SPFL Tier 4, Meadowbank Stadium, 2/5/26.

Oh dear. What a way to end the season. We simply weren’t at the races.

Mind you that’s the way it’s been for much of the past ten months.

We made Edinburgh City – bottom of the table and who hadn’t even scored a goal for two months – look like Real Madrid.

If you were charitable you could say it was an illustration of the reason for the change to ten-team divisions in 1994. Before that there were many so-called ‘end of season’ games (ie dead rubbers) where neither side had much to play for towards the end of the season.

But I’m not in the mood to be charitable.

We were just awful. They waltzed through us at will. And Brett Long in goal, while he made a few saves, didn’t cover himself in glory for two of the goals.

Mind you, the ref killed the game when he showed Kai Kirkpatrick a straight red for a late challenge at 1-0.  There was no malice in it, and no force.* Any chance we might have had vanished at that point; especially when they scored their second a minute or so later. That’s two reds for Kai in successive games he’s played in. Maybe he’s got himself a reputation. Or maybe the ref just wanted to show himself off.

City have won ten games all season. Four of them were against us. That’s 40% of their wins. (To put it in perspective, we only won ten as well but we didn’t beat anyone four times.)

I’m not overly encouraged that manager Frank McKeown is the right man for the job. It was noticeable that most of the exhortation coming from our bench area (curiously audible in a way such shouts aren’t at the Rock) was tantamount to abuse. And he made some very odd substitutions yesterday; not for the first time.

He now needs to make good signings who are considerable upgrades on most of what we had here – and improve his tactical nous.

But I fear it could be another long, hard season.

*Edited to add: I’ve now seen City’s highlight footage and Kirkpatrick’s foot was high: higher than I remembered seeing it in real time. The red card was fair enough.

We took a trip through to Dumbarton in November 2024 and stopped off at the Loch Lomond Shores shopping complex.

By the entrance was this model of The Maid of the Loch, the last paddle steamer on Loch Lomond which I hvave featured here and here:-

The Moon over the Rock (somewhat outdone by the floodlights):-

The plaque at Dumbarton Central railway station commemorating the employees of the Dumbarton and Balloch Joint line who were killed during the Great War.

There also used to be a Great War Memorial plaque at Dumbarton East Station but since the station buildings were demolished some while back I have no idea what happened to it.

I featured Dumbuck Hill a few posts ago. The hotel named after it – usually refrred to simply as “The Dumbuck” was for a long time the premier location in Dumbarton for functions such as wedding receptions and funeral teas.

Sadly the hotel fell into disuse and suffered a fire last year.

When we visited in Augst 2024 the former hotel was in the process of demolition. Another part of my childhood and adolescence gone.

Hotel being demolished:-

Hotel ruins, Dumbuck Hill in background:-

View from hotel’s rear (over a high fence, hence the poor focus):-

Long time readers of this blog will know of my interest in the International Exhibitions held in Glasgow (1888, 1901,) the Scottish National Exhibition of 1911 and the Empire Exhibition of 1938.

Hence I was delighted to see this painting of the main building by William J Kennedy of the 1901 Exhibition on display at the Hunterian Art Gallery when we visited:-

Charles Rennie Mackintosh submitted designs for some of that Exhibition’s buildings (as well as for the 1911 one) as noted in this :-

And of course this picture of Dumbarton Rock and the River Clyde was irresistible:-

Then there was this one by my favourite impressionist painter, Alfred Sisley, one of a series he painted of the church at Moret:-

Portrait of a child by Henry Rayburn:-

Not to mention a couple of Old Masters, The Entombment by Rembrandt:-

and the one that stood out from across the room, Head of an Old Man by Rubens. It’s absolutely stunning:-

Dumbuck Hill, known simply as Dumbuck, is a prominent landmark in Dumbarton, lying at the eastern end of the Long Crags (Lang Craigs) part of the Kilpatrick Hills, which flank the town to the northeast.

When I was young the hill looked quite different from how it does now. It was extensively quarried as I was growing up and now has more the appearance of a decayed tooth when seen from the town.

Dumbuck Hill from old railway line. (LMS? I couldn’t find a clear map of the old rail system. It was scrapped in the Beeching cuts, though the other line through the town [LNER?] was retained.)

Dumbuck from immediately below.

Closer view:-

Minor Art Deco style, Wallace Street, Dumbarton:-

I can’t ever have walked down Wallace Street before as I don’t remember seeing this building until this visit in April.

Doorway detail:-

I had seen this one many times: the former Co-op on the corner of Greenhead and Glasgow Roads. The date above the lintel is 1922, a bit early for true deco:-

We also took a stroll along the quay in the town and spotted this children’s slide (chute) in the shape of an elephant, with a wooden play elephant behind. An elephant appears on the crest of the town and of the mighty Sons, Dumbarton FC. It’s a nice nod to that heritage to have these play objects reflect it:-

The entrance to Dumbarton Castle is up a flight of stairs which has a left turn on the way up. On the wall facing you as you turn is this War Memorial dedicated to the officers and men of the 9th Battalion (Dunbartonshire,) Princess Louise’s Argyll and Sutherland Higlanders:-

This photo appeared on the DFC website on Christmas Eve. I don’t know when it was taken as it doesn’t often snow in Dumbarton, it being on the confluence of two rivers, but it looks lovely.

I saw this picture posted on a friend’s Facebook page a while back, and now I’ve shamelessly appropriated it. Superb.

Dumbarton FC Stadium and Dumbarton Rock:-