SPFL Tier 4, Forthbank Stadium, 28/2/26.

Given recent results – we haven’t won this year – I was in two minds about going to this. But Forthbank is about the nearest ground in the Division to my home so if I wasn’t going to this where would I go?

Another baffling selection choice from manager Frank McKeown. No width picked at all. It looked as if he’d sent the team out to play for a draw; an utterly daft exercise as it’s wins we need and we’ve only now got ten games left to secure any.

Still, we had more of the possession first half but lacked confidence in shooting. Leighton McIntosh came on to a good cut back from Scott Honeyman but miscontrolled the ball into the air which gave the keeper time to narrow the angle for his subsequent volley. All the other cutbacks went to a defender’s foot.

We were ragged in the middle of the park and let their players advance considerably before making any sort of challenge.

Then Stirling got a mysterious penalty, Brett Long penalised for a challenge which appeared relatively inoccuous, with Brett, Mark Durnan and the attacker getting there at the same time. Long was booked though and despite taking an age to get back into his goal was easily sent the wrong way from the spot. It was about the only shot he had to face all day apart from a longish range effort in the second half. Stirling were poor which makes our approach all the more frustrating.

We came out more strongly in the second half and made their keeper make a few saves from long range but Stirling didn’t appear to be bothered about trying to score a second.

Triple substitution time came a bit earlier than usual, the ineffectual Ryan Blair and Jack Duncan being replaced by new loanee signing (and diminutive) Alexander Smith and Scott Tomlinson respectively _ potential width at last – and, more surprisingly, Adam Livingstone off for Ally Roy.

Scott Honeyman seemed to have been fouled in the box but was booked for diving – it certainly hadn’t looked like a dive.

Smith began to grow into the game and had a great low cross begging to be buried but Gordon Walker blasted the ball wide when it looked easier to score. (Walker’s crossing was poor all game, rarely getting past the first man.)

In the end we got a deserved equaliser when Smith popped up on the right, came back on his left foot and delivered a beautiful cross for Mark Durnan to head home. Cue delight on the pitch and the away stand. It was noticeable that Durnan immediately ran towards the fans to celebrate.

Stirling woke up for a bit, then, but their efforts came to nothing.

This was a game where we needed three points and they were there for the taking. The players are, I’m sure, up for it. The manager seems to have other ideas.

SPFL Tier 3, Ochilview, 7/12/24.

I hadn’t expected much from this since both of our front two Michael Ruth and Jinky Hilton were missing through injury but I didn’t contemplate this disaster.

We were two down in 25 minutes and then to compound our problems Finlay Gray was sent off just before half time. As if that wasn’t enough Brett Long joined him in the dressing room on 70 minutes after another red card. And with Carlo Pingatiello going off injured as well …..

To cap it all Inverness Caley won and Annan got a draw marooning us further away from any hope of making 9^th place never mind 8th.

Not that I was too hopeful of staying up anyway but failure to win at home against Annan next Saturday will just about doom us.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 16/11/24.

A much needed win after a nothing first half in which the only things of note were a great Brett Long sideways leap to prevent QoS’s first away league goal this season, a QoS defender’s attempt to score into his own empty net with a header which their goalie just scrambled off the line and a Michael Ruth effort that just squeezed past. It seemed his (bad) luck in front of goal still continued.

The second half was much better with Sons doing most of the attacking. Jinky Hilton hit the bar and the keeper was lucky it fell into his arms when it came down again after rebounding off the ground. Then Michael Ruth was shoved in the back in the area but it wasn’t given – despite the ref flinging yellow cards about like they were confetti.

Ruthie got his reward about 70 minutes in. That rarity, an early Kalvin Orsi cross, found Finlay Gray whose strike was blocked but fell for Ruthie to bury it. I’m pleased for him. His overall wrok-rate is simply brilliant but I think his rcent lackd of goals had been getting to him.

Then they were awarded a free kick a few yards outside our penalty area. As he lined it up I thought Brett Long  had got his positioning all wrong. So it proved. The up and over duly found the opposite bottom area of the goal. QoS’s first away goal of the league season and to watch them you could understand that stat.

The lads’ heads could have gone down after that but they kept plugging away and we git a series of unfruitful corners as time -up loomed. From the aftermath of one of them Mark Durnan got his foot in the way of the defender’s and the ball and was kicked. So: penalty. From where I sat I hadn’t realised it was in the are until the ref pointed at the spot.

Sub Tony Wallace duly dispatched it, to much rejoicing in the stands.

I hope the win does the boys ‘ confidence some good; our next two games are tough. Both against Alloa, at their place next Saturday in the league then at ours the following Friday in the Cup.

SPFL Tier 3, New Central Park, 9/11/24.

My – and Sons – first time at New Central Park, a very tidy ground with two enclosures on the east side, a smallish stand on the west with standing areas behind the goals.

Well, the better team won. As in the game at the Rock, they looked confident on the ball, but the first half was pretty uneventful on the whole, though they did seem to force a lot of corners.

Early in the second half a neat exchange between Michael Ruth and Jinky Hilton set up the former with an excellent chance but his side-footed effort went wide.

Their first goal came almost out of the blue. Their guy suddenl;y found himself in some space and leathered it from the edge of the area across Brett Long and into the net via the top of the post. No goalie was going to stop that one.

Jinky Hilton then created a chance for himself down the left cutting in past the defender but again the shot just went wide.

Their second killed the game. A corner went all the way over the box and when it recahed their attacker he hit a shot through a forest of lage sand it ended up in the net.

We did come into things towards the end but by that time they were managing the game.

We need to start taking any chances we get – and soon – or there’s no  prospect of us climbing the table.

SPFL Tier 3, Gayfield,* 19/10/24

What on Earth just happened?

It seems like we never win in the league at Arbroath, which is why I wasn’t going to go to the game.

But I did and we did – and mighty pleased I am. (Plus it wasn’t cold or windy, a minor miracle in Arbroath in mid-October.)

Not that we started all that well; and they scored a poor goal from our point of view, a free header from a free-kick.

But  after their brief heads-up flurry we came back onto it and Michael Ruth’s enterprise from the right wing into the box and cut back deflected in to Carlo Pignatiello’s path he hit it sweetly with the outside of his boot for 1-1.

There wasn’t much in it for the rest of the first half though Ruthie made the goalkeeper work several times very unlucky his first spilled shot didn’t spill quite far enough on one occasion. They looked the better side but didn’t really threaten Brett Long in goal much, if at all.

Then, suddenly, in the second half we were ahead David Wilson’s corner touched into the net. The announcer gave the goal to young loanee centre half Ethan Brown but it may have been an own goal.

I thought “we won’t be able to hold out for 40+ minutes” but we did, reasonably comfortably. Icing was put on the cake in the last minute when sub Joel Mumbongo headed on for fellow sub Tony Wallace to progress down the left and centre for third sub Finlay Gray to finish things off.

As we were walking out of the ground an Arbroath fan said to my son and I, “You deserved the win today.” That’s not a comment you often hear from the opposition.

So that’s the first league win this season monkey off our back. Mind you, we’re still bottom of the league.

Big game next week, then.

*Call it the Greenversity Stadium at Gayfield if you must.

SPFL ,Tier 3, Galabank, 14/9/24.

On the face of it two dropped points here since we were one up after nine minutes through Jinky Hilton.

However, that keeper Brett Long was sent off on 18 minutes and Jinky was taken off for our sub keeper Luke Smallwood (a sixteen-year-old making his debut and who played well apparently) puts a different perspective on things.

Still, it’s a pity we couldn’t hold out for one more minute than we did.

Though unbeaten in the league we’re now second bottom. Unless we start getting wins – and the three points boost they give –  we’ll be looking at relegation again.

Scottish League Cup*, Pittodrie Stadium, 27/7/24.

Well, at least it was 0-0 at half-time.

We had more or less done ourselves justice in the first half and even got the ball in the net but Michael Ruth was offside. (Well I thought it was Ruthie but the club’s website says it was Carlo Pignatiello.)

Two minutes inro the second half and the wheels began to fall off. Their pace got them in behind our right and it was slotted past Brett Long. Three minutes after that it was game over. I didn’t actually see the build up because some idiot scoming back from somewhere or other stood in front of me for longer than necessary – this in a sparsely populated away end – before sitting down again.

Thereafter it was more than an uphill struggle. Our substitutions were copious and by the time all five had been made our defensive organisation had gone completely. Their last three goals were the result. In general they looked faster, fitter, stronger and better passing angles than us. They are full time though and at this stage of the season that makes a big difference.

As to us new signing Mouhamed Niang looked good in midfield and Ruthie ploughed his usual lonely furrow up front. His replacement, latest signing Joel Mumbongo, did not have much time on the pitch to be able to make a judgement on him.

On to the real stuff next week.

*Call it the Premier Sports Cup if you must.

SPFL Tier 4, New Bayview, 11/11/23.

This is only the second time this season I have watched the mighty Sons of the Rock in action. But East Fife’s ground is only 7 or so miles away from where I live so it seemed only right to turn up.

We survived an early scare when Tony Wallace headed the ball but straight to an East Fife attacker for a one-on-one only for Brett Long in our goal to bail him out.

A minute or so later we took the lead a ball into the box reached Kalvin Orsi who poked it home for his first goal in 784 days.

Thereafter we kind of fell out of it for a while with East Fife knocking the ball about quite well but never really threatening. Then we had a spell where we had four great chances in about three minutes but East Fife’s keeper made one good and one magnificent save and there was a great last minute block to prevent us scoring again. We did get the ball in the net once more but it was chalked off for offside.

The second half was fairly uneventful. Our final balls were just a bit off. East Fife barely looked like scoring except for when Brett Long misjudged a situation, coming for a ball he was never going to get, and was left stranded. Enough defenders got back though to prevent a goal.

The fact that their keeper got their man of the match award kind of sums things up.

I must say Michael Ruth’s centre forward play was superb. He held up the ball and played others in. Sadly he didn’t get enough of the ball in the box to be able to score.We also had players actually showing for the ball at throw-ins. That is not the Dumbarton way.

The ref made some odd decisions. Par for the course these days.

Up front for East Fife Nathan Austin was a shadow of the player he used to be.

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 22/04/23.

A win and another clean sheet – thanks to Brett Long for a penalty save and Martin McNiff for the goal, though Carsy missed a penalty for us. That’s a club record of clean sheets in one season for a single goalkeeper.

Combined with Annan’s defeat to Stirling this result means we will finish second.

Not that that matters much as we will be playing whoever finishes third, which might well be East Fife, or Annan.

The first leg is away on 9 or 10/6/23, with the second leg at home on 13/6/23.

Two games till to go before then though. Let’s hope for no more injuries.

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 5/11/22.

Well. Another win. Another clean sheet. And, since Stirling Albion only drew, top of the league again.

The goals came at the end of each half – Gregor Buchanan and Michael Garrity on target – but we apparently hit the post twice and goalie Brett Long made a great contribution to the clean sheet. (What a contrast to Sam Ramsbottom.) The second half must have been a bit nervy, though.

Onwards we go to Elgin on Saturday.