not a brilliant performance by any stretch but two goals & hopefully thats us on our way to slowly climbing up the table a bit

That'll be us buggered then

Really poor game but the Sons took their chances for a change and i think we probably deserved our win. Onwards and upwards.


Get it up ye Gemmell!


EDIT - The ref might aswell of wore a Rovers top. Absolutely shocking.

Pretty poor performance, but who cares? We got the 3 points, and deserved them too.

had this game been played a couple of weeks ago we'd have lost.

it makes a difference to see us take our chances and walk away with a win. chapman must have game them a boot up the arse at half time as we looked much better in the second half. we didn't play all that great but we ground out a win which i'm certainly happy about.

hopefully chapman will bring in a couple of decent players this month and we may well finish higher than we expected.

according to setanta we've leaped above shire in to 8th :-D

taken from the dumbarton website.

unfortunately that's not true. i only spotted one of their players wearing a black armband.

i found it rather strange that they weren't wearing them.

your right there was only one wearing a black arm band

Kenny Wright, who played with Phil O'Donnell at Motherwell, was the only Rovers player to wear an arm band. However, given that the minutes applause was impecabbly observed by Rovers players, officials and support, I very much doubt there was anything sinister in it. Knowing Rovers, it's more likely that we just didn't have any black tape available and Kenny has taken the trouble to source his own (from Dumbarton, no doubt).

Anyway, to the game. We had enough chances to win two matches in the first half, neglected to take them, and got our arse felt in the second. The two goals we lost were shockingly soft, and might have been prevented if either an effort was made to block the initial cross from a deep position, or attacking players weren't granted free headers in the box - schoolboy stuff.

All in all, both teams were pretty poor. Chapman has his work cut out down there, but will be able to steer Dumbarton away from the bottom. I get the feeling we're about to have a January clear-out, so God knows what the rest of the season will be like.

Most of yer players headin to the rock??

I reckon you'll see Ciaran Donnelly and Jamie McKenzie down there - Cowboy doesn't seem to fancy either, and will probably let them go.

Jamie Ewings (Chapman's goalkeeper at Rovers) was also in the stand yesterday. I believe he's been down south for a few months, so may not have a club at the moment.

i'm quite happy with david crawford at the moment.

not heard of Donnelly or McKenzie, hopefully if they're to head this way then they're centre halfs or strikers.

Good god no! Hes mince... Crawford is far, far better!

He is a really good player if he's the guy i'm thinking of. Would certainly stregthen our defence but we still need a creative midfielder and a striker.

Mckenzie is a good player on his day but his discipline has always been a major issue. Guaranteed at least a couple of red cards a season.

David Crawford was very good yesterday, it has to be said.

Ciaran Donnelly is a centre half, and a pretty good one. He was Gordon Lennon's central defensive partner and, in my opinion, a large part of the reason Gordon did so well with Rovers and ultimately got a move to Partick i.e. Ciaran did the unfashionable stuff for him. He's a wee bit hot-headed though and struggled to get back into the team following suspension.

As for Jamie McKenzie, you've not been about the lower divisions long if you haven't heard of Jamie. He's been with us twice and also has spells at Stenny and Elgin. A talented midfielder on his day, but struggles with fitness, and is another hothead.

Apparently, McKenzie has been told he will be allowed to go if Cowboy can drum up a replacement. I'm not aware of Ciaran being told the same thing, but he is close to Jim Chapman, and is clearly out of favour with us.

Is he more of a creative or holding midfielder?

Creative. An excellent passer of a ball for our level, and can take a decent free kick on occasion.

Exactly what we need then. Him and Donnelly would be decent signings for us but we'll see who Chapman brings in.

Edited to add: Why exactly did Chapman leave Rovers? I know it was a shock to most of the fans, did he fall out with the board?

Yes, his relationship with the board was extremely fraught towards the end. It was a shock to the support, but only because nobody was aware just how bad things were - the first most of us knew of it was from the Evening Times.

However, I think we all now accept that the club did the right thing in getting rid at the end of the season, and bringing Cowboy was certainly a very good move.

I think we all agree that it wasn't a great performance (especially first half) but a good solid start for Jim Chapman.

It's amazing the difference a reasonably fit Craig Brittain makes to the team. His usual superb contribution in defence and his crosses for both goals. The fact that he was used sparingly by both Martin and McCabe speaks volumes for our slide down the league.

It was also great to see some smiles around SHS again yesterday - in particular the wind-ups and banter from Brian McPhee during the game.

Yeah, if the albion board hadn't brought as good a manager as the cowboy in the decision might not have been justified. I'm happy with Chapman though, he seems to know what he's doing and will sort the players out and bring the right ones in. I think he had installed a good team spirit at Albion, the only time i saw them last season was when they won late on a Links Park and they kept pushing right till the end a got a deserved winner. Those are the kind of performances we so badly need.

The decision would still have been justified regardless of who came in. There was no working relationship left, and reasonable requests for action from the Board were being ignored by the management - no employer would put up with that situation.

True, obviously the situation was beyond what the board could accept. Hopefully Chapman's relationship with our board will be good. I think the fact he's full-time is a good sign for us.

Perfect afternoon from a Sons point of view - three points gained but overall a pretty dire performance which lets Chappy see just how much work lies ahead. I would think he will be trying to wheel and deal over the next few weeks.

I believe that Chapman was also full time at Albion? Am I right in thinking that due to the Youth structure Albion were run as a full time team a few years ago?

wishful thinking! they've probably already got a date set for the tribunal....

nah, heres hoping...

Thought it was a pretty dire display. Maybe the combination of a new manager and the presence of Craig Brittain made the difference. I'm not sure how we got away without losing a goal,the defence was dreadful!

I saw Gus McPherson leaving 15 mins from the end (is he Rangers fan?) he didn't look like he was shaking his boots.

I was thinking the exact same at half time. It was good that JC didn't get a false impression of the task ahead. We were absolutely rank in the first half and should have been several goals down. In addition, on another day our two headed goals would have been defended properly and a 0-0 draw would have been the outcome.

So, as you say, three points gained plus a proper chance for JC to assess our deficiencies. Three away league games in January will really expose those weaknesses - unless he manages to bring in a few quick signings and gel the squad.

nope - Jim was still working full time with the SFA (Football Development Coordinator for South Lanarkshire) when he managed us.

Although, we did have full time youth players which Jimmy Linsey took charge from day to day.

bring back paddy will be distraught the boaby has signed for queen of the south

Queens take the boaby!

Just glad to take the points to be honest, Jim has got his work cut out to get even close to finishing in the top half this season, would be an unlikely but remarkable achievement if he were to do so. Chuffed for Craig to have been the man that undone he Albion twice, wonder how PM liked those apples?

Dumbarton will really struggle to finish above us this season Imho!

This is probably a comment just waiting for a bite, but I'll try to respond in a sensible manner.

I think we have a good chance of finishing above Albion this season. There is a lot of work to be done, don't get me wrong, but the initial stories we hear about Chapman, makes me think it could be a very good appointment.

We do have major problems on the pitch, in not being able to do the basics, but if we get a handful of new players in in January, and there is a shake-up in atitude etc, then I see no reason why we can't get a much improved league position than we thought we were in for, just a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not saying it's fantastic, or we're going to be a changed team within a month or anything, things, imo, look much better than they did just a couple of weeks ago. The play-offs are way out of our reach this season, imo, but we still look as though we could have a decent chance of climbing the table in the coming months.

The players have played against that wind how many times, when will they ever learn to keep the ball low, as soon as the ball is punted in the air it comes straight back down your throught!!!!!. yip poor poor first half where we couldnt get out our own half, 1 or maybe at a push 2 half chances but im sure jim will have noted it.

Second half was a bit better started to get a few passes together but was still far from good but three points earned.

I was impressed all the same by jc, this is certinly a hard job he is taking on, he never stopped talking and instructing to the players from start to finish and i think he might just do a really good job at the sons.(here's hopping anyway)

we need a centre half, creative midfielder, winger that can create things and a striker!!

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

it will be tough not seeing the boaby every saturday but i'm sure i'll move on in time.

i didn't expect a move to the queens but hey ho.

and yes the queens love the boaby, who doesn't?