Jan Vojáček

I reckon Mikey Ruth will get himself a good move on the back of his form with us. He's quite possibly been our best player this season and is comfortably the best striker we've had since Calum Gallagher (although the competition for that isn't particularly strong). He should've scored about 16 goals for us this season rather than eight mind you. But aside from that he's been superb this season.

It is, aye.

I don't think there's any danger of you being pumped by six or seven if us - with our third choice goalkeeper (who left right away for Johnstone Burgh), a midfielder at left-back and a left-back at centre-half only conceded four. Two of which came from goalkeeping errors and one of which was a penalty. I had the real fear we'd get a doing, but after about 10 minutes I realised that their fans are spot on in that their team doesn't really have a lot of width or firepower. And Sima being out takes away a lot of the threat that would destroy a lower league team. This Rangers team are a solid unit. They'll probably win and do so with a comfortable 2-0/3-1 or something where they look measured and in control. But (based on what I saw at The Rock and what I've seen on TV) they aren't a particularly exciting watch. More Walter Smith-era Rangers than Ange Postecoglu-Celtic if you will.

I think a couple were down to really severe weather (wind certainly got one, and there was a very hard frost around here for another one). But aye. That pitch. I'd actually rather we had some games called off if it meant that the park wasn't as badly damaged. We've not had a call-off this season. But the games against Clyde (wind), East Fife (the pitch was effectively frozen) and Rangers (only went ahead because they had their groundstaff on it) all got lucky. And all of them were impacted as a spectacle by playing on a park that looked like a gateaux. It feels like we do everything possible to get the pitch just to cross the playable boundary. Without giving a single thought to the longer term damage it will do. It was the same last season where sand was dumped everywhere as a quick fix. But ended up causing more issues.

Broomhill were playing Albion Rovers at The Rock last night. I've been sent this picture of the pitch during the warmup... I understand it makes financial sense to groundshare. But surely we should use some of the money generated to employ a groundsman who knows what he's doing, and to provide the right equipment and materials to make the pitch something like playable. I will also die on the hill that you cannot win a league nowadays with a bad pitch. Stirling Albion share Forthbank with the Uni and their park is always in good shape, so it can be done on a grass pitch with the right care and investment.

So Adams has brought in a group of guys who have the ability of an English League Two player, but the physicality of a Scottish Championship player. That makes a lot of sense as to just how hopeless they are.

The thing that's always struck me when I've watched English games is the size of the boys playing. They are absolute monsters; I'd say the average League Two jobber down south must be well over six foot and they are usually all very sturdy lads. Technical ability wise I think a lot are woeful (actually in many cases well below average Championship standard) but that can be glossed over with a bit of pace and power. Tom Dallison is a great example of that. A strapping big guy who was absolutely howling for Falkirk (to the level they actually played him up front at one point I'm sure) but who has enjoyed a solid League Two career down south.

Seen as you all waited so patiently (or went out and bought my paper), the full article has just gone online. Cognitive's full statement was about 500/600 words, so it's heavily cut down here. But I believe they might be putting it on the website; think that was certainly Clive's aim when I spoke to him at the end of the week. My first draft was about 1800 words, so it's been cut to fit the page. But hopefully it gives some new information from behind the scenes. It's difficult for me because there's such a close link here between something personal on which I have strong views and my actual ability to do my day job here. So I'm treating it like I treat most sensitive or political stories at work; here is what everyone is saying. Make up your own mind on who and what you believe. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/dumbarton-fc-owners-speak-out-32065435

Genuinely more excited for the Derek Adams' post-match rn than I think I've ever been for anything.

I was told at the game you boys won last month that, if EF had lost, then MacDonald was getting his jotters and Campbell was being appointed. Assuming he’s still motivated and has flushed the final season and a bit out his system that should be a terrific appointment. Maybe not so much for this season (although he’ll keep you up) but certainly to build something exciting next year.

I wish I could take the credit for being that smart

It'll not be up online until tomorrow night (because I'm off today and we have no other staff). But for far flung Sons then I promise it'll be on the website by the time I log off tomorrow! For everyone local. Buy a paper (or flick through it in Morrisons, although it's about a thousand words so it might take some time...). It was an absolute slog to get it pulled together and (without wanting to go all Journalismy here) this is the sort of stuff that wouldn't be out there if we didn't exist anymore. So support is very much appreciated!

Stenhousemuir 1-0 Dumbarton - Warriors punish Sons' lack of cutting edge https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/stenhousemuir-1-0-dumbarton-warriors-32052353#ICID=Android_DailyRecordNewsApp_AppShare

Not anymore he's not, that was this time last year. We've got Jay Hogarth (son of Myles) and Gallagher Lennon (son of Neil) in our squad at this very moment. Luca Vata is also Rudi Vata's nephew. Robbie Hamilton at East Fife (on loan from Hibs) is the son of Jim Hamilton and grand-son of Jim Hamilton Snr - both of whom also played for EF https://eastfifefc.info/latest-news/1573-robbie-hamilton-joins-on-loan-from-hibernian

I agree. Not necessarily with your team, but the need for a bit of a shake-up. We're going to finish in the playoffs, we're going to need a team capable of winning them. So why not try out a few things and see what works. Personally my out the box idea is based on the fact I don't think Gallagher Lennon is a left-back. I think he's a centre-half playing at left-back. I've no idea if this team has the right balance to it or not. But that's part of the fun I suppose. And I've no idea how good Aaron Healy or Marc Kelly are, but I'm optimistic they can bring something different. I'd also say that I really think we miss Ryan Wallace when he isn't playing. But he isn't scoring enough for a forward player, and that's where one of our major issues is at the moment. So, balls out, here we go. Jay Hogarth Cian Newbury Sean Crighton Gallagher Lennon Kalvin Orsi Finlay Gray Carlo Pignatiello Blair Malcolm Aaron Healy Marc Kelly Michael Ruth I think we lose something without Kalvin Orsi in the side. His end product is lacking, but he drives us up the park, he's quick and hard working. He's skilful and he has been our leading creator for two seasons. I'd also say he balances out Blair Malcolm being more of a defensive wing-back on the other side. Which is a role I'm sure he played a bit for Albion Rovers last season. He'd also be able to cover Gallagher Lennon being uncomfortable when he's dragged wide. In my head you've then got two midfielders in Carlo and Finlay who are terrific athletes and who both are very good driving forward with the ball. But equally as adept at defending. Further forward; Kelly looks a central player. I'm absolutely sure that's where he'll be most comfortable and effective even based on just 60 minutes on Saturday. Ruth will benefit from someone close to him, and Aaron Healy excites me. Drop him in that space, but with the right to drift out to the left to give us an attacking option there, with Malcolm more focused on defending. The weaknesses? I think we could be got at and overloaded down both wings. I think Ryan Wallace is superb at holding the play up in a way Healy or Kelly probably can't. It asks a lot of Blair Malcolm to cover left-back and drop in as a defensive centre-mid and as a defensive winger, especially given he's not exactly got rapid pace.

This is a beautifully worded account of it. He did. But the PTSD from having to watch that season irl still lives with me. You'd look at our defence and be like 'how can a side that's conceded 24 goals in 22 games be in relegation danger'. And then the goals for column would hit. 14 in 22 matches, three in the final game of the season. That squad were a very likable group of boys, with it being Covid with games every few days and nobody else being in the stadium I got to know most of them quite well. But that team was the most tedious to watch I've ever seen. I also think Duffy is partly to blame for where we are. He (by all accounts) was quite happy to empty the majority of the 2018/19 squad who finished the season in excellent form and were a great watch. Then faffed in the transfer market, signed a lot of dross and we went from promotion playoff contenders to League One relegation fodder. He did decide to walk away though. If he'd wanted to stay then, imo, our board wouldn't have emptied him. I've always said you judge a manager on where the team are when he leaves them. Chapman left us a division above, so is a success. Adamson the same, so a success. Ian Murray got us from 10th to 7th in his final season. So a success. Since then it's been downhill all the way (although Duffy did take over with us ninth and leave with us ninth).

We managed 16 in the league last season, which was a club record (19 all comps) - but I don't remember anyone saying anything at the time about it being a league record. Whatever the league record is though it can't be far away from 15/16, and I'd be quite comfortable putting money on this Stenny side beating it. Off the top of my head I can't remember us ever sharing a league with a side so prolific at keeping clean sheets.

All this chat, and nobody has mentioned the sozzled boy from Stenny hospitality going head first over the wall in front of the stand inside the first five minutes. I'm informed Pixellot failed to capture it, nobody happened to be filming at that point did they? We didn't speak on the stream for a good two or three minutes because I was struggling to breathe

That was one of those games I'm sure where, if we'd won, we'd have dragged another couple of teams back into the scrap for ninth too. And East Fife were cut adrift a wee bit and on a horrible run. But they strolled it iirc.

The season before we had a lot. Seven in all comps. Three against Airdrie in that ridiculous 3-2 game (Maclean, Buchanan, Geggan). Paul Paton and Ross MacLean in the 4-3 defeat up at Balmoor where we were 3-0 behind and down to 10 men at half time. Carsy was sent off for dissent in injury time in a 2-0 defeat at bottom of the league East Fife. Which could be what you're thinking of given the magnitude of that game? Albeit the red was late and we'd already lost by that stage. Interestingly Stenny have the most reds in League Two this season (6 to our 3, Peterhead with 4 are second) but they haven't lost any of those games.

Our only reds last season were Kalvin in the playoffs, Ryan Wallace after full-time against Albion Rovers and Ryan McGeever after about 10 minutes at Forfar. But Finlay picked up two silly yellows in about five minutes against Peterhead in the 0-1 game at The Rock this season, which I'd forgotten about until I looked it up. Carlo obviously got sent off for two (extremely) soft bookings at Ochilview too. So we've finished with 10 men twice against Stenny and once against Peterhead in five games against them.

I'd put in my big post yesterday that we don't shoot unless it's basically the only option, and it got me thinking about how few goals we've scored from outside the box. In the league I think I'm right in saying that three of our 35 goals have been from outside the area; Ryan Blair's deflected opener against Bonnyigg, Finlay Gray's screamer at Station Park and Ryan Wallace at Balmoor. I didn't work it out for goals where we've worked the ball to the byline and cut it back for a tap in, but that must be our most frequent way of scoring. Which is great when it works, but might explain why we've scored once from open play against Spartans and Peterhead all season. If I'm Faz I'm urging guys like he two Wallaces, Finlay and Ruth to just have a pop. In Dom Thomas' season with us I'm sure he ended the campaign with more shots than some teams in the league, he was shooting six or seven times a game. Sure the majority went flying wide, but they also lead to a lot of goals - either directly or indirectly from rebounds etc. We also need to do something with corners. We're just no threat at all. We had 12 yesterday, and the only time we came close was when Darren Jamieson misjudged one. Without Kalvin, Durnan, Shiels and even Lynas and Malcolm, we aren't the most physically intimidating team at attacking dead balls. But we still should be more of a threat from them.

The foul was definitely Crighton, checked it up, but I don't remember the build up to it, so I shall bow to your memory. I was probably distracted by something shiny at that point and looking the wrong way

That was Sean Crighton was it not? I'm sure the goal came from the free-kick where Crighton absolutely pole-axed Ross Taylor.

I actually couldn't have asked a great deal more from us today. I thought we were the better team for large spells, we created chances, we defended well for the most part and both teams left absolutely everything on the park. There was no shortage of effort, nobody hiding and it got quite tasty and physical. The game totally changed with the introduction of Ross Taylor and Matty Yates. Two players who I was surprised (and delighted) to see on the bench. Bradley Rodden was trying too hard to make an impression and I thought he looked really poor. He was also possibly a bit lucky with a silly kick out at Cian Newbury in the first-half, albeit it was more petulant and frustrated than violent. Adam Brown, set pieces aside, offered very little. Taylor and Yates brought a pace and dynamism to the game that we couldn't match. We were playing well, but we were a a bit short of speed - and those two exploited that. The 15 minutes between them coming on, the goal and Ryan Blair's second booking was the sort of stuff you'd expect from league winners. The were insatiable. Taylor is a wee dick. Of that there is no doubt. But he's also absolutely tremendous at football. I was asking a few Stenny folk why he wasn't starting, and they said it was because he can't fully be trusted not to lose the plot. And that was evident today. He had Gallagher Lennon on toast, yet got involved in silly wee slagging matches, where he ended up winding himself up - picking up a daft booking and then fizzling out the game as a few teammates told him to chill out. He brought a chaos factor, for sure, but I think we saw the very best and very worst of him in his cameo. Matty Yates was excellent. As he usually is. A really classy player who I expect to move into full-time football in the summer. Bringing them on won the game for Stenny. But aside from that crazy 15/20 minutes where they landed the knockout blow, I thought we gave a very good account of ourselves. And can feel a bit disappointed to come away with nothing. We created some good openings; Ryan Wallace missed a one-on-one, Sean Crighton and Jinky Hilton both missed excellent chances in stoppage time - and there's no denying we went for it. It was like a 3-3-3 for the last 10 minutes or so. My big frustration is that we just don't shoot enough. We only shoot when there's no other option on, and Darren Jamieson only really had a couple of saves to make. In the first-half, Ryan Blair was excellent. Mikey Anderson looked Stenhousemuir's biggest threat, but he wasn't in the game as much as he would've wanted and a lot of that was because of Ryan Blair. But his bookings were incredibly stupid; and I've no complaints about either. The first was for mouthing off after a pretty clearcut foul on Gallagher Lennon wasn't given. It's done. Shut up and move on. The second was for a sort of half-arsed tactical foul on half-way. The sort that is fine to make if you aren't on a booking. But just stupidity to do when you are. I thought Michael Ruth led the line superbly as per usual; but without scoring. As per usual. My God, if we could find a way for him to hit 12-15 goals a season we'd have the best striker in the league on our hands. Everything about his game is great, he just doesn't score goals. You could probably same something similar about Ryan Wallace. It wasn't his best game, but he had a golden chance one-on-one and tamely fired at Darren Jamieson. You need to score when you're on top, and we're really bad for not doing that. As frustrated as I was with our finishing though, I think Gregor Buchanan deserves a lot of credit. He was the best player on the park today by some distance imo, and when he's playing like that he's quite possibly the best player in the division. Aerially he was sensational, especially from dead balls. He read danger and covered for his teammates and he was flinging himself at everything. He looked like he'd rather die than concede a goal and you have to admire that. It was a real captain's performance. In terms of us; Cian Newbury once again turned in a very good showing. He was calm and measured with the ball when the time was right, he walloped it away when the time was right. He didn't give Matty Aitken much sniff of goal and for someone of 18 I just can't speak highly enough of him. I'm an enormous fan. I thought Carlo Pignatiello had his best game for a while. But I still want to see more crossing and less dribbling from him. He looked excellent when he moved into midfield too; I'd love to clone him and just play a team with 10 of him and a goalkeeper. In terms of our new additions. Gallagher Lennon had a tough game against Euan O'Reilly and then Ross Taylor. Both are blisteringly quick and Lennon just doesn't have much pace about him, he looks like a centre-half playing at full-back. And I wonder if we might need to switch to three at the back to make things work. It took Marc Kelly a fair bit of time to settle into the team; and I'm going to make two statements about him. I don't think he has the pace to be a winger at this level, but I do think he looked like he could be a handy #10. He glides past players inside, his touch looks good and he looks like a nice passer of the ball. He's maybe got a bit of finesse and quality on the ball that Kalvin Orsi doesn't have wide, but doesn't have the pace and physicality that makes Kalvin such a threat. I really liked what I saw from Aaron Healy. He's absolutely tiny (as in Stevie Murray sized) but he was very direct, always wanting to take people on and looked like he could create. Yeah he lost the ball a few times dribbling in tight areas, but I liked what he was trying. I'm excited to see more. He also dug out a cracker of a cross in injury time on the run for Jinky Hilton. But he tamely fired right at Darren Jamieson when anything with a bit of power and pace probably ends up in the back of the net. As said above, we've played Stenny three times and they haven't blown us away on any occasion. But the last two games have been exactly what champions do. Grinding out results with grit, determination and just a wee sprinkling of quality at the key moment. And their defensive record speaks for itself, it really is remarkable. They deserve to be where they are for that alone.