Sons’ games in the League Cup (Premier Sports Cup) have been scheduled for:-

Tuesday July 15 – Stirling Albion (H) 19:45

Saturday 19 July – Dunfermline Athletic (H) 15:00

Wednesday 23 July – Hearts (A) – 19:45

Saturday 26 July – Hamilton (A) – 15:00

According to the club’s website we have been drawn against Hearts, Dunfermline Athletic, Hamilton Academical and Stirling Albion in this year’s League Cup (aka the Premier Sports Cup.)

Ties are to be played during July starting on July 12/13^th and finishing on July 26/27^th.

Scottish League Cup,* Group H, East End Park, 17/7/21.

Barring miracles it’s never going to be a good day when you lose a goal inside two minutes and then another after four. (That one came courtesy of former Son Dom Thomas.)

Needless to say miracles were not forthcoming. They were unlikely given our Covid and injury ravaged squad. The scoreline says it all.

At least we scored one, Ross MacLean getting his second of the season already.

Partick Thistle away on Tuesday night and then we can concentrate on the league. Maybe we’ll have a full complement of players to choose from by then.

*Premier Sports Cup

I forgot to post them here when the club put them up but Dumbarton’s Scottish League Cup* 2021/22 group stage fixtures are:

Saturday, July 10 – St Mirren (H, 3pm)
Tuesday, July 13 – Stenhousemuir (H, 7.45pm)
Saturday, July 17 – Dunfermline Athletic (A, 3pm)
Tuesday, July 20 – Partick Thistle (A, 7.45pm)

Four games in ten days – it’s a bit like the hectic end to last season.

The first is just over a month away!

*Now known as the Premier Sports Cup.

Gosh. This came round fast.

Sons have been drawn in a group with St Mirren, Dunfermline Athletic, Stenhousemuir and Partick Thistle in next season’s League Cup, now officially the Premier Sports Cup.

Thr group starts on Saturday July 10^th. That doesn’t leave much time for our new manager – whoever he may be (I assume it’ll be a he – to get players in. Four of last year’s squad have left as it is – twoof them for group opponents Stenhousemuir.

Scottish League Cup,* Group E, The Rock, 6/10/20.

Football!

It’s back!

At our level anyway.

It seems their goal was a dodgy penalty. Or at least a disputed one. Welcome back to the same old, same old.

*Betfred Cup if you must.

Football? What football?

Saturdays are empty at the moment, no trepidation in the run-up, no joy or despair at 4.45.

It seems an age since I posted news about Dumbarton FC.

Still, Sons’ opponents in this year’s League Cup (Betfred Cup) have been announced.

Kilmarnock, Dunfermline Athletic, Falkirk and Clyde make for pretty stiff opposition.

Something to look forward to, though. (Or perhaps, dread.)

Scottish Cup,* Third Round, The Rock, 23/11/19.

Well, we’re through. This was an odd game though.

After a fairly even start we scored after a neat move culminated in Isaac Layne passing to Adam Frizzell who still had a lot to do, beating a man before shooting. It appeared to deflect a little but still it seemed the keeper might have done better.

We immediately fell out of it, surrendering the midfield and allowing Forfar to flood forward. Consequently it wasn’t a surprise that they equalised but it was a shocking goal to lose, as nobody seemed to put in a challenge before the cross which was headed out to a Forfar player totally unmarked on the edge of the box. His curled shot was just watched into the net by everybody.

Despite Forfar having most of the game they didn’t actually force Connor Brennan in goal into any saves after that except for dealing with crosses and the like. (I use ‘dealing with’ in the widest sense as in one case he palmed the ball out almost straight to a Forfar player who thankfully didn’t make the most of it.)

In what seemed like our first foray up the field in a long time we won a corner. Stefan McCluskey swept in the corner for Ryan McGeever to power a header into the bottom corner.

It was soon all over as the most Route One goal you’ll ever see came when their centre half misjudged a Connor Brennan kick-out and Isaac Layne latched onto the ball to drive it past the advancing keeper.

At 1-1 I was dreading them scoring as we could really do with them not getting the confidence boost a win could have brought. The way we played today I doubt we’d have got back in the game. Unfortunately Stranraer achieved just that likely boost against Dunfermline today. Let’s hope that it’s short-lived.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be too harsh as we were missing the influential Joe McKee today. His general play and delivery from crosses and set-pieces is a big asset. Also out was Rhegan Tumilty, I assume because his parent club doesn’t want him cup-tied.

*William Hill Scottish Cup

SPFL Tier 2, East End Park, 28/4/18.

Well. This season just keeps going from bad to worse.

In a game where everybody just needed to get through it with no one doing anything silly one of our centre-halves manages to get himself sent off after nine minutes meaning the rest of the team has to put in a harder shift than they may have been anticipating. Plus it means he’ll be suspended for at least the first of the play-off games when we’re down beyond the bare bones already.

At least the damage was kept to four though Dunfermline may have eased up to save themselves for their play-off. All academic anyway.

And so it’s off to Arbroath on Wednesday night, a place where our record is not stellar, to put it mildly. I’ve never seen us win there. The draw that took us to the play-off final all those years ago now doesn’t count. It was a draw.

The best we can hope for is to keep it tight before the second leg at the Rock next Saturday.

I’m not hopeful.

SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 6/1/18.

I was hoping for at least a point from this game but it wasn’t to be.

I certainly didn’t expect Falkirk to go rampant against the team in second place. It seems they have finally got their act together; as was always likely.

So it looks like 9^th place is probably the best we can hope for.

I’ve also now got the fear for our Scottish Cup game up at Peterhead in a fortnight. They’re on a great run and seemingly scoring for fun.

Nervous times.