Livingston 2-0 Dumbarton
Posted in Dumbarton FC at 22:59 on 6 November 2010
SFL Div 2, Almondvale Stadium,* 6/11/10
League goals for predictor:- 18.
The game was played on a pitch that in one area was very heavy – all but waterlogged – making it difficult for everyone concerned.
I said at the start we’d have to score to get a draw as Grindlay was in goal and he doesn’t keep clean sheets. We didn’t – either of them. Neither did he.
Yet to lose 2-0 to the team at the top of the division is no disgrace, I suppose. To lose 1-0 would have been better. We were on track for that and – with a bit of luck, going downhill with a following wind – might even have equalised. As soon as former Son, Iain Russell, came on as substitute for Livi, though, what then transpired was inevitable.
Believe it or not, at the time it was against the run of play. We were pressing, had been doing so relatively strongly, but a misplaced pass – the story of Dumbarton’s game actually – saw Livi break away. Russell got it out on their right and proceeded to waltz through almost our entire defence before putting it past Grindlay.
Now, I’d seen the shot coming for all the while he’d had the ball and it was never going to be swept back across goal yet somehow Grindlay was still beaten at his nearer post.
Their first was a free header from a corner. That should not happen. I was up the other end (the away fans were crammed into a small section of the South Stand) so can’t say if Grindlay should have come for it or not.
Loan signing Craig (or is it Calum?) McLeish looked impressive first half but it only took him 45 minutes to descend to our level. Young Nicky Devlin showed up brightly on the right hand side, and was good defensively too.
We’re still a poor team. A draw would have flattered us but Livi didn’t look much better – certainly not a team with almost a whole division between us and them.
There were, though, signs of improvement. We looked nothing like the desperate side that was so poor at Stenhousemuir. A bit better decision making (some decisions at all at certain times would be good) and passing to team mates instead of to the opposition and we’ll get somewhere. With Derek Carcary back we might even have a goal threat.
*Like The Rock, Almondvale Stadium has been sponsored but Almondvale’s new name is utterly ridiculous. I am not going to dignify it by mentioning it further.