

A woeful performance and as someone already mentioned, pretty much Alan Martin the only one with real pass marks having kept us in it on more than one occasion. We seemed devoid of ideas or a game-plan, we were second best to things all over the pitch and were as happens all too often, utterly toothless upfront.

The replay will be interesting and I'm far from confident that we'll 'see it through' at our place. Bonnyrigg should've won the game and nobody could have grumbled if they did. But taking nothing away from them, we should've been good enough to see them off. They're a decent Junior side but weren't anything special today, but for a neutral, I don't think the two sides could've been told apart today.



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Jan Vojáček

Jan Vojáček

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Just now, scillybirder said:

As I neutral I wandered to Bonnyrigg today as my Arbroath game was postponed. In a nutshell if this is what The Sons do week in week out, and I followed the, I'd be very worried.

It is, and most of us are kind of beyond the worried stage now. 8 competitive wins this year.

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BallochSonsFan

BallochSonsFan

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Its not quite what we do week in, week out.

Stevie Aitken's Dumbarton side are very negative but we're not usually quite as scared as we looked today. This was as bad as we've been all season possibly with the exception of the 3-0 loss at home to Ayr.

But the problems today that we lacked any kind of creativity in midfield, were unable to get players into dangerous positions and weren't good in front of goal have been there all season.

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DumbartonTheSons

DumbartonTheSons

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Its not quite what we do week in, week out.

Stevie Aitken's Dumbarton side are very negative but we're not usually quite as scared as we looked today. This was as bad as we've been all season possibly with the exception of the 3-0 loss at home to Ayr.

But the problems today that we lacked any kind of creativity in midfield, were unable to get players into dangerous positions and weren't good in front of goal have been there all season.



I'm not sure we looked scared today, but I do agree that we lacked any creativity.

We just seemed devoid of any plan, incision, spark, fight, the list goes on.

At no point on the rare occasions we attacked or were in really promising positions, would you be confident a goal was coming.
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Bring Back Paddy Flannery

Bring Back Paddy Flannery

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I've had a wee bit of time to think about things now, so here goes my rant.

Today was brutal. Absolutely brutal. Nowhere near good enough, but that should come as no surprise to anyone - nor should it be taken as a slight on Bonnyrigg. At the end of the day they are a Junior side and we are playing in Scottish football's second tier. For any outsider watching it will look like an excellent shock. Anybody at the game will know Bonnyrigg were by far the better team and they will be gutted they didn't win.

Alan Martin can exclude himself from this rant. I know I'm a massive fanboy of his, but really is superb. I love watching a goalkeeper who is playing well, and he's been excellent all season. I cannot for the life of me understand how he ended up at us.

The rest of the team were incredibly poor. Some worse than others mind you, but nobody deserved more than a 5/10.

My mother was at the game today. She knows very little about football, let alone us, and has very little interest in it - but even she said at the end that it looked like we were not interested. We barely won a header - at either end - we didn't win a tackle and we didn't once keep possession for anything like a reasonable amount of time.

At the back we simply could not deal with Keiran McGachie. His touch was poor, but he was strong, clever and fantastic in the air. He knew how to drive the team forward, and he knew how to win cheap fouls and neither Barr nor Buchanan appeared in any way confident when they were against him.

Then there's the decision to play Pettigrew at left-back. I understand that we didn't want to move Sparky from midfield, but surely that had to be the better option than playing a fairly shaky right-back on the wrong side. He wasn't horrendous on the ball today, but time and again he was beaten easily and caught out of position. Sparky should've started at LB, Pettigrew in the middle and Barr in CDM if we were going to play it that way,

Perhaps that would've worked better, because it sure couldn't have worked much worse than our midfield did today. Sparky was horrendous on the ball, and he wasn't even that great defensively. Slightly ahead of him Stevo was anonymous. I think he completed about two passes all game, and got caught in possession countless times. Out wide - for the most part - Todd and Stirling were wasteful. The latter was, at a push, our only reasonable attacking threat, but even his final ball was woeful.

Up top Garry and Donald both had absolute 'mares. Neither held play up, neither drove play forward and neither contributed much worthwhile at all. In their defence the service they received was pathetic, but that doesn't excuse their performances. I'd have hooked McCallum at half-time for Berba, because he was easily dealt with by the Rose centre-backs.

The players therefore need to take a share of the blame, but Stevie Aitken quite simply must take the majority of it.

Today our players looked terrified and we absolutely set up to not lose the game rather than to win it. We treated Bonnyrigg like we've treated every other club we've played this season and, with all due respect to them, that's absolutely not the way to tackle the game.

Does anyone know what our tactics were today? Panic as soon as you get the ball and pump it long appeared to be the idea.

We have now won twice in 20 this season. How many good performances have we put on? Dundee United at home was decent, as was Morton away....That's pretty much it. We are getting what we deserve. I think it was 'Boghead Ranter' a while ago who said that Stevie doesn't know how to set up a team to attack. I think he's right.

The thing is that Stevie can moan about squad depth and budget all he likes, however he recruited every player bar Fleming and McCallum who started for us today and I don't imagine Stevo is on a small wage. He wasn't smart about his recruitment last season, and he hasn't been this year either. Now we're paying the price.

Last season Nade's form glossed over the fact that we were fairly rubbish. This year we don't have a Nade nor do we have an Alloa team full of dross merchants and Livingston shambles.

15 wins in 64 games is not a good record by anyone's standards, and Stevie knows that. I've said for weeks he's struggling to cope with things at the moment and his performance on the touchline was one full of frustration. I didn't see 'Smilegate' at the end of match, but it's extremely disappointing. A lot of our fans have given him a lot of time and support. That time is up for me - and I doubt I'm the only one feeling like that after today.

Enjoy your evening my Rose supporting chums. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you've got something even more memorable to celebrate in just over a week.



2 wins in 20. Absolutely damning.
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O'Kelly Isley III

O'Kelly Isley III

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Apologies Rose fans, but this post is aimed at Sons & Daughters of The Rock.

On Wednesday evening a number of us witnessed a vision of the future as seen thro the eyes of our club's owners.  As implicitly stated in that public forum, crucial to that vision is the pressing need for DFC to retain its Championship status this season and beyond; bearing that in mind it's a shame that none of those visionaries were anywhere near Bonnyrigg today.

But no matter, a plain truth as big as Dumbarton Rock is about to unfold.  If Brabco is serious about it's aims then it will need to acknowledge two fundamentals, and pronto.  Firstly, as things stand we are at serious risk of exiting the Scottish Cup without making a bean, and secondly, on all available evidence we are careering towards relegation.

So Mr Brabco, let us agree that this constitutes a major test of your commitment to the club you all profess to support.  Hitherto you've invested the square root of hee-haw into football matters, but scrimping, shuffling the pack and hiding behind the local Directors won't now cut it. Put up in January or shut up......there, I've said it.  

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db11

db11

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Thoroughly enjoyed that today, made getting up at 6.30 to get the covers off worthwhile!!!!!

Hope Stevenson plays as an amateur as that is about his worth!

Thought the sons fans I bumped into were class

Looking forward to the replay, floodlights a novelty!!

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albundy

albundy

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We have now won twice in 20 this season. How many good performances have we put on? Dundee United at home was decent, as was Morton away....That's pretty much it. We are getting what we deserve. I think it was 'Boghead Ranter' a while ago who said that Stevie doesn't know how to set up a team to attack. I think he's right.


Twas me that said that. The prosecution rests.
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Distant Doonhamer

Distant Doonhamer

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4 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

 


What a bizarre post.

 

Apologies if that comes across badly.

Honestly, I`ve really enjoyed the thread. None of the usual shitey point scoring stuff that seems to get into almost every thread just some good and realistic stuff about what sounds like a "proper" cup-tie and also some detailed analysis of the concerns that  the supporters of the bigger team have. It`s been a fine read.

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Bring Back Paddy Flannery

Bring Back Paddy Flannery

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Apologies if that comes across badly.

Honestly, I`ve really enjoyed the thread. None of the usual shitey point scoring stuff that seems to get into almost every thread just some good and realistic stuff about what sounds like a "proper" cup-tie and also some detailed analysis of the concerns that  the supporters of the bigger team have. It`s been a fine read.



Fair enough. I thought it was a dig at our utter seethe.

Please excuse me, I'm seething.

:(
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Perfectly Franck

Perfectly Franck

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A good old fashioned cup tie today. Great crowd in a tightly packed ground close to the pitch. Bonnyrigg really unlucky not to win but were a credit to the Junior game.

Dumbarton don't look like they have their troubles to seek - hard working but ponderous. Thought the Goalie was excellent however and the wee winger 22 had pace to burn but no support.

Ryan Stevenson has seen better days - Sons need much more than a muscle bound cart horse who thinks the only skill needed is a hard shot. not sure he would get in the Bonnyrigg team!

Think Bonnyrigg probably missed their chance today but will go to Dumbarton with little to fear. 9ace3951249efd7f2290e8083b6a9562.jpg

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