The Sons vs The Spartans

[Clarko_son]

1 minute ago, PWL said:

Half time sprinkler. That's a first! 

Only in 1 18 yard box though. Just to add to the silky football on show 

[BallochSonsFan]

Frustrating first half. It's breaking down in the final 3rd. We've moved Shiels through the middle but he's having to roam because service is poor. We don't really look to be in any danger, but we're not nearly good enough going forward. 

[lorenzo71]

We are so fucking predictable.

[Clarko_son]

The equaliser was coming a mile away and just left him completely unmarked. Pretty shocking stuff in terms of basics 

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

We were a genuine rabble from start to finish today. I’ve no idea what the game plan was and neither did the players by the looks of things. It wasn’t even a case of missed chances, it was a case of the players not having a fucking clue what to do when we got the ball beyond the half way line. Another week down and another game that leaves me completely unconvinced by this apparent new style we’re supposed to be playing. Pass marks go to Findlay Gray but that’s about it. 

It’s absolutely fantastic to see us resort to Shiels and then MacLean up top when we have 3 strikers on the books. Retaining Declan Byrne is starting to look like a worse piece of business than offering Greg Wylde a new deal.
 

[FifeSons]

Our record going back quite a long way now is bloody dreadful. Seriously few wins since the second half of last season.

Edited August 12, 2023 by FifeSons

[BallochSonsFan]

That was poor.

First half we were hopeless going forward. Passing and crossing in the final 3td was dismal. Losing Ruth wasn't good and the decision to play Shiels through the middle was baffling.

I know that today wasn't our strongest 11. I think Orsi will make a difference when he's fit. Gray looked lively when introduced. But McLean was poor for much of the game. He looked better when we played him centrally as the striker, but fluffed a very good chance when he should have at least tested the Spartans keeper. Ryan Wallace was a big miss today.

Draw was the correct result. Worrying how poor we looked going forward today. We need to be better next Saturday.

[aftershocker]

First half tactics seemed to be to try and beat Spartans offside....don't think it worked once

We actually looked not bad when we tried to play football, but final ball was poor too many times, especially from the right wing

Don't agree a draw was fair...they literally had 1 shot at goal... their number 7 only good player

No idea what happened to the pre season football 

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

1 minute ago, aftershocker said:

First half tactics seemed to be to try and beat Spartans offside....don't think it worked once

We actually looked not bad when we tried to play football, but final ball was poor too many times, especially from the right wing

Don't agree a draw was fair...they literally had 1 shot at goal... their number 7 only good player

No idea what happened to the pre season football 

I thought a draw was fair tbh. We created very little ourselves and the stats show that we only had one more shot at goal and one more shot on target than them. I could tell for about ten minutes that the equaliser was coming.

[The Moonster]

I don't know why I hoped or expected things to be different, it's just the same shite again and again under Farrell. I'm sure he'll have his reasons for why we weren't good enough again but he rarely has any solutions. Guy just doesn't know how to organise a team. 

[Sweet Pete]

Absolute nothing of a game. Like a yawn played out on the park.

[FifeSons]

Big hat, no cattle.

[C'mon_the_Sons]

Same shite, different season………

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

I thought a draw was fair tbh. We created very little ourselves and the stats show that we only had one more shot at goal and one more shot on target than them. I could tell for about ten minutes that the equaliser was coming.

Based on those numbers & the fact forfar haven't scored in the 1st 2 league games, should we expect utter dross next Saturday? 

[Jan Vojáček]

That was pretty disappointing all round. The first-half was a total non-event, and the second-half only had occasional moments which could be classed as somewhere between 'interesting' and 'watchable'.

I had in my head that Spartans would be like a slightly better Bonnyrigg. But I was wrong, they looked a lot better. Certainly a lot less one dimensional and a lot more like a league side. Cammy Russell and Jamie Dishington were dynamic, energetic and positive. Kevin Waugh and Jordan Tapping were largely solid and, aside from his kicking being absolutely howling, Blair Carswell was assured between the sticks.

Off the park they are a classy outfit. I really like the way Dougie Samuel conducts himself and, as well as clearly being a very good manager, he seems like a very good egg. I wanted to hate Spartans for their Colt Team support - but I simply couldn't dislike Samuel and the rest of the folk I encountered at all.

Aside from them, I thought we were really poor for about 85% of that. It was slow, ponderous, predictable and, ultimately, fairly boring.

Whilst Mark Durnan and Sean Crighton had very solid games, completely nullifying Blair Henderson, they were pretty much the only outfield players to perform anywhere near the levels they are capable of.

Carlo Pignatiello had the worst game I've ever seen him have, Greig Young seemed to take the wrong decision every time he touched the ball. Ryan Blair was wasteful in possession and never really asserted his authority on things, one good effort that Blair Carswell saved impressively aside, the game bypassed Jinky Hilton. And Div Wilson turned in a stinker. 

It was a blow losing Michael Ruth early, and whilst Matty Shiels caused a few issues it was painfully obvious we were playing without a natural forward. I wonder if the amount of football a few guys have played has drained them, because Ross MacLean and Div Wilson have both played a lot so far. And both were miles off it today.

Writing off the first-half, I'm actually disappointed we didn't go a bit more balls out in the second. When the game (albeit briefly) flashed from end to end, both sides looked capable of creating chances. But it was almost like neither could really be bothered attacking all that much, so it stayed slow and ponderous. 

As has been touched on, Finlay Gray made a huge difference. His driving runs from midfield were the most exciting aspect of the game. And I genuinely think he's got quicker over pre-season, his acceleration is just frightening. He's a must start for next week.

Likewise I hope we see Carlo Pignatiello moved back to midfield and Aron Lynas back at RB. I liked the aggression and direct running they offered together in pre-season, and dropping Lynas today felt like a strange move.

Blair as the anchor, with Carlo and Finlay slightly ahead of him is the way to go moving forward I think. It might also free up Jinky to play in a more advanced role. 

It was good to see Kalvin Orsi back. His delivery was absolutely horrendous, but he's also got that drive that we missed without him and Gray in the starting XI. Hopefully some more minutes in the diddy cup can help get him up to full speed.

We're now two league games in and I don't think I fully know what to make of this side. On paper we're strong, we have options and we have some exciting players. But it's just not clicking at the moment, and the performance today was the worst of the season by some distance. Which is a bit concerning.

That being said, we look stable defensively and I've been very impressed by Durnan and Crighton so far. And Faz clearly hasn't worked out his strongest side. The sooner he does that, the sooner we should know how the campaign will pan out.

[Clarko_son]

5 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

That was pretty disappointing all round. The first-half was a total non-event, and the second-half only had occasional moments which could be classed as somewhere between 'interesting' and 'watchable'.

I had in my head that Spartans would be like a slightly better Bonnyrigg. But I was wrong, they looked a lot better. Certainly a lot less one dimensional and a lot more like a league side. Cammy Russell and Jamie Dishington were dynamic, energetic and positive. Kevin Waugh and Jordan Tapping were largely solid and, aside from his kicking being absolutely howling, Blair Carswell was assured between the sticks.

Off the park they are a classy outfit. I really like the way Dougie Samuel conducts himself and, as well as clearly being a very good manager, he seems like a very good egg. I wanted to hate Spartans for their Colt Team support - but I simply couldn't dislike Samuel and the rest of the folk I encountered at all.

Aside from them, I thought we were really poor for about 85% of that. It was slow, ponderous, predictable and, ultimately, fairly boring.

Whilst Mark Durnan and Sean Crighton had very solid games, completely nullifying Blair Henderson, they were pretty much the only outfield players to perform anywhere near the levels they are capable of.

Carlo Pignatiello had the worst game I've ever seen him have, Greig Young seemed to take the wrong decision every time he touched the ball. Ryan Blair was wasteful in possession and never really asserted his authority on things, one good effort that Blair Carswell saved impressively aside, the game bypassed Jinky Hilton. And Div Wilson turned in a stinker. 

It was a blow losing Michael Ruth early, and whilst Matty Shiels caused a few issues it was painfully obvious we were playing without a natural forward. I wonder if the amount of football a few guys have played has drained them, because Ross MacLean and Div Wilson have both played a lot so far. And both were miles off it today.

Writing off the first-half, I'm actually disappointed we didn't go a bit more balls out in the second. When the game (albeit briefly) flashed from end to end, both sides looked capable of creating chances. But it was almost like neither could really be bothered attacking all that much, so it stayed slow and ponderous. 

As has been touched on, Finlay Gray made a huge difference. His driving runs from midfield were the most exciting aspect of the game. And I genuinely think he's got quicker over pre-season, his acceleration is just frightening. He's a must start for next week.

Likewise I hope we see Carlo Pignatiello moved back to midfield and Aron Lynas back at RB. I liked the aggression and direct running they offered together in pre-season, and dropping Lynas today felt like a strange move.

Blair as the anchor, with Carlo and Finlay slightly ahead of him is the way to go moving forward I think. It might also free up Jinky to play in a more advanced role. 

It was good to see Kalvin Orsi back. His delivery was absolutely horrendous, but he's also got that drive that we missed without him and Gray in the starting XI. Hopefully some more minutes in the diddy cup can help get him up to full speed.

We're now two league games in and I don't think I fully know what to make of this side. On paper we're strong, we have options and we have some exciting players. But it's just not clicking at the moment, and the performance today was the worst of the season by some distance. Which is a bit concerning.

That being said, we look stable defensively and I've been very impressed by Durnan and Crighton so far. And Faz clearly hasn't worked out his strongest side. The sooner he does that, the sooner we should know how the campaign will pan out.

What actually was the deal with Ruth he didn't appear to pull up or anything but similarly he didn't seem surprised to be taken off? 

[Jan Vojáček]

Just now, Clarko_son said:

What actually was the deal with Ruth he didn't appear to pull up or anything but similarly he didn't seem surprised to be taken off? 

He had a knock going into the game that he thought he could play through. But it just got a bit too much to deal with.

[Clarko_son]

3 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

He had a knock going into the game that he thought he could play through. But it just got a bit too much to deal with.

Fair enough, I'd rather he was cautious than play through it and make it any worse. Using Shiels as the striker following the sub I'm not convinced was the right solution there but hopefully Ruth is back next week or if not him Wallace

[Rock Bottom]

14 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

Aside from them, I thought we were really poor for about 85% of that. It was slow, ponderous, predictable and, ultimately, fairly boring.

It wasn't great to watch.

I'm not going to over react though, someone said on here the other day they were trying to give the manager a clean slate to start this season. Not suggesting we go that far, but the boo's and constant shout of "f%ckin do something farrell" is getting old. He's here, he's not going anywhere anytime soon so what is the point of all this? Hopefully he's right and once we've fit strikers, midfielders being used in more natural positions then hopefully this new style clicks.

Looking at the results across the division then maybe others are having similar problems of gelling a new squad together. 

Is Findlay still catching up on fitness, having missed large parts of pre-season? Spartans really struggled to contain his pace, giving away daft fouls in the process - it could have been a different outcome if he had started.

If its not fitness and has something to do with him wanting a transfer then we need to get over that fast. We need to utilise him as long as he is with us, if a bid came in he could be gone this month, but if he stays beyond the window then anything good we do this year, you'd think would have Findlay a big part of it.

 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

On 12/08/2023 at 20:10, Jan Vojáček said:

He had a knock going into the game that he thought he could play through. But it just got a bit too much to deal with.

Is there any indication of his likely return ?