East Fife vs Dumbarton

[The Moonster]

Wallace again looking better than any other attacker we have and has played about 10 minutes. I can only assume he and Omar don't play because they're competent footballers, which Duffy seems to hate.

[Thommo90]

Sensational strike 

[The Moonster]

First time we played 4 passes on the deck there and luckily got a chance out of it. Wallace made a huge difference linking midfield. It's infuriating.

[Thommo90]

Nice one forbes you fucking tadger 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Duffy's team selection absolutely cost us that against East Fife's second string.  Clyde's defeat will mask what was for the most part a dire performance, but I wouldn't bet against Omar and Wallace not starting against Forfar or anyone else for that matter.  I'd really love to hear his justification for that starting line-up today.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Another performance that is nowhere near the standard required. We looked at lot better when we got shot of Quitongo and had an actual footballer on the pitch in the shape of Wallace but it was far too little too late, the game was long gone.

It was a collectively shite performance, and at this stage I fully blame the manager, but I really do need to highlight how bad Quitongo was. You would have thought he was playing football with a spherical dod of lava today. His distribution was truly abysmal, he either just hoofs it or tries to pass it as quickly as he can to get shot of it. Big Neil also deserves a mention, he was all over the place today. Forbes is completely done, his deliveries were as hopeless as his general performance and that’s all he’s really good for these days. 

I’m absolutely desperate for Duffy to go now, watching us at the minute is a total chore and not something I look forward to at all. His tactics are out of date, he’s a dour faced, negative dark cloud of a guy and he has no clue about the standard of player required to compete at this level. 

[Jordo1872]

The omission of Omar and Wallace was just bizarre given they’ve been two of the very few positives in recent weeks. Duffy continues to baffle with team selection and persists with Jones when it’s clear he’s nowhere near the required standard and won’t get the goals, or even a goal, we desperately need. Hugely frustrating.

We missed Nat in the middle today but the truth is we missed far too many chances and if you’re not scoring many goals you’re not winning matches.

East Fife looked decent. Well balanced throughout and hard working given they have nothing left to play for.

[the snudge]

Jones wouldnt even be stand out amateur player

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

5 minutes ago, the snudge said:

Jones wouldnt even be stand out amateur player

His partner wasn’t any better today but I do find it quite harsh to criticise the forwards after they spent 75 minutes getting long balls hoofed in their direction. They would both massively benefit from having the ball played into their feet. I’m not saying I think either of them are very good but they do have a bit of an impossible task,

[O'Kelly Isley III]

6 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

His partner wasn’t any better today but I do find it quite harsh to criticise the forwards after they spent 75 minutes getting long balls hoofed in their direction. They would both massively benefit from having the ball played into their feet. I’m not saying I think either of them are very good but they do have a bit of an impossible task,

Normally I would agree with this but in the first half Wilson had two headers and a close-range shot, all from left-wing crosses and all of which should have down better, whilst Jones failed to hit the target from yet another cross.  Jones BTW is our worst striker since Chris Ewing.

[Big Fifer]

On 22/04/2021 at 12:39, Big Fifer said:

Our season's over, Dumbarton is a better away day than Clyde, therefore in the interest of the #OneStandAlliance remaining strong I'm happy to forego the points on this occasion. 

I had one too many cans last night and failed to pass this instruction onto the higher ups. 

[sneed hearn]

Both teams looked knackered.Summed up by Craig Watson who was outstanding then gifts a goal.No surprise that East Fife goals came from a right wing back and a centre back.A  rebuild needed particularly up front or next season will be a struggle.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

10 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Normally I would agree with this but in the first half Wilson had two headers and a close-range shot, all from left-wing crosses and all of which should have down better, whilst Jones failed to hit the target from yet another cross.  Jones BTW is our worst striker since Chris Ewing.

Is Jones any worse than Wilson? For me they are as bad as each other. I think both of them look like guys who are playing 2 or 3 levels above where they should be. For our next game I’d be playing Crossan up front.

[C'mon_the_Sons]

Duffy can get right in the fucking sea! If he’s our manager next season I’m done!

[BallochSonsFan]

22 minutes ago, C'mon_the_Sons said:

Duffy can get right in the fucking sea! If he’s our manager next season I’m done!

I don't think he will be.

[C'mon_the_Sons]

9 minutes ago, BallochSonsFan said:

I don't think he will be.

Good.

[rockson]

3 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

  Jones BTW is our worst striker since Chris Ewing.

I can't remember ever seeing a striker whose shot is as weak as Jones's is.

[microdave]

Normally I would agree with this but in the first half Wilson had two headers and a close-range shot, all from left-wing crosses and all of which should have down better, whilst Jones failed to hit the target from yet another cross.  Jones BTW is our worst striker since Chris Ewing.

I had no idea who Chris Ewing is, so I checked and he only played twice for us. It sounds like he was found out very early unlike Jones.

[Jan Vojáček]

If that performance had been from September/October then I wouldn't have been too concerned. We created a good number of chances (which we then managed to miss, meaning we needed EF to gift us a goal) and big Sam Ramsbottom didn't have too much to do.

But it isn't September or October. It's April. We're ninth and we are effectively in the pre-playoff playoffs. We need victories. And today highlighted a pretty concerning lack of balance. Normally our balance is 80/20 in favour of defence. Today it was more attacking - yet we ship two very easily goals and fail to take the opportunities we create. Jaime Wilson especially was wasteful and, right now, he looks like a guy with a fraction of the confidence of the one who came in at the start of the season.

Robert Jones always takes plenty of stick. So lets start with him. He's a defensive forward; he'll defend from the front. He did that well against Aberdeen and Falkirk. But we went out to attack the game today - and he's not the guy you need when you're actually trying to get yourself on the front foot. In short, he will not score goals. We beat East Fife last time by keeping the ball on the deck - but today as soon as we went a goal down it was endless route one stuff. It wasn't until wee James Wallace came on that we actually started to look a coherent attacking threat with him linking midfield and attack. He really does look a good player; it's a shame we haven't seen more of him. I cannot understand why him and Rabin don't start near enough every single game.

PJ Crossan, goal aside, was prepared to take players on. And I like that. It's what we need. Unfortunately there appears to be a very limited connection between his eyes, brain and feet, and so 99 times out of 100 he takes the wrong option. He's like Oli Burke - but with a better first touch. All speed and drive...until he runs out of space, runs off the pitch or runs into a defender. It's so frustrating.

We didn't get Adam Frizzell on the ball anywhere near enough (mainly because it was normally flying about 10 foot above him) and Tomas Brindley and Ross Forbes around him were really poor. 

Defensively we were as bad as we've been too. I don't know if it's fatigue or what, but Morgyn Neill was all over the place at times - and that's not something you could have a go at him for since his early days as a Dumbarton player. Ryan McGeever was fine, but between the two of them there were far too many long aimless punts. The full-backs didn't offer much offensively or defensively, although both are playing when they aren't 100 percent fit I suspect. 

We need to win two of our next three games as a minimum if we are going to avoid the playoffs now. It's very simple. We cannot take anything other than three points on Tuesday night or it's game over and we can start planning for Elgin, Stranraer or wherever the heck we're getting relegated. 

One final point is this. Our fans have been (certainly on Facebook) quite supportive of Duffy. But I'd be fascinated to see the sort of pressure he'd be under if supporters were in Bayview today. It seems like the P&B Sons have had enough and it feels like (whatever division we are in next season) his time at DFC is coming to an end. 

[HoBNob]

How's Miller Fenton been getting on?