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Dumbarton V Ayr United 18/2/17


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4 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

If 40's is old to you then Yes. I do take huge exception to the statement that "football is far, far quicker than it used to be", I'd actually say the exact opposite. When was the last time you saw one of your players sprint half the length of the pitch as an example ? From an Ayr perspective our team from 14 or 15 years ago had Gary Teale, Mickey Reynolds, Glynn Hurst and the likes of John Davies pulling the strings in midfield. If anyone seriously thinks that our current team does ANYTHING faster than that team then they are completely deluded. Don't take this the wrong way, but Dumbarton have been at the very bottom of the football chain for the past 25 years with the exception of the past 3 or 4 so maybe you're comparing your really poor bottom tier side to your current side who are undoubtedly a level above ??

40 is more than double my age, so yup, you are a fossil ;) Andy Stirling here is an example of player going from inside his own half to the penalty area is seconds. 

To be honest I'm talking more than 14/15 years ago. I'm going back to when I watch games from the early 80s on Sky and the likes. The pace, albeit often impacted by the pitch, is far, far slower. 15 years ago guys like Teale would be living a very similar way to the players nowadays, and the fact he was still playing (and playing relatively well) up until a few years ago is testament to that fact. Cast your mind back to Ayr players when you first started going to games though (assuming that was when you were pretty young). The guys playing in the 60s/70/80s when 'men were men' were not elite athletes - far from it given many loved a fag and a few pints - and that will have shown in the pace of the game. It's something we always talk about on here because we have quite a few fans 'of a certain age', but I'd love to see our current team playing against the 70s DFC team that my Dad grew up watching in their prime.

I reckon that the current guys would win on fitness alone despite, as he would argue, being less talented footballers than guys like Davie Wilson (his hero growing up)

It's the same as any other sport, athletes get more professional, understand more about how to maximise their pace, I dare say work on it in training and at the gym and hence increase the speed and the tempo of the game. Certainly from a coaching point of view there's an awful lot of work moving the ball quickly. Sharp, quick, decisive passes kill a team far more than a hoof over the top. 

Obviously us going up the leagues will have impacted on the speed and quality of the game, but I have to say I go to a lot of Junior games and even in the past, say. 10 years I've noticed a notable increase in the pace and improvement in the professionalism. It used to be pretty common for a junior side to have a number of, erm, burly fellows. That's not so much the case anymore, especially not in the top couple of divisions.

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I do see your point as I've watched recent Scotland teams be pulled all over the park chasing shadows against a Spain with Iniesta pulling the strings and a Germany with constant movement throughout their team. Our players ended up shattered and they are all very fit guys, however the difference there is that I'm probably picking the 2 best elite examples of the modern game. 

From an Ayr perspective, Henry Templeton is possibly the best example of a player from the 80's who drank and smoked but still managed to "wow" the crowds and win man of the match awards week after week. The biggest reason being that he could dribble with the ball and ghost past defenders as if they weren't there. He may not have been the greatest athlete in the world but his footballing ability was miles ahead of everyone nowadays with the exception of Gary Harkins perhaps. It's an imponderable really as you could also argue that the game was much more difficult for wingers and strikers in previous eras as defenders actually tackled and blocked as opposed to just backing off nowadays. I often think that guys like Davie Cooper, Peter Weir etc would have had an absolute field day playing against modern defences but we'll never know.

ps The next 20 years will fly past so make the most of it. I'd highly recommend Eastern Europe for as many weekends away as possible. Poland especially. Great people, great nightlife, gorgeous girls and really friendly. 80p - £1.30p a pint, 40p - 80p a vodka and 5* hotels for under £25 per night.

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2 hours ago, No_Problemo said:

The Ayr side we have played for the majority of this season must be one of the slowest we have ever had. The only player with pace being Devlin.

I don't go for a couple of pies in case I sweep past some of our players out by the North Terracing.  

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On 21 February 2017 at 10:53, WATTOO said:

ps The next 20 years will fly past so make the most of it. I'd highly recommend Eastern Europe for as many weekends away as possible. Poland especially. Great people, great nightlife, gorgeous girls and really friendly. 80p - £1.30p a pint, 40p - 80p a vodka and 5* hotels for under £25 per night.

Like it, good advice. Sonsteam reminds me of when I was young and thought I knew it all!

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4 hours ago, No_Problemo said:

The Ayr side we have played for the majority of this season must be one of the slowest we have ever had. The only player with pace being Devlin.

Until Moore got fit and we signed McDaid our defence (all 4) was the fastest part of our team. 

Last time we had hoops was fairly similar too in that it was a slow team but absolutely not in defence (Martyn Campbell, Andy Aitken, Kevin James and Billy Gibson back there crawling after strikers :lol:)

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