Dumbarton vs Annan Athletic

[O'Kelly Isley III]

That was a tough contest today and it took a passage of genuine class to win the game.  Great credit is due to Stevie Farrell for responding positively to Annan's equaliser, and it will be interesting to see next week's starting XI at Methil.

I certainly hope that Findlay Gray keeps his place because today showed the energy he brings to the midfield and his part in the winner was excellent.  And what a finish by Russell McLean, brilliant, and we hope he can kick in from that.

All in all though, another game where the result was probably greater than the performance, but we'd all have settled for a home win at 3pm, so very well done Sons.

[The Moonster]

2 hours ago, Sweet Pete said:

Great result. The moaning on here about negativity and soaking up pressure is relentless, but the team keeps winning. Perhaps the moans are misplaced.

I don't think they are misplaced, today was actually a pretty good example of what folk have been saying. We got a goal out of nothing and sat in and invited Annan onto us. They passed the ball through us a number of times and a more clinical side wouldn't have gone in 1 down at the break. They got their equaliser which had been coming for about half an hour previous and finally we opened ourselves up a bit and went to try and win the game. There's absolutely no reason we can't play with McLean and Wallace up front and play on the front foot rather than sitting 11 men behind the ball and launching it long on the counter attack. I felt any time we played the ball on the deck today we created something, and I feel our best performance this season was away at Clyde where we controlled the game and passed them off the park. I don't think it's too wild to look for a bit more composure when we have the ball and to expect us to take the game to some teams in this league. It's a shite league and we play as if we're playing Aberdeen or Killie every week. 

That all said, the team have been incredible to grind out results. We have a huge 6 weeks coming up here and it was vital we put some space between and a bit of pressure on Stirling. The heart and togetherness of the team is the best its been since we were in the Championship and for that everyone deserves credit. I just feel if we can fine tune our attacking play we can make this a bit more comfortable than the current heart-stopping endings to matches we are suffering each week. 

[The Moonster]

Oh I almost forgot, get it right up that cheating wee hobbit c**t!

[Silverton End]

1 hour ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

That was a tough contest today and it took a passage of genuine class to win the game.  Great credit is due to Stevie Farrell for responding positively to Annan's equaliser, and it will be interesting to see next week's starting XI at Methil.

I certainly hope that Findlay Gray keeps his place because today showed the energy he brings to the midfield and his part in the winner was excellent.  And what a finish by Russell McLean, brilliant, and we hope he can kick in from that.

All in all though, another game where the result was probably greater than the performance, but we'd all have settled for a home win at 3pm, so very well done Sons.

Young Gray can be a game changer, as seen today & earlier this season, great pace & runs himself into the ground for the full 90.

He's a credit to himself & the team.

 

 

[microdave]

Congratulations to @Bogheadboy @aftershocker @Sweet Pete @sonsanorak @son hawk @The Moonster @Sons FC @Tenkay @sons superhero @the snudge and @cremola foam for correctly predicting the outcome of today's match. 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

11 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I don't think they are misplaced, today was actually a pretty good example of what folk have been saying. We got a goal out of nothing and sat in and invited Annan onto us. They passed the ball through us a number of times and a more clinical side wouldn't have gone in 1 down at the break. They got their equaliser which had been coming for about half an hour previous and finally we opened ourselves up a bit and went to try and win the game. There's absolutely no reason we can't play with McLean and Wallace up front and play on the front foot rather than sitting 11 men behind the ball and launching it long on the counter attack. I felt any time we played the ball on the deck today we created something, and I feel our best performance this season was away at Clyde where we controlled the game and passed them off the park. I don't think it's too wild to look for a bit more composure when we have the ball and to expect us to take the game to some teams in this league. It's a shite league and we play as if we're playing Aberdeen or Killie every week. 

That all said, the team have been incredible to grind out results. We have a huge 6 weeks coming up here and it was vital we put some space between and a bit of pressure on Stirling. The heart and togetherness of the team is the best its been since we were in the Championship and for that everyone deserves credit. I just feel if we can fine tune our attacking play we can make this a bit more comfortable than the current heart-stopping endings to matches we are suffering each week. 

An excellent post, good points well made.

There's a point about upcoming fixtures; Stirling have two games in hand over us but I pretty sure they are about to play on four Tuesdays in a row - added to Saturdays that's some schedule for a part-time team.

We need to keep laser focused on the next game and taking points.  But I'm wondering if any of today's yellow cards will result in a suspension next week

[microdave]

3 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

An excellent post, good points well made.

There's a point about upcoming fixtures; Stirling have two games in hand over us but I pretty sure they are about to play on four Tuesdays in a row - added to Saturdays that's some schedule for a part-time team.

We need to keep laser focused on the next game and taking points.  But I'm wondering if any of today's yellow cards will result in a suspension next week

I'm sure I read on these pages a few weeks ago that a player now has to reach 12 yellow cards(for the whole season and not just the second half) to have a suspension after the halfway point of the season. Blair has nine with Buchanan and Carswell on seven just now. 

[microdave]

On 10/02/2023 at 10:04, microdave said:

 

I'd quite like to see a bit more than ten minutes of Russell McLean.

Just call me Nostradaveus.

[Sweet Pete]

1 hour ago, The Moonster said:

I don't think they are misplaced, today was actually a pretty good example of what folk have been saying. We got a goal out of nothing and sat in and invited Annan onto us. They passed the ball through us a number of times and a more clinical side wouldn't have gone in 1 down at the break. They got their equaliser which had been coming for about half an hour previous and finally we opened ourselves up a bit and went to try and win the game. There's absolutely no reason we can't play with McLean and Wallace up front and play on the front foot rather than sitting 11 men behind the ball and launching it long on the counter attack. I felt any time we played the ball on the deck today we created something, and I feel our best performance this season was away at Clyde where we controlled the game and passed them off the park. I don't think it's too wild to look for a bit more composure when we have the ball and to expect us to take the game to some teams in this league. It's a shite league and we play as if we're playing Aberdeen or Killie every week. 

That all said, the team have been incredible to grind out results. We have a huge 6 weeks coming up here and it was vital we put some space between and a bit of pressure on Stirling. The heart and togetherness of the team is the best its been since we were in the Championship and for that everyone deserves credit. I just feel if we can fine tune our attacking play we can make this a bit more comfortable than the current heart-stopping endings to matches we are suffering each week. 

All fair points, BUT, we haven't changed tactics all season bar the Stirling disaster and are sitting 7 points clear in February.  Whether it's easy on the eye or attacking enough for the punters isn't really an issue, it's moot because what we're doing and how we're set up is working. It may be slightly nerve wracking to the fans, but it's effective and one simply cannot argue with results and consistency.

[The Moonster]

17 minutes ago, Sweet Pete said:

All fair points, BUT, we haven't changed tactics all season bar the Stirling disaster and are sitting 7 points clear in February.  Whether it's easy on the eye or attacking enough for the punters isn't really an issue, it's moot because what we're doing and how we're set up is working. It may be slightly nerve wracking to the fans, but it's effective and one simply cannot argue with results and consistency.

We changed tactics today and won the match. Some games will call for keeping it tight and others require us to assert ourselves more, flexibility is all I'm looking for and I was glad to see that today, hopefully it's not a one off. 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Of course we changed tactics today.  For the opening 60 minutes we lined up 1-4-1-4-1 as we have done for the entire season, ie five midfielders.

At that point Gray for Wilson had been an enforced change, so the intro of the two McLeans added two attack-minded players, and crucially Ryan Wallace remained on the pitch. 

Three attackers on the park, a number that was maintained when Byrne replaced Wallace on 88 mins.  And we won a game which was in danger of slipping away.

Coincidence ?  Connected ?  Food for thought ?  Bullshit ?  Take your pick.

Edited February 11, 2023 by O'Kelly Isley III

[microdave]

I suppose the change in tactics happened because Annan equalised. That was only the second time in the league that anyone has done that. It was too late when Stenny did it last week but we had plenty of time today. There wasn't any need to change tactics when we were winning earlier in the season. Personally, I'd rather try to extend a one goal lead to at least two before shutting up shop. 

[squeezebox-son]

A couple of strange refereeing decisions today, again. Fortunately didn't have an impact on the match, but the potential was there for them to.

When playing advantage, surely you can't then pull it back because the player kicks his pass out of play? If the player got through on goal and hit his shot off target, would he have pulled it back? Just because the player played a bad pass doesn't mean the advantage wasn't there for them.

Also, when the head knock happened, why did he give Greg Fleming the ball that we had before he stopped play? The passage also lead to Chris Johnson almost getting in because Buchanan was barely out of the opposition box when Fleming punted it up the park.

Strange.

On a positive note, 2 brilliant finishes for our goals. After the first I couldn't help but think that there are only a couple of players in our team who would have made it look so easy. The second one just never looked in doubt, when the ball got to Rusty he controlled it with confidence and powered it beyond Fleming. Quality and hopefully we can see more of it from now to the end of the season.

[FifeSons]

18 minutes ago, squeezebox-son said:

When playing advantage, surely you can't then pull it back because the player kicks his pass out of play? If the player got through on goal and hit his shot off target, would he have pulled it back? Just because the player played a bad pass doesn't mean the advantage wasn't there for them.

I thought exactly this, too.

[Nowhereman]

55 minutes ago, squeezebox-son said:

A couple of strange refereeing decisions today, again. Fortunately didn't have an impact on the match, but the potential was there for them to.

When playing advantage, surely you can't then pull it back because the player kicks his pass out of play? If the player got through on goal and hit his shot off target, would he have pulled it back? Just because the player played a bad pass doesn't mean the advantage wasn't there for them.

Also, when the head knock happened, why did he give Greg Fleming the ball that we had before he stopped play? The passage also lead to Chris Johnson almost getting in because Buchanan was barely out of the opposition box when Fleming punted it up the park.

Strange.

On a positive note, 2 brilliant finishes for our goals. After the first I couldn't help but think that there are only a couple of players in our team who would have made it look so easy. The second one just never looked in doubt, when the ball got to Rusty he controlled it with confidence and powered it beyond Fleming. Quality and hopefully we can see more of it from now to the end of the season.

If the ball is in the area or last played in the area when the ref stops play the drop ball goes to the keeper

[GordyBrow]

9 hours ago, microdave said:

I suppose the change in tactics happened because Annan equalised. That was only the second time in the league that anyone has done that. It was too late when Stenny did it last week but we had plenty of time today. There wasn't any need to change tactics when we were winning earlier in the season. Personally, I'd rather try to extend a one goal lead to at least two before shutting up shop. 

For me that’s the worrying thing. The tactics which “served us so well” / “we were getting away with” (delete as appropriate) look like they might be starting to falter. Okay two games is a small sample size, but it worries me, and if I was the manager of a football team I would certainly be interrogating a) why we appear to no longer be holding on to a one goal lead b) what changes can be made to either stop conceding, or give us more protection against conceding.

Yes we’re top. Yes we won yesterday. A really good manager doesn’t just stick to their guns though, and doesn’t just see that the result has gone their way. They look at the game as a whole and consider if they really gave the team the best chance of winning the match.

[squeezebox-son]

6 hours ago, Nowhereman said:

If the ball is in the area or last played in the area when the ref stops play the drop ball goes to the keeper

I would need to see if again, but I thought the ball was in the air, outside the area when the ref stopped play and then was headed into the area after the stoppage began. But again, we all know how quickly play can move on so it may have been headed back in before he stopped the match.

On that note, will there be any highlights? Noticed there weren't any interviews with the manager etc after the match. 

[squeezebox-son]

1 hour ago, GordyBrow said:

For me that’s the worrying thing. The tactics which “served us so well” / “we were getting away with” (delete as appropriate) look like they might be starting to falter. Okay two games is a small sample size, but it worries me, and if I was the manager of a football team I would certainly be interrogating a) why we appear to no longer be holding on to a one goal lead b) what changes can be made to either stop conceding, or give us more protection against conceding.

Yes we’re top. Yes we won yesterday. A really good manager doesn’t just stick to their guns though, and doesn’t just see that the result has gone their way. They look at the game as a whole and consider if they really gave the team the best chance of winning the match.

To be fair, yesterday was the first time (apart from the game that shall not be spoken about) where we have rolled the dice in a more attacking sense. Last week, of course, we took a gamble at the other end and it didn't work out. But it's hard to argue against the positive impact his change of tactics had when we won.

It will be interesting to see if we now, "don't change the winning team" (the one that finished the match) or if we resort to the tried and tested formation we have been playing all season.

There is a debate that Ally Love was playing in a similar position as Wallace took up, but I think the majority would agree that Wallace and McLean are a very different prospect than Love and Wallace.

Edited February 12, 2023 by squeezebox-son

[O'Kelly Isley III]

15 minutes ago, squeezebox-son said:

To be fair, yesterday was the first time (apart from the game that shall not be spoken about) where we have rolled the dice in a more attacking sense. Last week, of course, we took a gamble at the other end and it didn't work out. But it's hard to argue against the positive impact his change of tactics had when we won.

It will be interesting to see if we now, "don't change the winning team" (the one that finished the match) or if we resort to the tried and tested formation we have been playing all season.

There is a debate that Ally Love was playing in a similar position as Buchanan took up, but I think the majority would agree that Buchanan and McLean are a very different prospect than Love and Buchanan.

Do you mean Wallace and Russell McLean rather than Buchanan ?  As for Love, his part in games has recently been marginal and he seems too interested in playing the pantomime villain.

Next week's team will be influenced by David Wilson's injury.

[squeezebox-son]

1 hour ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Do you mean Wallace and Russell McLean rather than Buchanan ?  As for Love, his part in games has recently been marginal and he seems too interested in playing the pantomime villain.

Next week's team will be influenced by David Wilson's injury.

Ha. Indeed, was having a verbal conversation about Gregor at the time and thus, ended up mixing myself up, evidently  duly fixed.

Agree that D Wilson's absence will definitely impact on things. I didn't feel it was working all that well having a central midfield of Blair, Gray, and Love when Wilson came off. Fin was able to influence the match much more with Wallace in the role in between.

Edited February 12, 2023 by squeezebox-son