Binos -vs- Sons - Episode 7

[Binos]

5 minutes ago, Sweet Pete said:

I've watched loads of juniors over the years and the refs there usually let a lot more pass. Today's was finicky and seemed to react to too much first half and then go back and forth with himself on whether he'd blow for things, card for things or let the game flow. Not a good officiating display.

It was difficult for him though with all of your players diving and time wasting so much 

[Silverton End]

5 minutes ago, Binos said:

It was difficult for him though with all of your players diving and time wasting so much 

 

[Sweet Pete]

13 minutes ago, Binos said:

It was difficult for him though with all of your players diving and time wasting so much 

Have you tried having a right good cry about it?

[WC Boggs]

2 minutes ago, Sweet Pete said:

Have you tried having a right good cry about it?

Gently now. Some of them are so easily butt hurt we should sell KY jelly in the pie shops.

[Sweet Pete]

Just now, WC Boggs said:

Gently now. Some of them are so easily butt hurt we should sell KY jelly in the pie shops.

I didn't indulge, but my colleague enjoyed a KY kebab pie. He said it was lovely, if slippery.

[WC Boggs]

Just now, Sweet Pete said:

I didn't indulge, but my colleague enjoyed a KY kebab pie. He said it was lovely, if slippery.

What can I say? Bon appetite.

[headthebaw]

[WC Boggs]

Just now, headthebaw said:

Overtaking them in the bookings as well is going too far rubbing it in.

[DavidMcG]

Just watched Dumbarton managers post match interview. What a bizarre back handed insult to their fans - basically saying that nobody at the club believed in them today apart from the players.

Maybe he is right, I don't think Dumbarton fans on here expected much today but a slightly odd things to say to the press. 

[Sweet Pete]

2 minutes ago, DavidMcG said:

Just watched Dumbarton managers post match interview. What a bizarre back handed insult to their fans - basically saying that nobody at the club believed in them today apart from the players.

Maybe he is right, I don't think Dumbarton fans on here expected much today but a slightly odd things to say to the press. 

Yup. The kind of dig that precedes the wheels falling off. If he wants to build an us and them siege mentality then great, but it needs to be the club v the world, not him v the fans.

[WC Boggs]

32 minutes ago, Sweet Pete said:

Yup. The kind of dig that precedes the wheels falling off. If he wants to build an us and them siege mentality then great, but it needs to be the club v the world, not him v the fans.

Yeah, I watched it too. Of course your fans were deflated after last Saturday, what else did he expect. Bang out of order with that comment. 

[The Moonster]

You've got to hand it to Faz, has an amazing ability to simultaneously not listen to what fans are saying whilst getting annoyed at what fans are saying. 

[Jan Vojáček]

Like I posted yesterday, that was a really entertaining game to watch. And if I'd gone as a neutral then I would've been pretty pleased to spend my afternoon that way. It was played at a ferocious intensity. A few weeks ago Faz likened the title race to being like an Old Firm because of the consistency shown by both teams, and that almost felt like an Old Firm game at times.

A win would've been great. And we could've nicked it. But the same could be said for Stirling, especially when Edin Lynch presented the ball to Danny Denholm in the final seconds of stoppage time. Given the circumstances I don't think it's a bad point at all. We were down to beyond the bare bones at the end; and a right side of Lynchy, who has started two games in the last 12 months, and 16-year-old Luca Vata wouldn't have been what anyone would've had in mind for our biggest game of the season.

Losing two goals from corners is a sickner. Especially given how well we defended for open play. Stirling put together some nice wee combinations in and around the box, but were probably guilty of overplaying it at times. They looked far more dangerous when they just put the ball into the box. Big BerbaThom was a threat constantly and, although quiet, Dale Carrick was constantly sniffing about waiting for a mistake to take advantage of.

That said I thought we defended well. If we're to get a result in games then Gregor Buchanan has to play well. And he did. Despite being booked inside about 90 seconds for what looked(?) fairly innocuous.

Big Peter Grant was excellent as a no-nonsense stopper again. And was the most vocal man on the park. Whilst Martin McNiff showed why he should be our starting left-back, and isn't the weak point some of our fans seem to think he is. It was his long throw that led to the second goal too.

I saw the post last night claiming that we didn't want to win the game or whatever. And, having watched us in near enough every game this season, I wouldn't say that was the case at all. Did we drop deep after taking the lead twice? Yes, we did. But we looked to hit on the break. We were the away side against the team with the best home form in the league - and without a host of first pick players, in a game we knew we couldn't lose. I've no real issue at all with how we played on that front.

Finlay Gray was the key to that. He was also surging forward from midfield, picked up second balls and put himself about very well. Nobody on the park deserved a goal more than him. The wee man has been a revelation this season, and I'm really excited to watch him continue to develop. We've not had a midfielder in his ilk for a long time.

Kalvin Orsi put in an absolutely phenomenal shift too, and it was no surprise to see him dropping out at the end. Hopefully that was just exhaustion rather than anything else, because he's a key player for us. Another assist to add to his tally too.

If I've been Kalvin's biggest fan this season, I've probably been Ross MacLean's biggest critic. I think he's one of our best players. But we see it so rarely it drives me mad.

He led the line well though. He dropped deep, ran the channels, linked play quite nicely, took players on and scored a good goal. The only thing that lets him down is when he's got his back to goal, defenders seem to find it quite easy to just kick the ball from under him. But he's not really a striker, so it wouldn't be fair to have too much of a dig at him for that.

It was a bit frustrating not to have Declan Byrne mind you. Albion's defence, in particular Adam Cummins, looked shaky all match and I feel like Byrne could've pounced on that with his pace and pressing.

From a Binos point-of-view they were kind of like I was expecting I think? You can see why they've scored a fair few more goals than us. They attack with confidence, pace and a real intensity. Carrick and Thomson are an excellent pairing, and they have pace down both sides. There's a bit of the Ian Murray Dumbarton about the way they flood bodies forward at every opportunity.

Defensively though you can see why they are so far behind us on clean sheets. There's probably a confidence there that they'll outscore any mistakes (which they probably will to be fair), but they do give teams chances. Blair Currie made a good save early on from Peter Grant when he was left completely free in the penalty area from a corner (that's our trick, get your own!) and generally looked pretty assured. But the guys in front of him were far from it. There was a spell mid-way through the second-half where it felt like every pass from an Albion defender either went out of play, or straight to the nearest blue shirt.

Two completely different teams who, as has been the case all season, effectively cancelled each other out. If we'd lost yesterday then I couldn't see Albion throwing a five point lead in eight matches. But it's still in the hands of both sides. And I think both would've bitten your hand off for that at the start of the season.

I just hope we can cobble together some players for Wednesday now, and finally put in an overdue good performance at home.

[WattersIsGod]

That's a pretty fair summary of the game.

The shaky defence isn't a new thing for us. That's been a common thing especially recently. We are attempting to play it around at the back and Cummins in particular I think struggles with that at times. His first touch gives me the fear.

I can only see it being a close run thing. We are so clearly the best 2 teams in the league.

[GordyBrow]

14 hours ago, microdave said:

In 08/09, we used 33 players in league matches compared to 23 so far this season. The Cowdenbeath game saw us remain behind them after drawing. It was the following week that we overtook them when we beat Forfar while they were losing to Montrose. They lost again the next week while we were putting six past Elgin which put us four clear with one to play but East Stirlingshire were only three behind which meant it (officially) went to the final game. As you said out gd was so superior, the game at Annan was pretty much a formality. We took 22 points from the last quarter of games. 

 

I recall pulling back 8 points on Cowdenbeath in one week that season.

There’s a lot of football still to be played.

[TheVoiceofReason]

1 hour ago, WattersIsGod said:

The shaky defence isn't a new thing for us. That's been a common thing especially recently. We are attempting to play it around at the back and Cummins in particular I think struggles with that at times. His first touch gives me the fear.

I get more concerned by the midfield leaving the back 4 unprotected. We look a lot better with Banner in there but that would mean leaving out leitch (daft because he's in good form - yesterday's howler notwithstanding) or Davidson (clearly a DY favourite so unlikely to be dropped regardless of how poorly he plays).

Davidson is - or was - clearly a good player and reads the game really well but his passing lets him down too often for my liking. Not sure if he's trying too hard. Having said that I thought he did pretty well yesterday so maybe DYs faith in him will be rewarded in the last 8 games if he keeps improving 

[Nowhereman]

3 hours ago, Jan Vojáček said:

Like I posted yesterday, that was a really entertaining game to watch. And if I'd gone as a neutral then I would've been pretty pleased to spend my afternoon that way. It was played at a ferocious intensity. A few weeks ago Faz likened the title race to being like an Old Firm because of the consistency shown by both teams, and that almost felt like an Old Firm game at times.

A win would've been great. And we could've nicked it. But the same could be said for Stirling, especially when Edin Lynch presented the ball to Danny Denholm in the final seconds of stoppage time. Given the circumstances I don't think it's a bad point at all. We were down to beyond the bare bones at the end; and a right side of Lynchy, who has started two games in the last 12 months, and 16-year-old Luca Vata wouldn't have been what anyone would've had in mind for our biggest game of the season.

Losing two goals from corners is a sickner. Especially given how well we defended for open play. Stirling put together some nice wee combinations in and around the box, but were probably guilty of overplaying it at times. They looked far more dangerous when they just put the ball into the box. Big BerbaThom was a threat constantly and, although quiet, Dale Carrick was constantly sniffing about waiting for a mistake to take advantage of.

That said I thought we defended well. If we're to get a result in games then Gregor Buchanan has to play well. And he did. Despite being booked inside about 90 seconds for what looked(?) fairly innocuous.

Big Peter Grant was excellent as a no-nonsense stopper again. And was the most vocal man on the park. Whilst Martin McNiff showed why he should be our starting left-back, and isn't the weak point some of our fans seem to think he is. It was his long throw that led to the second goal too.

I saw the post last night claiming that we didn't want to win the game or whatever. And, having watched us in near enough every game this season, I wouldn't say that was the case at all. Did we drop deep after taking the lead twice? Yes, we did. But we looked to hit on the break. We were the away side against the team with the best home form in the league - and without a host of first pick players, in a game we knew we couldn't lose. I've no real issue at all with how we played on that front.

Finlay Gray was the key to that. He was also surging forward from midfield, picked up second balls and put himself about very well. Nobody on the park deserved a goal more than him. The wee man has been a revelation this season, and I'm really excited to watch him continue to develop. We've not had a midfielder in his ilk for a long time.

Kalvin Orsi put in an absolutely phenomenal shift too, and it was no surprise to see him dropping out at the end. Hopefully that was just exhaustion rather than anything else, because he's a key player for us. Another assist to add to his tally too.

If I've been Kalvin's biggest fan this season, I've probably been Ross MacLean's biggest critic. I think he's one of our best players. But we see it so rarely it drives me mad.

He led the line well though. He dropped deep, ran the channels, linked play quite nicely, took players on and scored a good goal. The only thing that lets him down is when he's got his back to goal, defenders seem to find it quite easy to just kick the ball from under him. But he's not really a striker, so it wouldn't be fair to have too much of a dig at him for that.

It was a bit frustrating not to have Declan Byrne mind you. Albion's defence, in particular Adam Cummins, looked shaky all match and I feel like Byrne could've pounced on that with his pace and pressing.

From a Binos point-of-view they were kind of like I was expecting I think? You can see why they've scored a fair few more goals than us. They attack with confidence, pace and a real intensity. Carrick and Thomson are an excellent pairing, and they have pace down both sides. There's a bit of the Ian Murray Dumbarton about the way they flood bodies forward at every opportunity.

Defensively though you can see why they are so far behind us on clean sheets. There's probably a confidence there that they'll outscore any mistakes (which they probably will to be fair), but they do give teams chances. Blair Currie made a good save early on from Peter Grant when he was left completely free in the penalty area from a corner (that's our trick, get your own!) and generally looked pretty assured. But the guys in front of him were far from it. There was a spell mid-way through the second-half where it felt like every pass from an Albion defender either went out of play, or straight to the nearest blue shirt.

Two completely different teams who, as has been the case all season, effectively cancelled each other out. If we'd lost yesterday then I couldn't see Albion throwing a five point lead in eight matches. But it's still in the hands of both sides. And I think both would've bitten your hand off for that at the start of the season.

I just hope we can cobble together some players for Wednesday now, and finally put in an overdue good performance at home.

As you say losing two goals from a corner was frustrating. So why did we have our smallest defender,Lynas, marking their tallest attacker, Thomson, on both occasions 

[FifeSons]

We will win the league.

[WC Boggs]

48 minutes ago, TheVoiceofReason said:

I get more concerned by the midfield leaving the back 4 unprotected.

Yet when DY makes changes to protect the back four and see out a lead in a game you don't like it.

[WC Boggs]

33 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

We will win the league.

Congratulations. You have won the Faz that's the spirit, fan award.  You win this week's special prize. A no expenses paid personal invite to..... the next meet the manager day.