Sons Sorrow 2018/19

[Silverton End]

13 minutes ago, Wardy said:

Nisbet>Loy

[Thommo90]

#justsaying

Wid.

I think a lot of the frustration aimed at Hutton is he doesn’t look like he can be arsed, and if Aitken deems him a constant 90 minute player then we want someone who’s busting their chops off in the centre of the park.

Think now that we are a “attacking” team, we will see the “St Mirren Carswell”... felt that way about him for ages but I don’t think he brings much to us and people still rate him based on his first 6 months or so with us.

Perry was piss poor and for me it was clear he didn’t fancy taking the ball, so many times he could have shouted on it but didn’t.

Dyer is dyer. Think we all knew he wasn’t an overlapping full back but the lumps to nobody are a joke. Switched off at the quick free kick (and conceded it) which led to their second.

Didn’t think forbes was bad today, aye he kinda trots about but he’s done that at every team he has been at. Over hit a few corners and stuff but played some decent balls on too. It’s league one now - it’s expected.

[Rovers_Lad]

3 hours ago, Silverton End said:

Kevin Nisbet's been scoring for Raith, think that's 2 or 3 he's knocked in now

TBF,today one was a penalty and the other a header from 3 inches

[lorenzo71]

4 hours ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

4 hours ago, Wardy said:

Nisbet>Loy

Too far.

Is it?Is it really?

 

I best not answers that question

[FifeSons]

Interestingly, Andy Little has around 80,000 followers on twitter. That’s almost 10x more than the official Sons account.

Should’ve used his account for the season ticket push...

[Silverton End]

7 hours ago, Rovers_Lad said:

TBF,today one was a penalty and the other a header from 3 inches

Still, that's more than Sons got out of him last season.

 

[Old Scrotum]

Don't let Ross Forbes take penalties.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Yes.
Today was shite and folk can have some very justified moans.
But we're 2 games into the season and that makes it far too early for another "Sons Sorrow".  We need guys to get up to speed in terms of the aggression and tempo they'll be facing. We need a good performance next week to show that we can adapt to life in League One and that we're not going to see another season of doom and gloom.
 

Is League 1 really THAT much more aggressive and quick compared to the Championship? There may well be a difference, but it's not huge and I wouldn't expect our players to take weeks or months to adapt to it, particularly considering the majority of them have played at this level before. I don't think we should be mistaking a clear lack of desire and fitness with us taking time to adjust to a new league. Yesterday was our 6th competitive game of the season. If we aren't up to speed by now then questions need to be asked. We looked sluggish, unfit and I was genuinely questioning the desire of a lot of the players on the park.

It may be a (mostly) new squad of players but the parallels to last season were frightening. Aitken absolutely needed a good start to the season and with us facing an in form Arbroath side next week you could be looking at a return of 3 points from our first 3 games. Aitken and Durrant got pelters today, the pressure is on. Do I have the confidence in him to get us going? Absolutely not, but I'd like to see him prove me wrong.

[Jan Vojáček]

On the Forbes in League One chat, am I not correct in saying he played a big role in Morton winning the title a few years ago after Dunfermline swapped him for Andy Barrowman in January?

I was prepared to accept that the squad last year weren't good enough, but the fact that we have a squad performing in identical style this year despite being totally different in terms of personnel leaves me thinking the issue lies elsewhere. 

Maybe Nisbet isn't a bad player. It does seem awfully unlucky that (really Robert Thomson and six months of Christian Nade aside) we've not seen any of Stevie's striking signings light things up. Kevin Cawley, Steven Craig, Eamonn Brophy, Paul Heffernan, Josh Todd, Stevie Ross, Joe Nuttall, Mark Stewart, Greg Morrison and Iain Russell all arrived and (Beany aside) left having made very little impact. Of those Todd is now a regular for Queen of the South, Nuttall made his English Championship debut for Blackburn Rovers last weekend, Cawley's back in the Championship and Brophy's a regular for a top six Premiership team. Between them they managed three league goals for us.

When you add in the other attackers who only excelled in short (very short in some cases...) flashes (Willie Gibson, Stevo, Danny Handling, Froxy, Liam Burt) we either have horrible luck signing attackers/need to seriously examine our recruitment process, or simply don't have a management team who can play to the strengths of attacking players.

[Old Scrotum]

1 hour ago, Ross Forbes said:

On the Forbes in League One chat, am I not correct in saying he played a big role in Morton winning the title a few years ago after Dunfermline swapped him for Andy Barrowman in January?

I was prepared to accept that the squad last year weren't good enough, but the fact that we have a squad performing in identical style this year despite being totally different in terms of personnel leaves me thinking the issue lies elsewhere. 

Maybe Nisbet isn't a bad player. It does seem awfully unlucky that (really Robert Thomson and six months of Christian Nade aside) we've not seen any of Stevie's striking signings light things up. Kevin Cawley, Steven Craig, Eamonn Brophy, Paul Heffernan, Josh Todd, Stevie Ross, Joe Nuttall, Mark Stewart, Greg Morrison and Iain Russell all arrived and (Beany aside) left having made very little impact. Of those Todd is now a regular for Queen of the South, Nuttall made his English Championship debut for Blackburn Rovers last weekend, Cawley's back in the Championship and Brophy's a regular for a top six Premiership team. Between them they managed three league goals for us.

When you add in the other attackers who only excelled in short (very short in some cases...) flashes (Willie Gibson, Stevo, Danny Handling, Froxy, Liam Burt) we either have horrible luck signing attackers/need to seriously examine our recruitment process, or simply don't have a management team who can play to the strengths of attacking players.

If you count Paton, am I right in thinking that five players were tried as strikers yesterday without any of them looking threatening? 

[Boghead ranter]

1 hour ago, Ross Forbes said:

On the Forbes in League One chat, am I not correct in saying he played a big role in Morton winning the title a few years ago after Dunfermline swapped him for Andy Barrowman in January?

I was prepared to accept that the squad last year weren't good enough, but the fact that we have a squad performing in identical style this year despite being totally different in terms of personnel leaves me thinking the issue lies elsewhere. 

Maybe Nisbet isn't a bad player. It does seem awfully unlucky that (really Robert Thomson and six months of Christian Nade aside) we've not seen any of Stevie's striking signings light things up. Kevin Cawley, Steven Craig, Eamonn Brophy, Paul Heffernan, Josh Todd, Stevie Ross, Joe Nuttall, Mark Stewart, Greg Morrison and Iain Russell all arrived and (Beany aside) left having made very little impact. Of those Todd is now a regular for Queen of the South, Nuttall made his English Championship debut for Blackburn Rovers last weekend, Cawley's back in the Championship and Brophy's a regular for a top six Premiership team. Between them they managed three league goals for us.

When you add in the other attackers who only excelled in short (very short in some cases...) flashes (Willie Gibson, Stevo, Danny Handling, Froxy, Liam Burt) we either have horrible luck signing attackers/need to seriously examine our recruitment process, or simply don't have a management team who can play to the strengths of attacking players.

I think it's one of 2 things- either Aitken doesn't know how to attack, or just plain doesn't WANT to attack. He values a clean sheet more highly than potentially scoring 2 or more.

I know there's a phrase that if you don't concede you can't lose, but there's also if you don't score, you can't win.

Either way, it's the same cause that's generating the symptom.

[Frank Quitely]

The seems to be a distinct pattern of cause and effect building here.

[pleslie99]

On the Forbes in League One chat, am I not correct in saying he played a big role in Morton winning the title a few years ago after Dunfermline swapped him for Andy Barrowman in January?
I was prepared to accept that the squad last year weren't good enough, but the fact that we have a squad performing in identical style this year despite being totally different in terms of personnel leaves me thinking the issue lies elsewhere. 
Maybe Nisbet isn't a bad player. It does seem awfully unlucky that (really Robert Thomson and six months of Christian Nade aside) we've not seen any of Stevie's striking signings light things up. Kevin Cawley, Steven Craig, Eamonn Brophy, Paul Heffernan, Josh Todd, Stevie Ross, Joe Nuttall, Mark Stewart, Greg Morrison and Iain Russell all arrived and (Beany aside) left having made very little impact. Of those Todd is now a regular for Queen of the South, Nuttall made his English Championship debut for Blackburn Rovers last weekend, Cawley's back in the Championship and Brophy's a regular for a top six Premiership team. Between them they managed three league goals for us.
When you add in the other attackers who only excelled in short (very short in some cases...) flashes (Willie Gibson, Stevo, Danny Handling, Froxy, Liam Burt) we either have horrible luck signing attackers/need to seriously examine our recruitment process, or simply don't have a management team who can play to the strengths of attacking players.

I made this point before and without reigniting the carswell/Hutton debate. Playing with 2 holding midfielders, especially 2 so similar means there is no link between defence/midfield and attack. They are too rigid. Most teams who play that formation have at least one of the 2 who is a bit more dynamic and can drive forward. We don't. Which means we effectively have a back 6 and a front 4. It's no wonder all our attackers look like dumplings. Change the system, or the personnel. Stick to what were doing and it will be a season of disappointment, I'd expect Stevie to be able to see this.

[Scosha]

2 hours ago, Ross Forbes said:

On the Forbes in League One chat, am I not correct in saying he played a big role in Morton winning the title a few years ago after Dunfermline swapped him for Andy Barrowman in January?

Signing Forbes was a game changer for us that season. Still the best transfer we’ve ever done getting him in and punting Barrowman in the opposite direction. I don’t think we would have won it without him. 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Signing Forbes was a game changer for us that season. Still the best transfer we’ve ever done getting him in and punting Barrowman in the opposite direction. I don’t think we would have won it without him. 

Again I go back to whether the ingredients are the problem or the recipe - from where I'm standing it's the latter.

Forfar moved the ball from front to back and side to side with ease yesterday, and their number 6 must have covered every blade of grass.

Contrast that with our inability to string three passes together, with midfielders in particular abdicating responsibility by playing 'here, you have it' five yard passes to standing teammates.

It doesn't smack of men comfortable or happy at their work.

[Scottylintonstowel]

Morton next and no doubt a return to deep defence, hoping for a no scoring draw and winning on penalties but with our frailties no doubt the Greenock men will be a couple up by half time and with only seventeen men in the squad and Ballantine becoming the new Grant Gallagher our options are very much limited

[Jan Vojáček]

6 minutes ago, Scottylintonstowel said:

Morton next and no doubt a return to deep defence, hoping for a no scoring draw and winning on penalties but with our frailties no doubt the Greenock men will be a couple up by half time and with only seventeen men in the squad and Ballantine becoming the new Grant Gallagher our options are very much limited

If we had the option to just forfeit the Morton game and take a 3-0 defeat then I'd go for it. Something we don't need and, as you say, likely to be another 90 minutes of backs against the wall stuff.

The prices are good though, and the vague hope of Stevie taking the shackles off and experimenting a wee bit means that I'll absolutely be spending my Tuesday evening at the Rock 

[BallochSonsFan]

tbh with absolutely no expectations amongst the support regarding the Morton game, I'd like to see Stevie completely change the team and to have a go.

[O'Kelly Isley III]

tbh with absolutely no expectations amongst the support regarding the Morton game, I'd like to see Stevie completely change the team and to have a go.

Either that or the players at least attempt to take matters into their own hands - and I'm being serious.

[Outside Looking In]

It’s just 2 games in and it’s off with his head. I agree, the team formation is all over the place. But there are 8 new players to try and gel together that have only really played together for 2 games (its trial and error where we don’t really have the space for error).
If we had spent hundreds of thousands on players then maybe there would be a reason to be annoyed, but to rustle up a team like we have in a short space of time (a great one at that) will take a good few games to get it just right and then I think we will be unstoppable. It’s going to be a bitter pill to swallow as we watch them getting it right (and hope is it’s not too late) but I think it will be worth it in the end. If that had been 2 wins out of 2 it would have been triumphant Aitken strikes again. As it happens it’s doom and gloom. What happens if we skelp Arbroath next week where does that put Aitken and the team?