Sons' sorrow

[the snudge]

1 hour ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

I know I said I’d take anyone over Duffy but I’d actually like to retract that statement.

Someone LIKE that. A relatively youngish ex pro looking to take their first steps into management. 

How about Shelley Kerr?

[BallochSonsFan]

6 minutes ago, the snudge said:

Someone LIKE that. A relatively youngish ex pro looking to take their first steps into management. 

How about Shelley Kerr?

Not a terrible shout. Would certainly cause a stir. 

[The Moonster]

Duffy is only taking us down and won't be in charge next season, or shouldn't be. Empty him now, take a few weeks to get the right person in and let them have at least a couple of weeks to see who they want to keep. Trundling along with Duffyball won't help anything short or long term.

[aftershocker]

I suspect we literally have no money...and our signings reflect this... perhaps Duffy has called in favours from Morton at little to no cost

Not in the know....just a thought

We don't look like scoring...so if we lose a goal....we lose the game

Edited March 27, 2021 by aftershocker
Error

[The Moonster]

One positive is James Wallace looks like he might actually be a good footballer. I'd like to see him start next to Wilson and maybe we could muster a shot at goal.

[Jan Vojáček]

We've scored twice in our last eight league games. That was a rebound from a free kick and a header from a free-kick.

Our last league goal totally from open play was Adam Frizzell's winner against Clyde at the start of November...

We might not be blessed with Dom Thomas and Calum Gallagher up front, but I refuse to believe that that's all this squad is capable of. 

[Thommo90]

6 hours ago, the snudge said:

It'd be the perfect job for someone like Wullie Gibson who has been doing his badges and taking qots reserves. 

Mark kerr..? 

[cameron2000]

We've scored twice in our last eight league games. That was a rebound from a free kick and a header from a free-kick.
Our last league goal totally from open play was Adam Frizzell's winner against Clyde at the start of November...
We might not be blessed with Dom Thomas and Calum Gallagher up front, but I refuse to believe that that's all this squad is capable of. 

Personally think Jaime Wilson is superior to Gallagher anyway.

[The Moonster]

5 league goals man. Five. I just don't see how he can keep his job.

[Jan Vojáček]

On 29/12/2020 at 10:08, Jan Vojáček said:

I was writing up my review of the year for the paper the other day and totally forgot that it was this year that Barry Smith came in for Hagi.

Given the impact that changing assistant had on Ian Murray and Stevie Aitken, I wondered how Hagi's stats compared to Barry Smith's - and there's been a clear difference.

Now before I go on I should say that, in Smith's defence, his 20 games have included two against Falkirk, one against Dunfermline and one against Kilmarnock. In Hagi's defence, his goals against ratio includes 6-1 and 6-0 defeats to Morton and Falkirk respectively.

But here we go:

Craig McPherson as assistant

Played - 55
Won - 20 (36.4%)
Drawn - 12 (21.82%)
Scored - 83 (1.5 per game)
Conceded - 93 (1.69 per game)

Barry Smith as assistant

Played - 20
Won - 6 (30%)
Drawn - 3 (15%)
Lost - 11 (55%)
Scored - 14 (0.7 per game)
Conceded - 28 (1.4 per game)

A few things really stood out to me there. Firstly since Smith came in we now score (on average) half the number of goals of our opponents. We also now lose more than half of our games.

Under Hagi we both won and drew more matches - e/g avoided defeat more often. And based on the numbers that looks to be because we had a better balance between scoring and conceding. Now we're defensively more solid, but at a cost to our forward line.

Now. Another caveat. Hagi's stats of course include having Dom Thomas, Calum Gallagher, peak Ross Forbes and Bobby Barr. So the side that he came in to had more attacking talent than the team Smith inherited. Of course therefore his stats will be better.

I quickly deleted that first season though and looked only at last year until Hagi left. With Ryan Tierney, Isaac Layne and so on, we still managed to average 1.21 goals per game. With the same squad in seven games last season under Smith and Duffy we scored seven goals. Although we did win three of those.

I'm not sure you can read anything into all of the above. But the stats told a story that we already knew. We're blunt going forward and, although relatively tight at the back, if you aren't scoring every single week then you'll lose more games than you win. 

Barry Smith as assistant

Played - 23
Won - 7 (30%)
Drawn - 3 (15%)
Lost - 13 (56%)
Scored - 18 (0.78 per game)
Conceded - 28 (1.30 per game)

Just thought I'd quickly update the stats after the last three games. 

If we look at league games only then it looks like this.

Played - 18
Won - 6 (33%)
Drawn - 3 (16%)
Lost - 9 (50%)
Scored - 12 (0.66 per game)
Conceded - 20 (1.11 per game)

And if we look exclusively at this season in the league...

Played - 11
Won - 3 (27%)
Drawn - 2 (18%)
Lost - 6 (54%)
Scored - 5 (0.45 per game)
Conceded - 12 (1.09 per game)

We haven't won a league game after conceding the first goal since Forfar (3-4) in December 2019. That was also the last time we scored more than two goals in a League Game - a run of 23 matches.

The last time we scored more than two in a home league game was a 3-1 win against Forfar in October 2019. A run of 14 games. The last time we came from a goal down to win a home league game was against Stranraer on August 24 2019. A run of 17 games.

Worrying signs have been there for a while, but they've really started to make us pay now. It feels borderline impossible to see us staying up at the moment, I won't lie.

[The Moonster]

That Brechin side who never won a single game averaged 0.55 goals per game. 

[CoveRangers1922]

49 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

That Brechin side who never won a single game averaged 0.55 goals per game. 

It's a big worry looking from the outside. Dumbarton have players that can score in Frizzell, Wilson, Wallace, PJ Crossan, Wedderburn but are they regular enough proven scorers at this level?

Clyde have defensive frailties but can score and this might get them out of trouble. Forfar are struggling to keep clean sheets or score too many. 

I think Dumbarton will just do enough but your next 6 games; bugger me they are tough

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Since Duffy joined (and the board for that matter) we have slowly regressed every single year. The standard of player Duffy has brought to the club is the worst I have seen since we were finishing at the arse end of the third division under Gerry McCabe and even then, that team could at least muster up a couple of shots on target per game.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/dumbarton-0-1-peterhead-sons-23807668?fbclid=IwAR3q9iQ-zjgLu8HetGH2HpjL_zCdb1d7POsp0NSANF9yTeHZ_eOiGOVmvTs

Courtesy of our dear friend @Jan Vojáček  (click that link). What is he selevering about post match? “The frustrating thing is that we fluctuate too much between performances. From a really good performance on Tuesday to a really mediocre performance today.“ fluctuate between what? Shite and shite? Other than the Huntly game (a game we should be expecting to dominate) I can’t remember the last time we had anything other than a total shite performance. We don’t fluctuate Jim, we are continually fucking honking mate.

I’ll be honest, I know some folk lap it up, but i couldn’t really give a shit about John Steele going into the bar and giving cheesey speeches full of the stuff people want to hear. I actually try to avoid all that nonsense. I’d rather a chairman and a board who make difficult decisions as and when they are required. It’s time to deal with this absolute mess before it’s too late.

 

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

I’d also like to add, if this was Stevie Aitken overseeing this shit show there would be folk baying for blood. Why does Duffy get an easier ride than Aitken did? I just don’t understand it at all. 

[Jan Vojáček]

24 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

It's a big worry looking from the outside. Dumbarton have players that can score in Frizzell, Wilson, Wallace, PJ Crossan, Wedderburn but are they regular enough proven scorers at this level?

Clyde have defensive frailties but can score and this might get them out of trouble. Forfar are struggling to keep clean sheets or score too many. 

I think Dumbarton will just do enough but your next 6 games; bugger me they are tough

The worrying thing there is that the players you mention seem to have regressed the longer they've been at the club. Frizzell's best game was his debut, Wilson tore Airdrie to shreds on his full debut, Crossan put in some really impressive showings in the first half of his first season. But has only shown glimpses since.

For what it's worth I think a few of our players would thrive in a team that did a bit more attacking. Jaime Wilson especially. Drop him into that Cove team for example and he would get 10/12 goals in a season no bother at all - as well as chipping in with a pile of running, few assists and huge amount of the dirty work to let Megginson do what he does best

Right now we could have David Goodwillie up front and I reckon he'd struggle to get shots on target for us. There's only so much players can do with hopeful long balls. Especially against League One defenders who will happily nod those away for a full 90 minutes.

Edit: Rico mentioned a few times yesterday that we were playing in the same way we used to play with Isaac Layne up top. Where we could launch long balls, he'd win a decent share in the air and then we'd play off the second balls. We don't have a striker like him anymore, but the tactics haven't changed. Either the tactics need to adapt to suit the players we have, or Duffy needed to sign a couple of old fashioned battering rams and not smaller, quicker types.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Jan Vojáček

[BallochSonsFan]

10 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

I’d also like to add, if this was Stevie Aitken overseeing this shit show there would be folk baying for blood. Why does Duffy get an easier ride than Aitken did? I just don’t understand it at all. 

Reputation. Duffy is a relatively big name for our level of football. Fans give him an easy time because he's Jim Duffy.

He's been a poor appointment overall. Kept us up after we sacked Aitken, but in the grand scheme of things that's all he's done.

[CoveRangers1922]

3 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

The worrying thing there is that the players you mention seem to have regressed the longer they've been at the club. Frizzell's best game was his debut, Wilson tore Airdrie to shreds on his full debut, Crossan put in some really impressive showings in the first half of his first season. But has only shown glimpses since.

For what it's worth I think a few of our players would thrive in a team that did a bit more attacking. Jaime Wilson especially. Drop him into that Cove team for example and he would get 10/12 goals in a season no bother at all - as well as chipping in with a pile of running, few assists and huge amount of the dirty work to let Megginson do what he does best

Right now we could have David Goodwillie up front and I reckon he'd struggle to get shots on target for us. There's only so much players can do with hopeful long balls. Especially against League One defenders who will happily nod those away for a full 90 minutes.

Edit: Rico mentioned a few times yesterday that we were playing in the same way we used to play with Isaac Layne up top. Where we could launch long balls, he'd win a decent share in the air and then we'd play off the second balls. We don't have a striker like him anymore, but the tactics haven't changed. Either the tactics need to adapt to suit the players we have, or Duffy needed to sign a couple of old fashioned battering rams and not smaller, quicker types.

I can see the talent of Jaime Wilson and undoubtedly he would contribute massively to a team like Cove. To be honest we need that type of player. The regression of players is worrying; results cause this but so can mis-management and/or the style of play.

None of the Dumbarton strikers are particularly tall and hence the long ball approach is baffling. Need to play through midfield rather than miss it out altogether!

Change of tactic and there will be progression you'd think. It seems basic management.

[The Moonster]

42 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

It's a big worry looking from the outside. Dumbarton have players that can score in Frizzell, Wilson, Wallace, PJ Crossan, Wedderburn but are they regular enough proven scorers at this level?

Clyde have defensive frailties but can score and this might get them out of trouble. Forfar are struggling to keep clean sheets or score too many. 

I think Dumbarton will just do enough but your next 6 games; bugger me they are tough

All of those players require the ball at their feet. You don't get the ball at your feet when you're playing Duffyball. He needs to go.

[sonsanorak]

Does anyone have stats for the games that would detail average length of pass etc? I know that the long ball frustrates and is quite ineffective, but I wonder if part of our problem is that we want to play our way up the park, effectively filling the space and running out of room for shorter passes. Huntly sat off us in the first half and we then found spaces, but I felt Peterhead played differently.

I agree that Frizz and PJ need the ball at their feet, but they also need space to run into. Perhaps the front three could work, but with the two much wider?

[O'Kelly Isley III]

You really don't need batteries of statistics or in-depth analysis to identify the problems at DFC.  We are following the trajectory of both Cowdenbeath and Brechin, two other clubs who enjoyed time in the Championship but suffered a terrible aftershock.  Cowden survived a couple of near-death experiences in terms of their Scottish League status and unless they manage a revival, Brechin's is likely to be belatedly put to the test in a few weeks against Kelty or Brora.

As for DFC, it would be a brave soul who seriously expects us to escape one of the bottom two places in League One.  Clyde went to Montrose yesterday and scored twice to draw; from what I saw yesterday that's like us going to the Etihad and winning - that's not a joke BTW, as watching us right now is dreadfully unfunny.

As supporters we can't fix things; we pay our money, make donations, etc., but this situation requires more radical surgery.  We have a Board which was formed in something of a crisis, and a Manager and Assistant who may be entitled to criticism or who may both be working under very difficult circumstances.  Perhaps there is a reason why we are signing guys who haven't played for two years or have kicked a ball for only 44 minutes this season.  Who knows ?  The absentee owners perhaps.

The only thing we can ask is honesty from everyone concerned, including ourselves.  And in that regard let us hear no more about a sparkling/decisive/impressive Cup win over Huntly; a modest Highland League side, these lad hadn't kicked a ball in anger for months.  Unfortunately the real Dumbarton is the one we've seen on the last two Saturdays.  It's not looking too braw.