Dumbarton FC -v- Ayr United FC

[Jan Vojáček]

Long time no see my Ayr Unitedy friends. I would firstly like to say how much I am looking forward to a trip to Somerset this season. I spend a pretty large chunk of my week in Ayr and was delighted when you lot came up as it's a ground I've always liked. 

Big game for both of us this. I dare say that a victory here would define our first quarter as a success, and that anything else would see it classified as a failure. Given that we are horrific away from home I'm going to stick my neck on the line and say that, even at this early stage of the season, this is as close to a must win match for us as we'll get. "Points now are worth every bit as much as they are at the end of the season" - T.Cowan (every week on Off the Ball)

Defensively we've been fairly decent this season - though Pettigrew obviously gives us all the jitters - but going forward we've been fairly anonymous. For that reason I'd shake things up a bit at the right end of the pitch:

Alan Martin

Craig Pettigrew Gregor Buchanan Mark Docherty Daniel Harvie

Grant Gallagher Joe Thomson

David Smith Ryan Stevenson Josh Todd

Garry Fleming

Shock horror I'd stick Grant Gallagher back in the team. Alongside Thomson he looks competent enough, and we need somebody physical in there against (I would presume) Jamie Adams who is an absolute monster - in the best possible, nastiest sense (Itzdrk gif of him flattening Falkingham plz). Darren Barr was apparently playing with a rib injury the other week and - to be perfectly honest - still doesn't look to have recovered from his lack of a pre-season. Buchanan can't play with him, and Sparky's undroppable after his performance against QOS so that picks itself.

Up top Stanton was anonymous against Queens and looks bereft of any confidence. I've no doubt he's a good player, but he looks terrified when he's on the ball at the moment. Give him some time as a sub to settle into the team. David Smith doesn't have a left-foot so he can go on the right, Josh Todd has slightly more of a left foot so he can go on the left with Stevo in the middle. I have the feeling his performance will play a big role in deciding the result.

Upfront it's not working for big Berba at the moment. He's wasteful infront of goal and teams have got wise to the way we hoof long balls at him. Give Gaz a shot up top. He's not been great this season, but he has a habit of performing in big games and will have something to prove. Nae doubt about it.

Dumbarton 1 (Stevenson, pen, 88) Ayr United 0 imo

Also, international breaks are rubbish.

[D'Jaffo]

I think in pre season every fan had this down as a must win, home and away, if we've any chance of staying up. However we find ourselves a lot better off than we'd imagined and sitting in 7th (potentially 6th depending on results) is a big success for us at this stage of the season.
I'd go for the same team that beat Falkirk in the cup but with Boyle and Adams coming back in for Murphy and McGuffie. I'd potentially put Nisbet on from the start and drop Cairney. Seems unlikely tho given he had a good game vs Falkirk. Didn't fancy Meggat at left back so I'd slot him back into centre half. Defensively sound but doesn't get over the half way line.

Fleming

Devlin
Balatoni
Meggat
Boyle

Adams
Docherty
Gilmour

Harkins

Forrest
Nisbet

Gonna go 3-1 Ayr with Harkins to kick on from his first goal with a brace and Nisbet also scoring. I'm sure Stevo will come back to haunt us with a goal.

[No_Problemo]

                          Fleming

Devlin            Balatoni          Meggatt.      Boyle

Gilmour.         Docherty.        Adams.     Mcguffie

.                               Harkins

.                               Nisbet

Going by the Dumbarton guys comments, let's get Mcguffie running at Pettigrew all game. Lets get Harkins targeting him too. 

[ayrunitedfw]

Ah, the Stevo derby. Can he play a half each for each team? 

A win or even a draw here and it's been a very good first quarter of the season considering we( as well as Dumbarton) were tipped to be the whipping boys of the league at the start of the season. 

McCall has a bit of a selection headache ahead of this with Donald, Crawford and O'Connell coming off the bench on Friday night and making an impact. Also heard Paul Cairney had his best game in an Ayr shirt and Murphy came back in at the heart of defence and looked like he had never been away. I'd go:

Fleming

Devlin
Balatoni
Meggat
Boyle

Adams
Docherty

Gilmour
Harkins
Forrest

Nisbet
 

Subs- Hart, Murphy, Donald, McGuffie, Crawford,  O'Connell, Thomas

2-1 Ayr. Balatoni nodding home early on before Stevo gets his 30 yard screamer before Andy O'Connell nabs a dramatic late winner.....hopefully. 

We should arrive in Dumbarton around 2pm where's decent for a pre match refreshment? Bowling club okay for away fans? 

[The Moonster]

11 hours ago, ayrunitedfw said:

We should arrive in Dumbarton around 2pm where's decent for a pre match refreshment? Bowling club okay for away fans? 

Contrary to popular belief, there aren't many (if any at all) Dumbarton fans that drink in there pre-match, but they should be okay letting away fans in (it's usually only the bigger games they sometimes don't open). You have the Stags Head right at Dumbarton East train station which is usually a bit busier pre-match, it has a pool table, dart boards and the football on a big screen. If you're arriving at 2pm I'd say either of those are your best bet (Stags being my preferred option).

As for the game, we know we're capable of beating anyone at home and this is absolutely a game we will have targetted as 3 points. We've had opportunities to take a bit of pressure off these games, but we didn't take them and now a win is pretty much required. If we can put the ball in the net I'm confident we won't lose, if we can put the ball in the net twice I'm confident we'll win. I'm not confident we have two goals in us though.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

I think the pressure will really be on Stevie if he fails to take something from this.

A lot of fans left our draws with St Mirren and Queens more frustrated than happy with a point. There's 100% a wee hint of tension starting to build, even amongst the most patient of supporters.

Hate to say it, but this is a must win. Not just in terms of points on the board but in terms of putting a marker down, relieving some pressure on the team and manager and giving us some confidence.

[AyrTroopMajor]

More of the same from Ayr with a bit more ruthlessness in attack and we'll be absolutely fine here. 0-2.

[DanielB]

Digital Kitchens Factory Outlet are sponsoring the supporters buses meaning it's only a fiver. I still view Dumbarton as our main rivals this year, let's get as many fans up there as possible!

[ayrmad]

10 minutes ago, DanielB said:

Digital Kitchens Factory Outlet are sponsoring the supporters buses meaning it's only a fiver. I still view Dumbarton as our main rivals this year, let's get as many fans up there as possible!

Can't agree, there's 5 in the squabble at the moment, you might be proved correct come the end of the season but that's not the case upto now.

Looking at the fixtures Dumbarton could quite easily be in 6th after this round of games.

[DanielB]

I'm delighted with out current position but it's a long hard season and logically the two part time times should start to struggle. Just look at us last season!

However, thankfully the game isn't played on paper and part time teams have done exceedingly well in this league recently.

[diegomarahenry]

I haven't paid much attention to Dumbarton over the last couple of years and only looked at the squad last night and I didn't realise the pedigree of players they had, for some reason I thought they were a team of jobbers and youth players

Guys like Darren Barr and Allan Martin, Frazer Wright and Mark Brown along with Stevenson on paper should be a decent squad at this level
Pettigrew was a terrible player at Ayr but seemed to mature a bit at Auchenleck but I was surprised when he moved up a league in the summer, same with Sinclair.

Ayr to pass the ball round Dumbartons 18 yard box for 80min, have 3 shots on target and sub 3 midfielders off for 3 midfielders on

1-1

[Jan Vojáček]

31 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

I haven't paid much attention to Dumbarton over the last couple of years and only looked at the squad last night and I didn't realise the pedigree of players they had, for some reason I thought they were a team of jobbers and youth players

Guys like Darren Barr and Allan Martin, Frazer Wright and Mark Brown along with Stevenson on paper should be a decent squad at this level
Pettigrew was a terrible player at Ayr but seemed to mature a bit at Auchenleck but I was surprised when he moved up a league in the summer, same with Sinclair.

Ayr to pass the ball round Dumbartons 18 yard box for 80min, have 3 shots on target and sub 3 midfielders off for 3 midfielders on

1-1

 Plz take him

[The Moonster]

31 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

I haven't paid much attention to Dumbarton over the last couple of years and only looked at the squad last night and I didn't realise the pedigree of players they had, for some reason I thought they were a team of jobbers and youth players

Guys like Darren Barr and Allan Martin, Frazer Wright and Mark Brown along with Stevenson on paper should be a decent squad at this level
Pettigrew was a terrible player at Ayr but seemed to mature a bit at Auchenleck but I was surprised when he moved up a league in the summer, same with Sinclair.

Ayr to pass the ball round Dumbartons 18 yard box for 80min, have 3 shots on target and sub 3 midfielders off for 3 midfielders on

1-1

You can have Mark Brown any time you like. Frazer Wright seems to be in need of a leg transplant too, but he's a loveable big guy so I'd like to keep him.

[ThirdrockfromtheSon]

37 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

I haven't paid much attention to Dumbarton over the last couple of years and only looked at the squad last night and I didn't realise the pedigree of players they had, for some reason I thought they were a team of jobbers and youth players

Guys like Darren Barr and Allan Martin, Frazer Wright and Mark Brown along with Stevenson on paper should be a decent squad at this level
Pettigrew was a terrible player at Ayr but seemed to mature a bit at Auchenleck but I was surprised when he moved up a league in the summer, same with Sinclair.

Ayr to pass the ball round Dumbartons 18 yard box for 80min, have 3 shots on target and sub 3 midfielders off for 3 midfielders on

1-1

If you want Mark Brown, I'm sure we can do a deal with you.

There's a decent player in there somewhere.

[itzdrk]

Biggest game of the season  so far for us.  

Hopefully 'manager off Dumbarton' hasn't carried over his nack of getting results against us all the time.  

Looking forward to Jamie Adams dealing with Stevo should he get on.  

Nisbet up front, the Forrest experiment is a complete failure, end it. 

Birthday weekend so will be on the train will take note of that pub above, cheers. 

[The Moonster]

The team I would play:

Martin

Pettigrew -- Barr -- Buchanan -- Harvie

Gallagher -- J. Thomson

Smith -- Stevo -- Stanton

Fleming

If I was Stevie Aitken, I'd be tempted to play either Harvie or Docherty at right back in place of Pettigrew, but as much as Pettigrew is a weak link the defence has been very solid at home so I wouldn't want to upset that. It also seems Ayr don't have much in the wide areas so hopefully he won't be too exposed. I wouldn't be against Docherty playing at centre half and moving Barr into midfield to sit on Harkins all game but I agree with S08 that Thomson and Gallagher have been doing a good job in there. Robert Thomson needs a break, he's played virtually every minute so far and has the heart of a mouse in front of goal, Garry Fleming must be itching to get a chance so I'd give him it here. Out wide we really could play anyone with none of the 4 options really making a wide berth their own. I'd go with Smith and Stanton, I don't really have a reason for that though.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

36 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

Hopefully 'manager off Dumbarton' hasn't carried over his nack of getting results against us all the time.  

[diegomarahenry]

3 hours ago, Sonsteam of 08 said:

 Plz take him

 

3 hours ago, The Moonster said:

You can have Mark Brown any time you like. Frazer Wright seems to be in need of a leg transplant too, but he's a loveable big guy so I'd like to keep him.

I'm going with previous reputation, I haven't seen many of them for years, I don't think I've seen Frazer Wright since he let an Alex Williams effort under his foot in an Ayrshire derby. 

I just thought when I saw them that there was a fair bit of experience in the team

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

I'm going with previous reputation, I haven't seen many of them for years, I don't think I've seen Frazer Wright since he let an Alex Williams effort under his foot in an Ayrshire derby. 

I just thought when I saw them that there was a fair bit of experience in the team

Big Wright is still more than capable at this level but with his age we need to use him wisely. Unfortunately we never during pre season and the early cup games and he ended up fucked. I believe he is injury free now but he's serving a 2 match suspension for saying something nasty to a ref when he was coaching our 17s.

Based on what I've saw of Brown I'm astounded he's managed to have a career at the top level for so long. An utterly attrocious goalkeeper who just looks like he cannot be arsed.

[bigmacDFC]

Can't believe people even responded to "I thought they were a team of jobbers and youth players".