Dumbarton vs Clyde

[FifeSons]

I’m not sure how Clyde didn’t score either of the one-on-ones they had from the very dubious offside calls let go by the linesman in the first half. We were very lucky to go ahead for 2-1, and instead of seeing it out to half-time, gave away a very stupid penalty (which definitely looked a penalty to me). Even 2-2 at half-time flattered us, and I was genuinely surprised Clyde set the stall out for a draw, from the off, in the second half. 

What were the Clyde players complaining about for our 4th? I couldn’t figure it out. The only thing I saw was the Clyde guy on the line handball it to try and keep it out. Their third was a good finish, but we made it far too easy for him to get a shot away, and Broun seemed to let it go through him. At that point, you knew the equaliser was coming.

Not sure I can remember seeing a player singled out as clearly as Finlay Gray was today. They seemed to take it in turns to chop him down. I thought he had an excellent game, in spite of it.

I also have to agree that the ref was very poor, all round. Very strange that he only added on 3 mins and didn’t even let us take the second corner, for a half that had four goals, several subs, an injury stoppage and a decent bit of time wasting.

[Fast_Action]

10 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

I was genuinely surprised Clyde set the stall out for a draw, from the off, in the second half. 

 

It was, and always would have been, a huge point away from home for us.  

[FifeSons]

3 minutes ago, Fast_Action said:

It was, and always would have been, a huge point away from home for us.  

Really? You’ve got a proper manager and we’ve got Stevie Farrell… And weren’t playing for a draw in the first half. Though, I assume the wind advantage had something to do with the decision.

Edited December 23, 2023 by FifeSons

[TullyBascombe]

Thought Michael Ruth was excellent today. Never stopped running despite having very little to work from in terrible conditions and used the ball really well when he had it.

Finlay also had a great game despite a concerted attempt to kick him out of the game.

I think Harry Broun’s confidence was really knocked by facing into that wind and rain in the first half, a thankless task for any keeper. Spilling that cross didn’t help. 

You can’t tell too much from a game in those conditions but Clyde might actually end up all right this season. 

[squeezebox-son]

I thought we just about deserved to win that match today. Clyde offered a wee bit after the first 20 mins in the first half, until half time. We started well, passing the ball about nicely. Then it became very scrappy and, as expected with the wind, Clyde had a couple of chances.

Second half was a non-event with us having most of the ball and eventually getting the deserved goals. Unfortunately, we capitulated when Clyde scored their third. Even after that, we should have enough about us to see that out.

I thought both pens were stone wallers. Rules are clear on hand ball and then T Wallace diving in, unnecessarily and it was inside the box. He should never have got to there though as we have 3 players near him who should have challenged before he got into the box. Albeit, he made the most of it... Tony was lucky to stay on the park after being booked already.

[FifeSons]

Just now, squeezebox-son said:

I thought we just about deserved to win that match today. Clyde offered a wee bit after the first 20 mins in the first half, until half time. We started well, passing the ball about nicely. Then it became very scrappy and, as expected with the wind, Clyde had a couple of chances.

Second half was a non-event with us having most of the ball and eventually getting the deserved goals. Unfortunately, we capitulated when Clyde scored their third. Even after that, we should have enough about us to see that out.

I thought both pens were stone wallers. Rules are clear on hand ball and then T Wallace diving in, unnecessarily and it was inside the box. He should never have got to there though as we have 3 players near him who should have challenged before he got into the box. Albeit, he made the most of it... Tony was lucky to stay on the park after being booked already.

At 4-2 we were deserving of the win. It was all us second half, but got what we deserved for what followed.

I did literally turn and say I’ve seen us throw away even more comfortable positions as our 4th went in (2 up against 10 men going into injury time against maybe Ayr? springs to mind).

[BallochSonsFan]

Given the conditions, I don't think we tested the Clyde keeper nearly enough. We should have been getting far more on him and playing for rebounds. Seeing if he'd spill the ball. We also need to do better at seeing that game out. At 4-3 it should have been backs to the wall stuff, but the late equaliser seemed inevitable today. Not good enough.

[David W]

There's an obvious but gradual improvement in our performances under McCall and that's seeing our weaknesses exposed even more. That said, you also see a few players stepping up their game. Definitely going to be an interesting few weeks when January begins.

Cuddihy was a surprising return and he had a decent game before tiring. Young had his best game since his debut and took his goal well. Prior to scoring the penalty (which looked clearcut?) Rennie had four clear chances to score (one being a rebound from his own effort) and usually you'd back him to be fair. Leighfield actually did a decent job second half.

Imagine if McLean had played Dunachie as a wingback for a full half? I don't think it worked at all but delighted he got the goal.

Dumbarton strike me as the sort of side that can play exceptionally well with everyone fit, but there's a greater than normal drop off when a few injuries hit. I didn't think they were very good today at all, Gray excepted.

[Fast_Action]

47 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

Really? You’ve got a proper manager and we’ve got Stevie Farrell… And weren’t playing for a draw in the first half. Though, I assume the wind advantage had something to do with the decision.

We still have a shambles of a squad that was assembled by Jim Duffy.  In most of our games, it has looked as though Jürgen Klopp would make something of that mob.  Until we have new faces in, we will always underachieve.  

[bullyweehutch]

50 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

Really? You’ve got a proper manager and we’ve got Stevie Farrell… And weren’t playing for a draw in the first half. Though, I assume the wind advantage had something to do with the decision.

Yes but we have Ross Lyons and Euan Cameron....we will win this shit player top trumps game 

[FifeSons]

2 minutes ago, Fast_Action said:

We still have a shambles of a squad that was assembled by Jim Duffy.

We’ve been there, too.

Amazing to think some people wanted Duffy over an Ian Murray return, when us and Airdrie were linked with both. Just look where Murray and Airdrie are, now, and where Dumbarton and Duffy are.

[Cutty Sark]

1 hour ago, squeezebox-son said:

Rules are clear on hand ball.

An outrageous statement...

[squeezebox-son]

6 minutes ago, Cutty Sark said:

An outrageous statement...

Well, that one is. Looked to me, albeit I the other side of the stand, that his hand was out in an unnatural position and the ball struck it.

[Silverton End]

37 minutes ago, David W said:

There's an obvious but gradual improvement in our performances under McCall and that's seeing our weaknesses exposed even more. That said, you also see a few players stepping up their game. Definitely going to be an interesting few weeks when January begins.

Cuddihy was a surprising return and he had a decent game before tiring. Young had his best game since his debut and took his goal well. Prior to scoring the penalty (which looked clearcut?) Rennie had four clear chances to score (one being a rebound from his own effort) and usually you'd back him to be fair. Leighfield actually did a decent job second half.

Imagine if McLean had played Dunachie as a wingback for a full half? I don't think it worked at all but delighted he got the goal.

Dumbarton strike me as the sort of side that can play exceptionally well with everyone fit, but there's a greater than normal drop off when a few injuries hit. I didn't think they were very good today at all, Gray excepted.

Yes, I thought Clyde looked far more organised today, and you were really up for it, nothing like the side we pumped at NDP earlier this season.

 

 

[Replays]

That was an absolutely brilliant end (from a Clyde perspective) to an already entertaining game given the conditions. Accounting for our obvious limitations, we played the conditions pretty well. We probably used the wind better than Dumbarton managed but I feel Dumbarton played better against the wind than us. Had Martin Rennie brought his shooting boots, we could have been a couple of goals us at half time, granted the Dumbarton defender produced an amazing block during Rennie’s second attempt after fluffing his second one-on-one.

I’ll need to see the penalty incident back but I saw nothing that warranted the award at the time. The Clyde award seemed more clear cut and you would think an experienced player like Tony Wallace probably would be disappointed in himself for giving a very inconsistent referee a decision to make. Young’s goal was a really nice finish from the edge of the box and Dumbarton’s second certainly has a bit of fortune about it aided by some poor defending and some possibly poor goalkeeping. I say possibly poor as I’d need to see it again to see how at fault Leighfield was as the deflection off of Stevenson obviously wrong footed him. Corners into the box, particularly from King (who I felt had a much more effective game today) and we really ought to have taken something from one of those opportunities.

In the second half, as expected, Dumbarton were the stronger team with the wind behind them and whilst it wasn’t a constant siege on our goal, once they did edge in front, I couldn’t really see us coming back from that. I felt our midfield was starting to look leggy just as Dumbarton scored their third which was understandable given the conditions and the fact Cuddihy hasn’t played in months. Lynas scoring with five minutes to play had me lamenting the missed chances from the first half as we’d struggled to get the ball put of our half for an extended period much like Dumbarton in the first half. The substitution at half-time was interesting - I’m assuming it was tactical and we were setting up for Dumbarton playing the ball over the top of our defence. After their poor performances last week, I wonder if Craig and McCulloch have been jettisoned ahead of a January exit seeing as both were absent today? Whilst I felt Logan was uncomfortable as a wing-back, he did compete well in the air (as you’d expect) and popped up with the equaliser so fair play to him! It was great to see Ray Grant on the pitch again and there were glimpses of him settling the midfield when he came on. Undoubtedly, he played a key role in Leslie’s goal too. Leslie did well during his cameo too. There’s definitely a player in there but is it enough for McCall to look at extending his deal? Rennie and Young both did their fair share of hold up play and linked together pretty well all things considered.

As for Dumbarton, it was obvious they were really struggling at the back. Having their usual two full-backs and Durnan missing was massive for us, alongside the conditions. They absolutely battered us doubling up down the flanks at NDP so Shiels playing at centre-half undoubtedly helped. I was interested to see Harry Broun, particularly after hearing the Terrace podcast describe him as a bit better than your usual second choice keeper at this level but unfortunately, he looked every bit a ringer out there today. Whilst it’s not easy for a goalkeeper in those sort of conditions, I certainly would imagine Dumbarton may join us in looking for another goalkeeper in the January sales.

Overall, it was brilliant to have something to cheer about given the season so far and McCall has done well to pick up a couple of points from his first four league games (plus a cup win) and I’m not really counting the East Fife game seeing as he’d quite literally just met the players. He’s given all of the players a run out at some point and I’m sure he will have a much better idea of who he wants to keep and punt heading into January. It sounds as though Maitland and McCall have been sounding out a number of players to come in and I’m hoping we see some positive business fairly quickly come January - with Lee Hamilton to come in already of course. I’m sure it’ll be an exciting month and at present, whilst there’s a long way to go, I’m feeling relatively optimistic about our chances of survival going into the second half of the season.

[Jan Vojáček]

That was a really odd game. A draw was probably fair over the 90 - Clyde had all the play in the first half, and we scored twice against the run of play. We had the ball almost exclusively in their half in the second-half, and they scored twice against the run of play.

It sounds daft given it ended 4-4, but I don't think either team tested the opposition goalkeeper enough. Those conditions were borderline ridiculous at times, but both sides tried to be a bit intricate when just leathering it goalwards was probably the best option.

I think the comment from David W about our drop off possibly has an element of truth in it. In fairness that was us today playing without our first choice goalkeeper, centre-back, right-back or left-back. And my goodness could you tell. Both sides looked like conceding every time the opposition went forward; the conditions played a part for sure. But us having a defence who had never played together was probably highlighted by how easily Clyde got in behind.

I thought there were some good performances in midfield and attack. Finlay Gray was the best player on the park by a mile, something I suspect McCall feared hence he was booted from pillar to post for the whole game. But kept coming back for more.

Michael Ruth led the line very well, and Ryan Wallace made a massive impact when he came on. A goal, a part in the other goal and he just looked to really liven us up going forward. I thought Jinky Hilton had a good game too; always inventive even if it's not always succesful.

That being said, we really did look rickety at the back. Neither Sean Crighton nor Matty Shiels looked overly comfortable dealing with Martin Rennie or Connor Young, who both played well, and Kian Leslie really gave the knackered looking Aron Lynas a hard time in his 10 minute cameo. I've no idea why he didn't start, he looked superb.

Blair Malcolm wasn't great either. That's two home games on the spin where he's still done well breaking things up, but has then had a nightmare of a time trying to complete a pass. If we could somehow combine his tackling, aggression and general nastiness with Ryan Blair's ability on the ball we'd have some sort of League Two Patrick Viera. But given that probably isn't medically possible, then we'll be stuck with what we've got.

It was a horrible game for Harry Broun to face too. The wind was brutal and he had some really shaky moments in the first-half. Dropping a cross early seemed to spook him quite a bit. That being said, I'm not sure he was directly at fault for any of the goals. Albeit Kian Leslie's did kind of look like it went straight through him.

Clyde will be absolutely fine this season based on that. They've got a boss who knows what he's doing, a squad clearly behind him and will address their lack of quality in January I'm sure. They won't make the playoffs, but I reckon fifth isn't beyond them.

For us. Well a title push is now reliant on a huge collapse from Stenny. But I do quite enjoy watching this team compared to last year. There's goals, there's creativity and there's some really good football. But my God do they drop silly points, concede some silly goals and I don't trust them at all. A strange group; it feels like we've really addressed last years problems. But now our strong points are our weak points, and our weak points are our strong points. Frustrating.

[same_ol_g35]

26 minutes ago, Replays said:

That was an absolutely brilliant end (from a Clyde perspective) to an already entertaining game given the conditions. Accounting for our obvious limitations, we played the conditions pretty well. We probably used the wind better than Dumbarton managed but I feel Dumbarton played better against the wind than us. Had Martin Rennie brought his shooting boots, we could have been a couple of goals us at half time, granted the Dumbarton defender produced an amazing block during Rennie’s second attempt after fluffing his second one-on-one.

I’ll need to see the penalty incident back but I saw nothing that warranted the award at the time. The Clyde award seemed more clear cut and you would think an experienced player like Tony Wallace probably would be disappointed in himself for giving a very inconsistent referee a decision to make. Young’s goal was a really nice finish from the edge of the box and Dumbarton’s second certainly has a bit of fortune about it aided by some poor defending and some possibly poor goalkeeping. I say possibly poor as I’d need to see it again to see how at fault Leighfield was as the deflection off of Stevenson obviously wrong footed him. Corners into the box, particularly from King (who I felt had a much more effective game today) and we really ought to have taken something from one of those opportunities.

In the second half, as expected, Dumbarton were the stronger team with the wind behind them and whilst it wasn’t a constant siege on our goal, once they did edge in front, I couldn’t really see us coming back from that. I felt our midfield was starting to look leggy just as Dumbarton scored their third which was understandable given the conditions and the fact Cuddihy hasn’t played in months. Lynas scoring with five minutes to play had me lamenting the missed chances from the first half as we’d struggled to get the ball put of our half for an extended period much like Dumbarton in the first half. The substitution at half-time was interesting - I’m assuming it was tactical and we were setting up for Dumbarton playing the ball over the top of our defence. After their poor performances last week, I wonder if Craig and McCulloch have been jettisoned ahead of a January exit seeing as both were absent today? Whilst I felt Logan was uncomfortable as a wing-back, he did compete well in the air (as you’d expect) and popped up with the equaliser so fair play to him! It was great to see Ray Grant on the pitch again and there were glimpses of him settling the midfield when he came on. Undoubtedly, he played a key role in Leslie’s goal too. Leslie did well during his cameo too. There’s definitely a player in there but is it enough for McCall to look at extending his deal? Rennie and Young both did their fair share of hold up play and linked together pretty well all things considered.

As for Dumbarton, it was obvious they were really struggling at the back. Having their usual two full-backs and Durnan missing was massive for us, alongside the conditions. They absolutely battered us doubling up down the flanks at NDP so Shiels playing at centre-half undoubtedly helped. I was interested to see Harry Broun, particularly after hearing the Terrace podcast describe him as a bit better than your usual second choice keeper at this level but unfortunately, he looked every bit a ringer out there today. Whilst it’s not easy for a goalkeeper in those sort of conditions, I certainly would imagine Dumbarton may join us in looking for another goalkeeper in the January sales.

Overall, it was brilliant to have something to cheer about given the season so far and McCall has done well to pick up a couple of points from his first four league games (plus a cup win) and I’m not really counting the East Fife game seeing as he’d quite literally just met the players. He’s given all of the players a run out at some point and I’m sure he will have a much better idea of who he wants to keep and punt heading into January. It sounds as though Maitland and McCall have been sounding out a number of players to come in and I’m hoping we see some positive business fairly quickly come January - with Lee Hamilton to come in already of course. I’m sure it’ll be an exciting month and at present, whilst there’s a long way to go, I’m feeling relatively optimistic about our chances of survival going into the second half of the season.

Josh McCulloch was sitting in the stands in his Clyde tracksuit. He was right in front of me and my son. 

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

33 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

That was a really odd game. A draw was probably fair over the 90 - Clyde had all the play in the first half, and we scored twice against the run of play. We had the ball almost exclusively in their half in the second-half, and they scored twice against the run of play.

It sounds daft given it ended 4-4, but I don't think either team tested the opposition goalkeeper enough. Those conditions were borderline ridiculous at times, but both sides tried to be a bit intricate when just leathering it goalwards was probably the best option.

I think the comment from David W about our drop off possibly has an element of truth in it. In fairness that was us today playing without our first choice goalkeeper, centre-back, right-back or left-back. And my goodness could you tell. Both sides looked like conceding every time the opposition went forward; the conditions played a part for sure. But us having a defence who had never played together was probably highlighted by how easily Clyde got in behind.

I thought there were some good performances in midfield and attack. Finlay Gray was the best player on the park by a mile, something I suspect McCall feared hence he was booted from pillar to post for the whole game. But kept coming back for more.

Michael Ruth led the line very well, and Ryan Wallace made a massive impact when he came on. A goal, a part in the other goal and he just looked to really liven us up going forward. I thought Jinky Hilton had a good game too; always inventive even if it's not always succesful.

That being said, we really did look rickety at the back. Neither Sean Crighton nor Matty Shiels looked overly comfortable dealing with Martin Rennie or Connor Young, who both played well, and Kian Leslie really gave the knackered looking Aron Lynas a hard time in his 10 minute cameo. I've no idea why he didn't start, he looked superb.

Blair Malcolm wasn't great either. That's two home games on the spin where he's still done well breaking things up, but has then had a nightmare of a time trying to complete a pass. If we could somehow combine his tackling, aggression and general nastiness with Ryan Blair's ability on the ball we'd have some sort of League Two Patrick Viera. But given that probably isn't medically possible, then we'll be stuck with what we've got.

It was a horrible game for Harry Broun to face too. The wind was brutal and he had some really shaky moments in the first-half. Dropping a cross early seemed to spook him quite a bit. That being said, I'm not sure he was directly at fault for any of the goals. Albeit Kian Leslie's did kind of look like it went straight through him.

Clyde will be absolutely fine this season based on that. They've got a boss who knows what he's doing, a squad clearly behind him and will address their lack of quality in January I'm sure. They won't make the playoffs, but I reckon fifth isn't beyond them.

For us. Well a title push is now reliant on a huge collapse from Stenny. But I do quite enjoy watching this team compared to last year. There's goals, there's creativity and there's some really good football. But my God do they drop silly points, concede some silly goals and I don't trust them at all. A strange group; it feels like we've really addressed last years problems. But now our strong points are our weak points, and our weak points are our strong points. Frustrating.

I was able to watch those last two Clyde goals back and from the Pixellot angle (which isn’t the best admittedly) I thought Harry Broun should’ve saved both of those late Clyde goals. He was beaten very easily at his near post for their 3rd goal (poppadom hands) and the 4th just seem to trundle through him despite him looking like he was in a good position to save it (although there were a few bodies obscuring the view).

I just don’t feel confident with him between the sticks unfortunately, which is the complete opposite from how I feel with Brett Long. The sensible thing for us to do would be to go out and sign a goalkeeper as soon as we can IMHO as sticking with Broun would be a huge risk based on what I’ve saw of him thus far.

[Silverton End]

16 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

I was able to watch those last two Clyde goals back and from the Pixellot angle (which isn’t the best admittedly) I thought Harry Broun should’ve saved both of those late Clyde goals. He was beaten very easily at his near post for their 3rd goal (poppadom hands) and the 4th just seem to trundle through him despite him looking like he was in a good position to save it (although there were a few bodies obscuring the view).

I just don’t feel confident with him between the sticks unfortunately, which is the complete opposite from how I feel with Brett Long. The sensible thing for us to do would be to go out and sign a goalkeeper as soon as we can IMHO as sticking with Broun would be a huge risk based on what I’ve saw of him thus far.

I was to the left of the hospitality area, near the away fans, there was a good crowd today btw, & Broun didn't have much chance with the goals.

Especially the Clyde 4th, we had 3 defenders standing around like statues, watching, letting the boy hit his shot.

Broun is no Brett Long for sure, but he's not to blame for us dropping 2 valuable points today.

 

[FifeSons]

I think Brett Long saves the 3rd and 4th tbh.