Sons' sorrow

[O'Kelly Isley III]

2 minutes ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

For what it's worth, I've always thought Declan Byrne was quite a decent player. He's big and broad and he can put himself about, occupying defenders and bringing others into play. I don't think he's the most technically blessed of forwards but if there are players around him that can capitalise on his dirty work, he could be a smart piece of business.

Thanks for that.  It appears that Ryan Wallace likes to feed off a bigger physical presence alongside him so there looks to at least be some logic to this signing, and whilst we are unlikely to have the new McCormack and Wilson, if Byrne turns out more Jim Lister than Rory Loy I'll be happy with that.

[BB_Bino]

Byrne will be a decent signing for Dumbarton, yes it's not exciting and suspect he'll not rip the league apart in terms of goals, but he's not a bad player at this level and he'll be the physical player that Wallace will work off.

He was part of our "behind closed doors season" so I never actually saw him in the flesh for Stirling Albion, however I watched all the games online and his link up play and all round game contributed to a decent number of goals that Andy Ryan bagged. I wasn't too bothered to see him leave that summer, because he did slip out of the picture under KR, who seemed to favour Dylan Mackin, but despite only getting a couple of goals, he did do a decent enough job.

[C'mon_the_Sons]

29 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

Interestingly I see Byrne has previously captained Albion Rovers during his first spell at Cliftonhill. That gives us Lynas, McGeever, Buchanan and Love as players who have previously captained clubs. On top of Carsy and Wylde who have both worn the armband for us.

Not all of them are natural leaders in my eyes. But it's interesting nonetheless and says a wee bit about their character.

Let’s hope we don’t have too many chiefs and not enough Indians then?

[Nowhereman]

20 hours ago, Boghead ranter said:

I wonder about the number on the back of the actual strips.

Will we be able to just have a wee number between the neck and top of the band, as per tradition, or will modern rules mean that we have to have a bigger number that goes over the bands?

The rules say that the number will have to be of a size that goes over the bands. Hopefully we won't have a big patch over the bands and will do it like Airdrie who just print the number over the diamond.

[FifeSons]

Is Ryan Wallace really 6 ft 1? That’s what he’s listed as on the OS, but doesn’t look it next to the others.

[microdave]

After a tremendous upbeat day yesterday, we need a few [emoji102][emoji2768] tweets to keep the momentum going. 
Would expect a young back up goalie at some point but still think we are a couple of players short in the squad. 

^^^ Nostradamus.

[Boghead ranter]

1 hour ago, Jan Vojáček said:

Interestingly I see Byrne has previously captained Albion Rovers during his first spell at Cliftonhill. That gives us Lynas, McGeever, Buchanan and Love as players who have previously captained clubs. On top of Carsy and Wylde who have both worn the armband for us.

Not all of them are natural leaders in my eyes. But it's interesting nonetheless and says a wee bit about their character.

Farrell made a similar comment before last season, that the team was full of leaders.

Permit me to hold my breath that this may not work out as you hope*.

 

*Hope I'm proved wrong.

[FifeSons]

Looking at the other squad lists, I'd say no one else looks stronger than us, on paper. Full back, especially LB, looks our weak spot, though.

In reality, there's probably not a lot between the teams in this league. It'll very likely come down to *gulp* good management.

Edited June 22, 2022 by FifeSons

[WhoAmI]

1 hour ago, FifeSons said:

Is Ryan Wallace really 6 ft 1? That’s what he’s listed as on the OS, but doesn’t look it next to the others.

That’s his waste size, he is only 5’6” tall

[The Moonster]

These Fifers are really not bothered about losing Wallace. I see they had Rabin Omar playing for them last night too, our games could be very tasty if he signs on. 

[FifeSons]

1 minute ago, The Moonster said:

These Fifers are really not bothered about losing Wallace. I see they had Rabin Omar playing for them last night too, our games could be very tasty if he signs on. 

They’ve never got over Joe Robertson’s last ever goal at Boghead costing them promotion!

[Sweet Pete]

Give us a proper winger and maybe a left back (plus a sub keeper) and we're good to go. 

[The Moonster]

Just now, Sweet Pete said:

Give us a proper winger and maybe a left back (plus a sub keeper) and we're good to go. 

No chance we're signing another winger. MacLean, Orsi, Wilson and Love can all play wide, I doubt he'll waste what little is left on another option. Left back and keeper are all that's left to get. 

[the snudge]

Probably a couple of squad fillers then a loan deal or two and I reckon that'll be us ready to go. 

Edited to add, I really wish we had kept big Syvertsen. A fit Norway would have done really well in this league

Edited June 22, 2022 by the snudge

[Clarko_son]

When I first seen the stats on Byrne I thought it didn't seem like a good move but a bit more optimistic about it now having read the posts about his game. 

Wonder if we'll go with Wallace as the main striker and Byrne as back up or based on what others have said play Byrne up top with Wallace off of him

[Jan Vojáček]

3 hours ago, C'mon_the_Sons said:

Let’s hope we don’t have too many chiefs and not enough Indians then?

 

2 hours ago, Boghead ranter said:

Farrell made a similar comment before last season, that the team was full of leaders.

Permit me to hold my breath that this may not work out as you hope*.

 

*Hope I'm proved wrong.

To be honest I don't know if it's a good thing or not. Just that those players must conduct themselves in a certain way.

There are a lot of different types of captain though. For me, on the park at least, I don't think Carsy and Buchanan are captain types. In all honesty I'm not actually sure McGeever is either - although I rate him really highly as a player and as a guy.

Conversely (and this one won't be popular or widely held...) I actually think Gregg Wylde is. I've spoken to him a few times, and I like the way he conducts himself. A few other players have been very positive about him for the impact he's had in the dressing room and he's fairly vocal on the pitch. 

He's not an Andy Graham style leader of all men (but then again, who is?) but I can absolutely see why Faz gave him the armband on the final day of the season. I'm actually quite intrigued to see how he does this season. I like him as a player, but I also have the fear about him as our main left-back. Part of me worries that he's not effective enough offensively to be a winger, but not tough enough defensively to be a full-back. So he's stuck in wing-back no-mans land. He's got a cracking left foot on him though, so if he can be competent defensively he might surprise a few people...

Or he might be a disaster and look like an ineffective winger playing at full-back. Time will tell

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Presuming the intention is to pair Wallace and Byrne up front then it will be interesting to see how that will impact the team line-up.  I don't think we can play both McLean and Orsi as wide players - one only I reckon - and there will need to be a balance of football and graft in the midfield. I wouldn't object to a middle four of D.Wilson/McKee/C.Wilson/McLean or the first three with McLean in a floating role behind the strikers.  And I don't see Carswell as a must-pick this season.

[Chris_the_rover]

Declan Byrne signs from Albion Rovers. On paper, stats wise, that looks a really poor signing - 4 goals in 2 seasons, including one plagued by injury. I don’t much about the guy so maybe he’s decent and has just been unlucky the last 2 years but I was hoping for a young loanee.

He missed the majority of last season through injury, came back only for a couple weeks and got injured again missing the last 5 games

Season before he didn't play much

[Thom & Gerry]

Season before that he was at Elgin didn’t play much or score much!

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

I'm going to prefix this by saying that there's a cigarette paper between the vast majority of teams in the division and every set of fans could rightly claim they should be making the playoffs and perhaps make a title challenge.

Dumbarton fans initially claimed their retained/2 year deal players were a waste of a jersey, the club off field was in turmoil and 'doing a Brechin' wasn't off the cards. After a few signings which seem like largely mid table league 2 quality, the mood seems to have drastically improved.

Was it just a case of pessimism and despair after a poor season and overstating how bad the current crop were?