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Stranraer v Dumbarton


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We’re now in the ‘must win’ category.  Not sure how the bounce game went on Saturday but hopefully it allowed Mango some game time and the new players more opportunity to get.

If going bottom at the weekend doesn’t fire the players up for a game where they could not only get off the bottom but leapfrog the opponents, nothing will. Nothing less than 100% desire and commitment from the players is acceptable. 

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We’re now in the ‘must win’ category.  Not sure how the bounce game went on Saturday but hopefully it allowed Mango some game time and the new players more opportunity to get.
If going bottom at the weekend doesn’t fire the players up for a game where they could not only get off the bottom but leapfrog the opponents, nothing will. Nothing less than 100% desire and commitment from the players is acceptable. 
This. I can accept players not being good enough but I can't accept players not giving everything they have.

This weekend will be a good barometer of whether we will survive or be relegated IMO. If we see a half arsed performance with players looking like they don't really care then we can kiss goodbye to League 1. If they can't get fired up for this one then we're doomed.



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Sad that by this point in the season 7th place is the best we can hope for.  Even more sad is the fact that I'd bite your bollocks off for 8th place right now.  We need to win on Saturday but given that Kyle Turner essentially showed up to the Rock and sworded us on his own in December I'm struggling to see how we end up with 3 points. Perhaps everything finally clicked for us during our bounce game at the weekend and we're now about to embark on an unbeaten 16 game run to make the promotion play-offs. 

 

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Looking at the fixtures to come, this really is a vital game. I've also noticed that quite a few of the teams around us are playing each other whilst we face a difficult few weeks against teams at the top - which makes it even more important that we finally (FINALLY) end that winless away drought.

How we line up will be interesting. Turner will run through a centre-mid pairing of Forbes and Hutton just as he did at the Rock, so that won't do (it won't do anyway to be fair) but I'm not sure who we have who has the legs to play in there. Carsy, if he's fit, would be the obvious option - especially with Mango hopefully being fit enough to return.

Part of me wonders if Jim might surprise us all with a change of shape or something, I'm not quite sure why I think that, but I wouldn't be shocked. Hopefully he doesn't go wild with players out of position.

Line up like this and we should have a chance.

Grant Adam

Cammy Ballantyne Craig Barr Henk van Schaik David Ferguson

Ross Forbes Stuart Carswell Kyle Hutton Bobby Barr

Boris Melingui Dom Thomas

Henk needs someone to guide him through the game, and Mango is that man. Ferguson needs put back out to a position where he's more natural, and that allows Ballantyne to slot over to his correct side - and bomb beyond Forbes.

Hutton and Carswell doesn't work, but it will work better than Forbes and Hutton or Thomson and Hutton, so it's probably the best option we have. Bobby Barr more than deserves to keep his place out wide, Michael Paton unfortunately doesn't.

I don't really give us a hope in Hell given our abysmal away form, and dismal record in Stranraer, but I'll be spending near enough five hours in the car on Saturday in the hope we can do something. At least the 77 is open again so we don't have to bother with that horrific detour that seemed to go via the mid 70s and towns that have yet to be reached by civilisation.

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11 minutes ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

Let's all hope this match is a horrendous 0-0 draw that sucks the hope and belief of both sets of supporters.

What is this "hope and belief" you speak of?

As much as we all thought this scenario wouldn't come around when we saw our squad being built, I mentioned on many occasions in the Championship that fans should be careful what they wish for (in regards to dropping a division to "win more games" - :lol:) as there have been countless examples of part time teams free-falling from the second tier after relative success.  In my lifetime watching Scottish football Clyde and Cowden have both done that and neither look like resurrecting themselves any time soon (Clyde having a decent enough season I suppose - but that's after a decade of complete shite). I wish I could say we have something about us that convinced me we weren't about to follow suit, but I really can't.

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2 hours ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

Let's all hope this match is a horrendous 0-0 draw that sucks the hope and belief of both sets of supporters.

Dumbarton Football Club, bottom of League 1 with a third of the season left to go. Who could have imagined it!

Us keeping a clean sheet is as good as a win these days. We haven't managed that since Duffy's first game in late October!

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3 hours ago, Ross Forbes said:

Hutton and Carswell doesn't work, but it will work better than Forbes and Hutton or Thomson and Hutton, so it's probably the best option we have. Bobby Barr more than deserves to keep his place out wide, Michael Paton unfortunately doesn't.

I don't really give us a hope in Hell given our abysmal away form, and dismal record in Stranraer, but I'll be spending near enough five hours in the car on Saturday in the hope we can do something. At least the 77 is open again so we don't have to bother with that horrific detour that seemed to go via the mid 70s and towns that have yet to be reached by civilisation.

Only five hours? I'm looking at eight hours plus. I expect the high points of the day to be the two pit-stops in Glasgow for food, especially if Michael Paton starts.

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12 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

I wonder what the probability would've been of us losing nine in a row at Stair Park.

Surely something has got to give eventually... right?

Amazingly we are only slight underdogs at the bookies here! Excellent value in Stranraer who will be firmly going on my coupon this Saturday.

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6 hours ago, The Moonster said:

What is this "hope and belief" you speak of?

As much as we all thought this scenario wouldn't come around when we saw our squad being built, I mentioned on many occasions in the Championship that fans should be careful what they wish for (in regards to dropping a division to "win more games" - :lol:) as there have been countless examples of part time teams free-falling from the second tier after relative success.  In my lifetime watching Scottish football Clyde and Cowden have both done that and neither look like resurrecting themselves any time soon (Clyde having a decent enough season I suppose - but that's after a decade of complete shite). I wish I could say we have something about us that convinced me we weren't about to follow suit, but I really can't.

In my lifetime we were the first* to drop from tier 2 to 4 in two succesive seasons - and finished rock bottom the season after that.  Such a feat should be called the full Dumbarton - not the full Cowdenbeath.

*I think St Johnnstone had earlier gone from tier 1 to 3 in two seasons when there were only three tiers. But they bounced back straight away - in the meantime pinching our manager.

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4 hours ago, lionel wickson said:

Only five hours? I'm looking at eight hours plus. I expect the high points of the day to be the two pit-stops in Glasgow for food, especially if Michael Paton starts.

I'm not sure if that's admirable or if you're just absolutely mental. Given our form I'm inclined to go for the latter :lol:

Food is the main reason I'm going too. Gives me an excuse to pop into the Wee Hurrie in Troon on the way up the road :wub:

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I'm not sure if that's admirable or if you're just absolutely mental. Given our form I'm inclined to go for the latter [emoji38]
Food is the main reason I'm going too. Gives me an excuse to pop into the Wee Hurrie in Troon on the way up the road :wub:
You've diagnosed me correctly. I haven't missed a home league or Scottish Cup game in just over 5 years (every "home" game is a 260 mile round trip)🤡
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1 hour ago, rockson said:

In my lifetime we were the first* to drop from tier 2 to 4 in two succesive seasons - and finished rock bottom the season after that.  Such a feat should be called the full Dumbarton - not the full Cowdenbeath.

Badge of honour*, I never missed a game during those 3 seasons.

*Honour spelled s-t-u-p-i-d-i-t-y, obviously.

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