The Rock, 12/12/09

I take the goals against predictor off for one league game and what happens?

We revert to early season type.

And it allowed Peterhead to climb above us on goal difference even though they lost.

Methinks the cup games have been too much of a distraction.

We’ve now got two difficult games against top four opponents to come. I’m not looking forward to them at all.

So: do we need to score four on Tuesday night to get a win? (A draw will be a good result.)

*Edited to add:-
Thanks to onebrow for letting me know I originally had the score wrong. (0-1. Must have been wishful thinking.)

The Rock, 8/12/09

Another welcome home win and it takes us above Peterhead to the dizzy heights of fifth.

It was a good result as they have an excellent record against us at our place; and at theirs come to that. (That link will be updated with last night’s result sometime I presume.)

It was probably a hairy second half, with only one goal as a cushion.

The club website says the penalty was dodgy. We’ll take it, though.

Scottish FA Cup 3^rd round replay. The Rock, 5/12/09.

It’s deja vu all over again.

No big, money-spinning game after all, then.

We kept them down to one goal but it’s disappointing that we couldn’t score against them in 270 minutes of football.

Back to the league survival grind on Tuesday night.

Scottish Cup 4^th round draw:-

Morton or Dumbarton v Celtic.

Big incentive to win the replay on Saturday.

That goes for Morton too, of course.

Either way I don’t hold out much hope of a long Cup run this year.

And my trip to Stirling has been rescheduled before Christmas, after all.

Once upon a time postponed matches weren’t required to be played in December or January. I suppose it helps prevent fixture build up.

December will be busy, though.

5 Dec 09 H Morton
8 Dec 09 H Peterhead
12 Dec 09 H East Fife
15 Dec 09 A Stirling Albion
19 Dec 09 H Alloa Athletic
26 Dec 09 A Clyde

Scottish FA Cup, Round 3, Cappielow Park, 28/11/09

This was a clean sheet against a team from a higher league who have scored nine goals in their past two games. A fair result, then.

But that’s 180 minutes we’ve played against Morton this season and not put the ball in the back of their net.

And there’s no Sons TV because of a ludicrous SFA contract with a certain broadcasting organisation. (Who probably haven’t and won’t broadcast any footage of the game.)

Plus my trip to Stirling next Saturday has been kiboshed by the replay.*

Looks like I’ll not be seeing the Sons again till Boxing Day.

*Time was there had to be 100 or more miles between the two clubs’ grounds before a Saturday Scottish Cup replay was sanctioned.

The actor Edward Woodward’s death was in the news today but from a personal perspective the fact that the Dumbarton FC club website has just announced the death of Kenny Jenkins affected me more.

Kenny, known to my generation as “Gilbert” for some strange reason which I can’t recall, was a member of the fabled promotion winning team of 1972. One of his key contributions to that success was the goal he scored at Cliftonhill in the 1-0 win over Albion Rovers where, with his back to goal, he gave a driven free kick the merest of deflections with his head to take it past the keeper.

He was an exponent of the “mazy dribble” when playing in midfield but later in his Sons career he dropped into central defence.

He had a really peculiar pecadillo, though, (or superstition, perhaps) in that he always used to trot into the opponents half of the field during the warm up and have a wee meander as if the other side weren’t there. This was something that was just not done. Players stayed strictly in ther own half until kick off, then as now.

I think it was a subtle form of gamesmanship.

Edward Woodward 1/6/30-16/11/09. Kenny Jenkins -16/11/09. So it goes.

Central Park, 14/11/09

Well. There wasn’t much chance of us equalling a 117 year old record today. Not after the penalty anyway.

Apart from the first fifteen or so minutes we didn’t deserve to win this. We played some nice stuff – too nice at times – could perhaps have converted a few corners into goals but barely worked their keeper.

The penalty…….

Wasn’t.

I could see why the ref gave it. Stevie Murray came in (he got the ball; he hit it against the Cowden player) but the guy fell down. From the ref’s angle it may have looked worse but it was still soft. Even then Dr Jan nearly saw justice done with his feet but it screwed in off him.

The BBC has “Stevie Murray was adjudged to have fouled John Armstrong in the box” (my italics.) The reporter obviously thought it wasn’t a pen.

Cowden took the lifeline. The goal gave them a lift. The first half was pretty even from then on.

In the second half Cowden’s physicality took the game over. They are a big strong side. The second goal was coming for most of the latter part of the game.

But we still could have got back into it. Following a corner and a scrambled clearance a shot from Chaplain, I think, was booted away by a defender. From where I was sitting it had crossed the line. The assistant referee was, perhaps, unsighted by players between him and the goal, but still…

Nevertheless, Cowdenbeath were worth the win. (But had either of the two big decisions that went against us gone the other way we still might have had a draw.)

We could never drop a place today; but next week….?

This Sunday (15^th Nov) a football match in memory of Gordon Lennon, Dumbarton FC’s former captain who died tragically in June, will take place. The game features players from all the teams Gordon played for from youth side Harmony Row through to Partick Thistle, Albion Rovers and Dumbarton.

Big Rab – who chaired the organising committee for this – has the details here.

There are tickets available on the door.

Sadly I won’t be able to make it but if you’re close by and wish to contribute to the cause, I encourage you to go along.

Ochilview, 7/11/09

It looks convincing and in the end it was, but I wouldn’t have believed this at the break as Stenhousemuir – wearing a peculiarly washed-out maroon, I thought – had much the better of the first half; though without troubling Dr Jan in goal very much.

Three minutes into the second half Roddy Hunter fashioned an opportunity for himself to shoot from outside the box and Stenny’s keeper didnt get down at all well. So much for Roddy being a penalty box player!

The second was a beauty of a move: a brilliant Stevie Murray back heel flick to Mick Dunlop whose sweet cross was headed almost perfectly by Roddy Hunter only to be parried by the keeper and Scott Chaplain was first to react to sweep it in.

We never looked in trouble after that and the third was fine too. Derek Carcary fended off a physical challenge by the defender, outpaced him and chipped the ball to Ross O’Donoghue’s head from where it met the pokey.

Roddy Hunter must like Ochilview. (At least this time he didn’t get sent off for nowt like in the Stirlingshire Cup final.)

Man of the match? Hard to choose. They all did well. The defence in first half, the whole team second. Chris Craig and Chissie just ran and ran and challenged all game. Chissie was booked for his challenge only because the ref had just yellow-carded a Stenny player for persistent fouling but nearly talked himself into a second yellow in the second half. The ref could have sent off Chris Smith and a Stenny player for a bit of handbags in the first half but kept the heid, gave them a talking to and so didn’t ruin the game.

Praise for a ref! What next?

Four away league games won on the trot! This is getting to be like the back end of last season. But we’re at the table toppers next.

Still, there’s daylight between us and seventh place now.

It’s getting scary. Like Onebrow (see comment here) I think we need to consolidate in this division before contemplating anything else.

The Rock, 31/10/09

Two home games in a row without losing a goal! Is it time to recalibrate the goals against predictor?

Pity we only scored the once in those 180 minutes, though.

From the BBC report we might have won this.

There’s now distance between us and second bottom place.

End of October and up to sixth. I’d have taken that at season’s start.

I’ll take it for the end of the season right now.