Sons' sorrow

[The Moonster]

4 hours ago, Scott-Replay said:

Matthew Shiels - talk to me.

 

ETA: Having had a look through your thread, it sounds a bit of a rubbish signing.

Clyde fans like to say Stef is a shitebag. Good luck with Shiels.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Shiels was honking for us, to the point we’d play players out of position to avoid starting him. 
 
I’m certainly not going to write him off as we know more than most that certain players just seem to click at certain clubs but I’d be totally lying if I said he displayed any sort of positives during his brief spell at The Rock. 

[lorenzo71]

41 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Shiels was honking for us, to the point we’d play players out of position to avoid starting him. 
 
I’m certainly not going to write him off as we know more than most that certain players just seem to click at certain clubs but I’d be totally lying if I said he displayed any sort of positives during his brief spell at The Rock. 

Too true we said the same about Eamonn Brophy and  Kevin Nisbet......

[Jan Vojáček]

15 hours ago, Scott-Replay said:

Matthew Shiels - talk to me.

ETA: Having had a look through your thread, it sounds a bit of a rubbish signing.

I saw someone pulled up my comments on him in the rate your signings thread. And I'm not sure there's much I can add to it. He was a huge disappointment.

He came in to a Sons side that looked really weak on paper and it took him six weeks to get up to any form of fitness. He came to us as a left-back (even though he was given the #7 shirt...) but even when Rico Quitongo was struggling at the start of the season he didn't come close to dislodging him. He started against Airdrie when Quitongo was out and played a big part in shipping a goal after 15 seconds. His performance was so poor that when Quitongo got injured again we brought on Jordan McMillan at LB instead of him.

His communication was poor and, as OKI says, he looked like the archetypal product of the pro-youth system.

After being punted from left-back we sometimes chucked him on up front where I reckon he could maybe do a job, in an unorthodox kind of way. He's decent in the air, quick and relatively strong - but he didn't half shirk challenges when he was played at the back. We then tried him on the wing but he was poor on the ball and didn't have the sort of skill you need to get by a defender who got tight to him. 

Maybe it just didn't work for him at Dumbarton, that is very possible, but I genuinely didn't expect to see him back in this division - let alone with a similar sized club. I thought he might get a loan move to an upper half League Two club maybe, but I'll be interested to see how he gets on at Broadwood.

46 minutes ago, lorenzo71 said:

Too true we said the same about Eamonn Brophy and  Kevin Nisbet......

Speak for yourself! I remember writing column after column for the Lennox pleading for Brophy to be given a chance given how poor we were up front. I thought he looked a livewire who gave our very one-dimensional team something different. Stevie evidently thought differently.

[shawfield shed boy]

Didnt you lot say Tom Lang was guff aswell[emoji848]

[Jan Vojáček]

3 minutes ago, shawfield shed boy said:

Didnt you lot say Tom Lang was guff aswell

I can only speak for myself here, but...

On 21/05/2017 at 21:46, Jan Vojáček said:

You've got yourselves a really decent player in Tom Lang, as any of you who read our thread will know I'm a massive fan of his, and was gutted we didn't keep him on.

He's a proper modern centre-half. Hugely confident on the ball and good with it at his feet. He's rapid and decent in the air too, and I've no doubt has the ability to play at a higher level than both of our clubs.

Pair him up with a rugged, old-fashioned leader of a centre-back and I reckon he'll be a big hit. He may have only played a few hundred minutes for us, but I was impressed. His only start came in a 4-0 home win against Raith Rovers, and he absolutely strolled it. Him and Darren Barr worked together absolutely perfectly.

His family are good people too. His Dad was a regular in our away end, and seemed to enjoy the whole Sons' fan experience.

Good luck to him, I hope it works out well and my gut instinct is proven right 

 

On 21/05/2017 at 22:04, Jan Vojáček said:

Him and Morgyn Neill should work, though I feel like Neill will need to be a leader back there - albeit with guys like Bell, Robertson and Barron around him he'll have experience and leadership around him.

He just has a real confidence about the way he plays that you'll notice immediately. He just looks assured. Sure you'll see moments of inexperienced, but that's pretty common for a guy with such little senior experience. 

Lang and Shiels are incomparable imo. Totally different players. Even at 19 or whatever he was with us (and in the Championship) Lang always wanted to get on the ball. Sure he took risks, but he had that swagger about him and wasn't afraid to smash folk.

[lorenzo71]

56 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

I saw someone pulled up my comments on him in the rate your signings thread. And I'm not sure there's much I can add to it. He was a huge disappointment.

He came in to a Sons side that looked really weak on paper and it took him six weeks to get up to any form of fitness. He came to us as a left-back (even though he was given the #7 shirt...) but even when Rico Quitongo was struggling at the start of the season he didn't come close to dislodging him. He started against Airdrie when Quitongo was out and played a big part in shipping a goal after 15 seconds. His performance was so poor that when Quitongo got injured again we brought on Jordan McMillan at LB instead of him.

His communication was poor and, as OKI says, he looked like the archetypal product of the pro-youth system.

After being punted from left-back we sometimes chucked him on up front where I reckon he could maybe do a job, in an unorthodox kind of way. He's decent in the air, quick and relatively strong - but he didn't half shirk challenges when he was played at the back. We then tried him on the wing but he was poor on the ball and didn't have the sort of skill you need to get by a defender who got tight to him. 

Maybe it just didn't work for him at Dumbarton, that is very possible, but I genuinely didn't expect to see him back in this division - let alone with a similar sized club. I thought he might get a loan move to an upper half League Two club maybe, but I'll be interested to see how he gets on at Broadwood.

Speak for yourself! I remember writing column after column for the Lennox pleading for Brophy to be given a chance given how poor we were up front. I thought he looked a livewire who gave our very one-dimensional team something different. Stevie evidently thought differently.

Actually I was generalizing as most fans at the time didn't think much of him and that he was lazy/had an attitude problem.Given SA was in charge other issues may have been at play.Personally I never saw him play that I can remember although he scored 1 goal vs Livi IIRC.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

1 hour ago, shawfield shed boy said:

Didnt you lot say Tom Lang was guff aswell

I don’t recall anyone saying that, no. A few folk rated him and a few folk thought he was a bit too raw and that the Championship was a league above his level, which has ultimately proved to be the case thus far. He was certainly a far better looking player for us than Shiels was, and that was in a higher division.

I mean we can all lie and pretend Matthew Shiels was fantastic for us if makes you feel better. 

[The Moonster]

I probably did say Tom Lang wasn't very good tbh, and I stand by it. He's aggressive and rash, which is fine when your team is ploughing through League 2, but as you move up the leagues you can't just charge about smashing into things like he does. Hence, Dunfermline have never had the confidence to play him in the Championship.

Shiels wasn't even of the standard Lang was with us though.

[Jack Burton]

Lang was excellent for us in this division last season when we had him on loan. I'm surprised Dunfermline haven't really given him a chance would be delighted if we could get him back.

Above comments on Shiels are rather worrying. Our defence looks rather weak.

[BallochSonsFan]

Shiels spent much of his youth career at Rangers as a forward. He seems to have been converted into a wingback. He's had injury problems prior to his loan spell with us. There may be a player in there but I think he's been let down by the really horrible way that the current trend in pro youth football in Scotland does little to prepare players for the reality of professional football. They don't seem to adapt to the pace of professional football or the aggression. Needs to be far better defensively if he's going to be a wingback. Needs to be better at taking a man on and better when an opponent is running at him.

[shawfield shed boy]

So to conclude (From some opinions)

Tom Lang isnt good enough

I.ll leave that there but in fairness to you all have same opinions of our new boy, thats all he is after all

[David W]

1 hour ago, Jack Burton said:

Lang was excellent for us in this division last season when we had him on loan. I'm surprised Dunfermline haven't really given him a chance would be delighted if we could get him back.

Above comments on Shiels are rather worrying. Our defence looks rather weak.

Played quite poorly in the away game against Dumbarton in fairness. Was absolutely outstanding vs Raith, Falkirk, Celtic etc though.

[The Moonster]

42 minutes ago, shawfield shed boy said:

So to conclude (From some opinions)

Tom Lang isnt good enough

I.ll leave that there but in fairness to you all have same opinions of our new boy, thats all he is after all

We are the bastions of football and what we say goes, OK M8.

In all seriousness, I'd genuinely have been happier with Martin McNiff last season than having Shiels on loan.

 

[shawfield shed boy]

We are the bastions of football and what we say goes, OK M8.
In all seriousness, I'd genuinely have been happier with Martin McNiff last season than having Shiels on loan.
 

[emoji1][emoji1787][emoji106]

[Boghead ranter]

[microdave]

Have we finally signed Armand One?

[super-son]

Finally. PITK

I hope it's someone we might have heard of before and not some 18 year old from a youth setup on loan.

[lorenzo71]

8 minutes ago, microdave said:

Have we finally signed Armand One?

'ONE NO DAE THAT...

[microdave]

Nat Wedderburn. The Unit.