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Sons' sorrow


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We're lead to believe that the jobs aren't linked to their footballing contracts. 
Na, not unless they choose to leave the company to do something else.

The Dumbarton players do get some preferential treatment vs normal employees (start late on Tuesdays and Thursdays to attend training etc) so I'm not sure if that would stop. I'd imagine if they signed elsewhere they'd probably be allowed to do the same dependant on which days their new club trains.

The C&G guys seem decent and it probably suits them having young, fit guys working for them.
Cheers.

Was just something that I was thinking about while reading through the last few pages there.
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On ‎09‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 20:57, FifeSons said:

Andy Graham still doing the business in the Championship tonight. So glad we released him.

Andy has been a rock for us , his football brain negates the need for pace, but he can move when he needs to , well up for the championship no problem.

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1 hour ago, whereismillar said:

Andy has been a rock for us , his football brain negates the need for pace, but he can move when he needs to , well up for the championship no problem.

That perfectly sums him up. He never relied on pace, so I never bought the argument that time had caught up with him.

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1 hour ago, whereismillar said:

Andy has been a rock for us , his football brain negates the need for pace, but he can move when he needs to , well up for the championship no problem.

Indeed. Also a tremendous organiser at the back and clearly a real leader in the group. Jack Ross made some fantastic signings for Alloa but bringing those three in from Dumbarton (and Cawley back too) was crucial. 

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Aitken's decision to punt the three Alloa stars mentioned really doesn't look great on paper at all, and the more time goes on the worse it looks.
Stripping Graham of the captaincy when he'd been nothing short of a model pro for us was a woeful bit of management. Especially when he replaced him with a guy who had barely managed a full season of football in about four years - fortunately for Stevie, Darren Barr was a good player for us, but that could easily have backfired. Although Barr and Buchanan were our first choice pairing for a wee bit, Darren actually moved into midfield for a decent chunk of the season when Graham was punted - leaving us with Frazer Wright and Gregor Buchanan as our centre-half pairing.
I liked big Fraz a lot. But he was only playing because he had injections in his hip, and he was quite clearly done by the start of the next season. Getting rid of a centre-back who was slow, read the game well and fit, for a centre-back who was slow, read the game well but was coming towards the end of his career was a very short sighted decision.
Kirkpatrick could be a bit of an enigma at times. In the 2013/14 season he slotted into Aggy's role in the heart of our midfield and was nothing short of a revelation. The guy has bucketloads of ability, and if I was Aitken I'd have been keen to build a team around him. As a player he's probably not dissimilar to Ross Forbes in that he's full of quality on the ball, but isn't exactly going to charge about and stretch teams. As Forbes quickly found out, that isn't Aitken's sort of player.
Stevie didn't seem to fancy him at all. In fact looking through my notes we tended to go with Jon Routledge and Darren Barr in a typically defensive Aitken central-midfield pairing, with Kevin Cawley and Jamie Lindsay wide (I'd forgotten how frustrating that was given neither were wide players, but that's an issue for another time). Or with Routledge and Barr as defensive mids and Grant Gallagher in behind Nade/Fleming/Heffernan in a 4-2-3-1.
Does everyone remember Kirkpatrick's last game for us? 
Queen of the South 6-0 Dumbarton - where he was hooked at half-time with us 2-0 down along with Gregor Buchanan for Grant Gallagher and Tom Walsh...I think it's safe to assume words may have been had, because he was quickly punted to Clyde.
Right, that's me made Stevie's excuses for getting rid of a very talented centre-mid who had been a big player for us in the past, and a centre-back who is still strolling it in the Championship...Now for Scott Taggart.
There can be no excuses. Taggart was a better right-back than Steven Saunders and we were screaming out for a wee bit of pace in that defence. I remember thinking he'd regret A) Not playing him more and B) Releasing him at the time, because it looked short sighted given Saunders was clearly going to go back full-time. The fact we replaced him with Craig Pettigrew might just be our Ryan Stevenson for Lewis Vaughan moment - though at least we didn't give Taggart directly to our nearest rival.
I do wonder, when he looks back on his time at us, what decisions Stevie would change. I'd imagine that all three players might pop into his mind.

Jesus I forgot you actually had Craig Pettigrew in the Championship. One of Stevies favourites from Stranraer.
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2 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Who's getting player of the year and young player of the year then?

I assume we all voted Dom Thomas and Cammy Ballantine?

I went for Carsy and DT. Take either out of the team and we have absolutely no chance of getting a result against anyone.

Ballantyne was (I think) the only other player I considered to be fair.

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I went for Carsy and DT. Take either out of the team and we have absolutely no chance of getting a result against anyone.
Ballantyne was (I think) the only other player I considered to be fair.
Fair enough, fair enough. Carswell would've been next in line for me.

I actually wouldn't be surprised to see a clean sweep for Dom.
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Just now, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Fair enough, fair enough. Carswell would've been next in line for me.

I actually wouldn't be surprised to see a clean sweep for Dom.

I'd be pretty surprised if it wasn't to be honest. The majority of fans probably don't appreciate Carsy or Ballantyne as more defensive players, whilst DT's performances have been pretty much the only positive at times!

Always interested to see who gets Players' Player though, I have a feeling that will be Carsy or Ballantyne. They strike me as the sort of guys you'd like to have as your teammate.

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Looking at it:-

Adam - No chance
Brennan - No chance
Ferguson - No chance
Ballantine - 2nd in YPOTY and 2nd in POTY
Dyer - No Chance
C Barr - No Chance
McLean - No Chance
Perry - No Chance
Hutton - No Chance
Carswell - 3rd in POTY
Thomson - No Chance
Forbes - 4th in POTY
B Barr - No Chance
Thomas - 1st in YPOTY and 1st in POTY
Paton - No Chance
Melingui - No Chance
Armour - No Chance
Loy - No Chance
Gallagher - 5th in POTY

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Fair enough, fair enough. Carswell would've been next in line for me.

I actually wouldn't be surprised to see a clean sweep for Dom.
I think this'll happen too. I hope Dom brings a box for carrying all the trophies.
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2 hours ago, The Moonster said:

You do realise it's not like those TV shows where the one with the highest votes gets punted, right?

Looking at our previous winners: Dowie, Martin, Fleming, Graham, McGinn, Lister.

Actually...

Edited by Ross Forbes
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Do we think loy will actually kick another ball for us? Being that he was signed on a 2 year deal he will likely be around next season unless he retires. Can we afford to keep paying him a full season to do nothing?
No. I would like to think there would be an agreement for him to quitely slip out the back door in the summer.

Depends on Duffy thinks he's worth the risk.
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