Dumbarton lost only seven league matches last season.

Yet I was at four of them. (The two against the Shire at Ochilview, the January game in Cowdenbeath and the March game at Montrose.)

Until April I had only seen us win one league game (at Montrose in October) plus the penalty shoot out against Annan in the CIS way back in August. There were two draws along the way though.

On the face of it that would suggest I am a bit of a jinx.

But I can only really get to away games since I live so far from the Rock and the likelihood is always that the away team doesn’t do as well as it does at home; so that sequence wasn’t really a statistical quirk just an inevitable consequence of being a long distance supporter.

But in a triumph of perseverance – and hope firmly suppressed – I then saw us win two games in four days; at Ochilview against Stenny and at Forfar. The championship became a possibility that week because Cowden were not winning.

The rest is history.

All in, in the league I saw 4 wins, 3 draws and those 4 defeats.

As I mentioned before, for me eight out of nine of the away venues are travellable next season. Will I see more than three away wins?

Links Park, 14/3/09

Oh well. Jitters justified.

That was rubbish with a capital P. We could have played till midnight tomorrow and never scored.

No complaints. The better team won.

I got there late again (it’s a long way and there were holdups on the road) but I don’t think we troubled the Montrose keeper all game. He certainly didn’t have a save to make. Twice we got a man over but he had too heavy a touch and ran the ball out.

We did look a bit better when Murray and Carcary came on, but that was after the goal was already lost and we still didn’t really threaten anything.

The windy conditions weren’t conducive to football and I remain to be convinced about the plastic pitch.

We had the wind at our backs for the first half and managed two shots at goal.

The goal we lost, the ball broke to their player and he just thumped it but they had more attempts; one was bound to go in.

The BBC report of the game has the following gem. “Montrose made all the running at the start and then scored after 19 minutes when Jamie Buchan headed over.” That would have been a controversial goal.

At least we lost no ground on the two above us but Cowden’s bad run won’t go on for ever and we could run out of games.

The Rock, 31/1/09

Lack of clean sheets is doing for our chances.

When you’re trying to be in contention and go 1-0 up at home inside 5 mins against a team around you in the league, you really ought to win.

Chappie has been making signings, though. Hope one is a tackling midfielder.

I was mildly surprised to see Liam Cusack leaving. I know he wasn’t getting a game but he looked good whenever I saw him play.

We’re consistent only in being inconsistent.

The play-offs, then.

Links Park,  18/10/08

Another win, but still no clean sheet in a league match.

This is the third time I’ve seen us take a two goal lead this season but the first in which we’ve not been pegged back.

I got there ten minutes late due to hold-ups on the Kirkcaldy – Dundee road. We were okay first half but without creating anything were 1-0 up after the ball broke to Ross Clark in the box. It could have been two but Chisholm hit the post late on. For some reason the ref played about five minutes stoppage time before half-time.

Montrose have an artificial pitch. I thought the ball neither ran nor bounced properly a lot of the time. But it gives them a revenue stream midweek. And the tarmac surround is only a yard or so from the pitch. Might that not be dangerous?

Second half, Paul McLeod ran undisturbed through their defence to go one-on-one with their keeper and scored. From then on I was looking at my watch what seemed like every two minutes as I just knew we were going to concede. We had a couple more chances before the game settled down to not much happening at either end.

Then we switched off at the back and they scored with a minute or so to go. Mix-up on the left (Gary Wilson involved?) and the cross eluded all our defenders and keeper.

At least we saw the game out. And without our two best players. And Chappie’s subs were not defensively minded.

I met Big Rab for the first time, on the way out of the ground. He had an unfortunate experience with the bus home.  Mine was slightly different. I was on Montrose High Street after the game and I heard a woman say, “Cameron, don’t talk back to people like that.” I thought, “Parents telling off their kids? It doesn’t happen in Kirkcaldy.”  But then there’s Big Rab’s incident. I suppose everywhere has neds.