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I see Mark Docherty has left Forfar.

I don't think he'd be a starter in our team but he'd be a handy guy to have around. Can cover at the back and in midfield and would be a definite upgrade on McMillan. He's also a right good c**t.

He's signed for Annan.
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I decided while driving home from Peterhead last week to give tomorrow a miss but these signings have me looking up how long my drive will be tomorrow. It's like when I was younger and going to house parties when the pub shut. They were mostly shite but I'd keep going out of fear of missing the good one.
 
It'll probably still be shite tomorrow but I'll be there hoping it'll be one of the good ones.
 
Maybe next time [emoji19]
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I've been thinking long and hard about our goalkeeping situation (been a wee while since we've had a goalkeeper debate...) and I'm not sure Jim has anything to lose by chucking Pettigrew a chance now. 

Brennan looked wobbly yesterday again. It's not that he's making flat-out howlers, but we concede an awful lot of goals that you think he could save, should've saved or that a Brett Long, Mark McCallum, Max Currie or whoever would save. Twice in the first-half he had teammates go through him after he didn't come out to sweep up some danger and the defence look jittery as soon as the ball gets near him. At the moment it's not even commanding his area that's the issue, it's commanding his six-yard box.

Now, he is capable of making some spectacular stops, and he made a couple of smashing saves yesterday, but I'm just not sure that's enough to justify keeping Pettigrew - who has looked fine and certainly not let the side down in his limited appearances so far - parked on the bench.

Defensively we have been absolutely abysmal this season. The stats speak for themselves on that. But individually each of our four first choice defenders are having decent enough seasons. McGeever and Neill are by and large solid, and both are some of our most consistent performers. Rico is fine. Sometimes better players have a field day against him, and his distribution isn't fantastic, but he's fine, and Wardrop looked good yesterday. So the logical conclusion is that the issues lie elsewhere.

Fwiw I also think the issue lies in those in front of them. Carsy hasn't been himself at all season and, as good as Hutton's been, he doesn't have the pace or athleticism to cover for an out-of-sorts Carsy.

It might take Jim a bit of tinkering and a few weeks to find something that works, because on the midfield issue there's currently no obvious solution.  

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I've been thinking long and hard about our goalkeeping situation (been a wee while since we've had a goalkeeper debate...) and I'm not sure Jim has anything to lose by chucking Pettigrew a chance now. 
Brennan looked wobbly yesterday again. It's not that he's making flat-out howlers, but we concede an awful lot of goals that you think he could save, should've saved or that a Brett Long, Mark McCallum, Max Currie or whoever would save. Twice in the first-half he had teammates go through him after he didn't come out to sweep up some danger and the defence look jittery as soon as the ball gets near him. At the moment it's not even commanding his area that's the issue, it's commanding his six-yard box.
Now, he is capable of making some spectacular stops, and he made a couple of smashing saves yesterday, but I'm just not sure that's enough to justify keeping Pettigrew - who has looked fine and certainly not let the side down in his limited appearances so far - parked on the bench.
Defensively we have been absolutely abysmal this season. The stats speak for themselves on that. But individually each of our four first choice defenders are having decent enough seasons. McGeever and Neill are by and large solid, and both are some of our most consistent performers. Rico is fine. Sometimes better players have a field day against him, and his distribution isn't fantastic, but he's fine, and Wardrop looked good yesterday. So the logical conclusion is that the issues lie elsewhere.
Fwiw I also think the issue lies in those in front of them. Carsy hasn't been himself at all season and, as good as Hutton's been, he doesn't have the pace or athleticism to cover for an out-of-sorts Carsy.
It might take Jim a bit of tinkering and a few weeks to find something that works, because on the midfield issue there's currently no obvious solution.  
Brennan also has a terrible habit of palming the ball straight to a strikers feet after making a save. I understand that it's impossible to avoid doing it in certain situations but there have been numerous occassions this season where he could have, and should have, ensured he caught it or palmed it away from the player.

I also feel he has a tendancy to make saves look better than they are.

As you mentioned above our midfield are offering very little protection to our defence, given that we generally operate with 3 central midfielders that is absolutely criminal stuff.
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2 hours ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Brennan also has a terrible habit of palming the ball straight to a strikers feet after making a save. I understand that it's impossible to avoid doing it in certain situations but there have been numerous occassions this season where he could have, and should have, ensured he caught it or palmed it away from the player.

I also feel he has a tendancy to make saves look better than they are.

As you mentioned above our midfield are offering very little protection to our defence, given that we generally operate with 3 central midfielders that is absolutely criminal stuff.

I think it proves beyond question that the Hutton/Carswell COMBO dont work and provide no real protection.Carsy has been seriously lacking this year and i think taking him out of the equation could help solve our midfield riddle.

Its that old chestnut 'there was a double blow for Dumbarton, Layne was injured and Carswell wasnt'.

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I don't know why but it must have been decided early(ish) on in the game that Jai was the only sub getting game time yesterday.

PJ's face was absolutely tripping him as he "warmed up" with about 20 minutes left.

I would love to know why because that's the strongest our bench has looked all season and we actually had options for a nice change.

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I don't know why but it must have been decided early(ish) on in the game that Jai was the only sub getting game time yesterday.

PJ's face was absolutely tripping him as he "warmed up" with about 20 minutes left.

I would love to know why because that's the strongest our bench has looked all season and we actually had options for a nice change.

I'll be honest, I was astounded he didn't introduce Crossan. I'm not his biggest fan but he's more effective than McCluskey and at one point yesterday we really had nothing to lose by chucking him on.

 

Given that Quitongo needs minutes and we were crying out for a spark I feel he took far too long to introduce him.

 

I rate Duffy as manager but some of his decisions are fairly baffling at times. He'll happily change formations mid game, which I like, but he's very reluctant to shake things up with substitutes until the game is long gone. I always felt one of Ian Murray's best traits was that he'd go baws oot for a goal if we needed it, it can always backfire of course, but it also led to us picking up points where we looked like getting nothing.

 

Out of interest how many goals have we conceded in the opening 10 minutes of games and/or the last 10 minutes of games this season? It feels like we're constantly conceding early or late goals. There's been 2 or 3 games this season we've been 1 down with only a couple of minutes on the clock and that is something we really need to address.

 

Edited to add - I've had a look and in 7 league games this season we've been 1 doon within 7 minutes. In 4 of those games we've been 1 down within 3 minutes. Wild.

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I don't know why but it must have been decided early(ish) on in the game that Jai was the only sub getting game time yesterday.
PJ's face was absolutely tripping him as he "warmed up" with about 20 minutes left.
I would love to know why because that's the strongest our bench has looked all season and we actually had options for a nice change.
I would guess Duffy knows the players better than us. Who's carrying wee knocks... who's loaded with the flu

Crossan's face is always like this to be fair... even when he scores
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5 hours ago, The Moonster said:

I'd take a fat Cammy Bell tbh.

I don't think you would. Obviously a different level, but he played for us last season and didn't make a save in around 3 games. His crowning achievement, a 0-0 draw at Ibrox I see hes been boasting about, seen him go the 90 minutes without having to make a save due to how well the defence played, their one "shot" on target presumably was the trundler that got blocked but made it way towards goal regardless. 

Rest of the time the ball just went through him.

Edited by RandomGuy.
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On 31/12/2019 at 11:00, the snudge said:

We missed the boat on this one! 

On Aird, absolutely not. He's a wee rat with massive off field problems. He'd get us in bother, I'll BET. 

 

All allegedly. I'm glad we didn't take a punt on this fella 

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