SFL, Cliftonhill Stadium, 7/4/12.

I had mixed feelings about this one. I have a bit of a soft spot for the “Wee Rovers” and about half their team is composed of former Sons players.

Yet once the game started the atavism kicked in, I was as partisan as usual and I wanted us to win.

We had the better of the first part of the game but the bobbly pitch did us no favours and led to a few mistakes. Mark Gilhaney had a great chance to score – though Craig Dargo was actually offside in a previous phase and not given – but the keeper made a good save. A few minutes later Dargo was put through clearly onside but the flag went up. James Creaney also stung the keeper’s hands with a fierce shot.

An unstoppable drive from ex-Son Danny Ferry then put Rovers ahead. The ball was in the net from the moment it left his boot – I don’t remember him ever hitting a shot like that when he was with us.

A corner for us was wasted when it was taken short and on the next I was about to moan, “Don’t try that again,” but it was given quickly to Scott Agnew whose cross was turned into his own net by a defender.

I felt we lost a lot of our forward momentum when Ryan Finnie went off injured.

The second half was pretty scrappy. I think we only had two shots on target, one of them Gilhaney again. The keeper saved again. Craig Dargo couldn’t even let the ball bounce off him into the net, it skied over. He tried to place another but it was just wide. I can’t see what Dargo gives us that Pat Walker doesn’t. Yes, he’s a clever player, but he’s not a natural goal scorer. And I like Pat Walker’s industry.

James Creaney had a good game and saved the jerseys twice late on, putting off an attacker who looked likely to head in a cross and making an incredible block in the last minute.

Four points ahead of fifth with four to play and Airdrie Utd and East Fife still have to play each other the week after we have Airdrie Utd at home. There will be no easy games though. Everyone we still have to play has something to play for themselves.

SFL Div 2, Central Park, Cowdenbeath, 24/3/12.

We were well beaten. Cowdenbeath may not be the best footballing team I have seen this season – Arbroath remain that – but they are probably the most effective. None of our players got a moment’s peace. Their players’ willingness to chase, harry and press, their eagerness to get to the ball, was an object lesson. This is how to deny the opposition the opportunity to play.

Add to that our continuing inability to defend set pieces and, in this game, to clear our lines or even simply pass the ball and it was a recipe for heavy defeat. Kevin Nicoll had a terrible game in midfield – absolutely awful – and I lost count of the number of times two of our players went for the same ball or one hit it against another and so lost possession. And having two smallish strikers up against tall defenders isn’t perhaps the best recipe for success.

We started brightly enough – without ever threatening their goal – but the signs at Cowden corners were there from early on. And so it came to pass that from one of those, Stephen Grindlay let the ball through him for the second game in a row. Their second came after we had again failed to clear the ball and it broke to the guy who had an easy chance.

Then, a minor miracle. Against the run of play and out of nothing Craig Dargo eventually made the most of a Joe Mbu mistake to score his first for Sons across the goalkeeper. It seemd to take an age to hit the net.

Faint hopes of a comeback were extinguished when Mbu was left unmarked from a free kick.

I was going to say we dominated the second half but that would only be true of possession. We threatened about twice and the keeper saved them both. At least we competed a bit better and started trying to stretch them wide.

Their fourth was a direct result of our (ridiculously late) double substitution as Cowden exploited the space left by Ryan Finnie’s removal to surge down the left and whip in a cross.

They should have got a fifth a minute later but somehow their forward hit it into Grindlay from 5 yards out.

After our straight losses to Cowden and Arbroath two weeks ago I had feared that after this one we’d be level with Stenny, but they lost today too.

Still four points ahead of fourth (with a negative goal difference!) but E Fife are coming up on the rails.

There are three towns/villages in Fife with Wemyss in their names.

I featured West Wemyss on 29/2/12. It lies down on the coast off the coast road which leads east.

Climbing back up the hill out of West Wemyss and turning eastwards at the road junction you immediately enter Coaltown of Wemyss.

Passing through the village soon takes you into East Wemyss.

Famous accordionist and band leader Jimmy Shand was born here. There is a memorial to him near the foreshore.

Jimmy is more associated with another Fife village, Auchtermuchty, where his family moved soon after his birth. His signature tune was The Bluebell Polka, a hit in 1955. The video below was filmed in 1994. He was knighted in 1999.

Jimmy Shand: The Bluebell Polka

East Wemyss is known for a series of caves some of which have carvings which date back to Pictish times. The TV series Time Team investigated the caves in 2005.

The East Wemyss War Memorial is nicely set on a corner. The WW2 names are on the lower plaque. There is also one name for a post-World War conflict.

We somehow missed the Coaltown of Wemyss war memorial on the day the above photos were taken despite driving through it twice in broad daylight. Curiously on the next Tuesday as I was returning home from the East Fife game in the dark I did see it; on the gable-end of a building on the main street. So, next time.

SFL Div 2, New Bayview Stadium, 21/2/12.

Onwards and upwards; but I wouldn’t have given much for our chances at half-time. Apart from a great save by the keeper from a Brian Prunty lob just after they had scored we didn’t trouble their goal much. There was one great cross from James Creaney which no-one got on the end of (probably because up to then his crosses had been crap.)

E. Fife hit us on the break time after time and seemed to get past our back line too easily. The goal came from one such: a quick ball forward to a player who looked yards offside when he got the ball but couldn’t have been because the lino didn’t give it. (She gave other marginal ones though so no complaints.) Bobby Linn finished it well. Stephen Grindlay had a few small pass-back bombscares but saved us just before the half with a fine save with his legs in a one-on-one (after a defensive mistake let a nippy E. Fife forward in.)

Second half our defence never really looked in difficulty. One of our attacks had the ball played in to Prunty who elected to pass rather than shoot first time (the familiar failing) and Mark Gilhaney then took a touch so the chance was lost.

The goal came more or less out of nowhere the ball breaking to Gilhaney on the edge of the box who, for a wonder, hit it first time. A deflection took it past the keeper.

Two substitions saw Ally Graham replace the ever-willing worker Pat Walker and Mark Lamont come on for Ryan Finnie. It was difficult to tell but we may have reverted to 4-2-2 at this point. Lamont – unrecognisable from the poor player who came on late at Forfar last week – proceeded to rampage down our left side, giving the Fife defence loads of problems. It was his cross that an unmarked Ally Graham headed in to give us the win.

We could have had another a few minutes later when Prunty brilliantly took the ball down but then blazed it over and seemed to hurt himself in the process.

Another three points without us being particularly impressive. What is the Second Division coming to?

Take a look at these historical league tables (top four only) which show when Cowdenbeath FC has won the Scottish Second Division.

Scottish League Division Two 1913-14

1 Cowdenbeath P 22 pts 31
2 Albion Rovers P 22 pts 27
3 Dundee Hibernian P 22 pts 26
4 Dunfermline Ath P 22 pts 26

In those days promotion wasn’€™t automatic so Cowdenbeath were in Division Two the next year. Cowdenbeath were one of three teams on equal points at the top.

Scottish League Division Two 1914-15

1 Leith Athletic P 26 pts 37
2 St Bernards P 26 pts 37
3 Cowdenbeath P 26 pts 37
4 East Stirlingshire P 26 pts 31

A three-way play-off decided the league winners. Cowdenbeath defeated Leith Athletic at East End Park and St. Bernards at Easter Road to take the title.

Scottish League Division Two 1938-39

1 Cowdenbeath P 34 pts 60
2 Alloa Athletic P 34 pts 48
3 East Fife P 34 pts 48
4 Airdrieonians P 34 pts 47

Cowdenbeath’s only other Championship was in Div 3 in 2006. Their other promotions came as runners-up, through play-offs or as a result of another club’s financial problems leading to a readjustment in the leagues.

So does anyone spot something here?

Well, I notice that every time Cowdenbeath have been Champions of a Division 2 in Scotland the UK has been involved in a major (world) war the next September.

Now take a gander at the present position in the SFL Div 2 (as of 7/2/12) :-

1 Cowdenbeath P 20 pts 41
2 Arbroath P 20 pts 39
3 Stenhousemuir P 20 pts 31
4 Dumbarton P 19 pts 28

Gulp!

Come on Arbroath!!! (And the Sons, obviously.)

SFL Div 2, New Bayview Stadium, 26/12/11 (not.)

I had intended to go to this but high winds intervened.

At least, thanks to the internet, I learned about it before I set out. The last two times we’ve had a game postponed at Methil I’d got to the ground – and listened to the football programmes on the radio on the way; without a peep from them about any postponement.

I might not be able to make the rearranged fixture whenever it takes place. I don’t suppose the crowd will be as large as today’s could have been either. A holiday afternoon in balmy temperatures will always beat a freezing cold winter’s evening; which it almost certainly will be.

It seems ages since I’ve seen a game.

A slightly shorter version of this post appeared as “Dumbarton FC, The Sons of the Rock” in The Bayview, Official East Fife Matchday Magazine, Issue 5, Saturday 27th August 2011.

Just what collection of players to wear their team’s colours fans will look back on with fondness must to a large extent depend on their age. Though someone of my years and long experience of following Dumbarton might say we rather lucked into it, young(ish) Dumbarton supporters will no doubt regard the promotion winning team of 2008-9 – none of whom now remain at the club only two short years later – with a rosy glow; albeit forever tinged with sadness at the tragic death of captain Gordon Lennon only a few weeks after lifting the trophy. And that side does have to its credit not only a 3rd Division championship but the longest consecutive playing time without conceding a goal in the club’s history; over 350 mins.

But no-one alive will remember what must be Dumbarton’s greatest achievements; a single Scottish Cup (in 1883) – a time when we were in the forefront of tactical innovation in using the 2-3-5 formation – and twice winning the top division, in 1891 (shared) and 1892.

In my memory Dumbarton have won promotion a total of six times; – a seventh lies in the distant mists of 1913 when we were elected upwards – from sixth position! (In those days promotion wasn’t automatic. A Second Division Championship in 1911 still saw us in Division 2 for 1911-12.)

My father’s generation had much less to celebrate. It was fifty long years from relegation in 1922 till the Sons finally lifted themselves back into the top Division, with only the (Festival of Britain) St Mungo Quaich win of 1951 to lighten the darkness. There was, though, a tendency to romanticise the nearly men of the mid to late 1950s; a team that flirted with promotion but always fell short. It featured Tim Whalen and Hughie Gallacher (the club’s all time record scorer with 205 goals overall) whose stays overlapped with those of the long-standing full back partnership of Tommy Govan and Andy Jardine (250 and 299 appearances respectively, according to a website I consulted, most of them together.) I actually remember seeing those guys play but it was the fact that Hughie Gallacher took over in goal one game – no substitutes at all, never mind goalies, in those days – that really sticks in my mind. He was pretty good at stopping them as I recall, but we still lost that game.

One of the promotions was the elevation to the Premier Division in 1984, an adventure that lasted only the one season. A final taste of the elite alas, as we have never made it back. That team featured Bolton manager (and ex-Son) Owen Coyle’s two brothers in its midfield and leant heavily on the goals of Kenny Ashwood.

The Second Division winners of 1991-2, when Charlie Gibson and John McQuade starred, scored the single best Dumbarton team goal I can remember. Cowdenbeath had just equalised in a crucial top of the table clash at Boghead. From the kick-off the ball circulated round the team in a great passing move before, over a minute later, and without an opposition player touching the ball, John McQuade planted it in the net. Promotion was secured on the penultimate day of the season as Cowdenbeath and Alloa, the other contenders, both one point behind, only had each other to play. The Championship was duly sealed in a draw with Arbroath.

League reconstruction (as in 1922!) saw us demoted for 1994-5, placed in the new third tier. With Murdo McLeod as manager the side needed to win at Stirling – who themselves only needed to draw with us – in the last game to be promoted as runners-up. A 2-0 win sent Dumbarton fans into delirium. What happened in the next three seasons, though, was dire. Two successive relegations, including a period of over a year when we did not win a single game, ended up with us bottom of the whole pile in 1998. The following four seemingly endless years of Division 3 football saw our tenure at Boghead, at the time the longest occupancy of a single site in British football, come to an end. In this forum, though, I’d better not dwell on the result of the final game there.

Another runners-up promotion swiftly arrived in 2002. The prolific if frustrating Paddy Flannery (77 goals for the club in 175 games) was the spearhead of that side, with the less heralded Andy Brown a willing side-kick. The promotion hero, though, was goalkeeper John Wight who saved a penalty in the last minute of the last game to make sure we could not be overtaken.

For me, though, the one that sends the memory banks into raptures is 1972. That year it all came together. The club’s centenary season, 50 years since top flight football, the town’s 900th anniversary of Royal Burgh status. Kenny Wilson had an astonishing 38 goals in 36 league games, some of them in vital 1-0 wins. Mid-season he made it onto the scoresheet in a record twelve consecutive matches, and he scored all five in a 5-0 rout of Raith Rovers. And that 38 doesn’t include the free-kicks and penalties he won for Charlie Gallacher to bang in. But big Roy McCormack scored the peach. At Love Street on Christmas Day 1971 he walloped a volley from out near the touchline about fifteen yards into St Mirren’s half. It flew over the keeper’s head, hit the stanchion full on and bounced out beyond the penalty spot. It was astounding. The ref thought it had hit the bar but the linesman gave it. Roy thumped two others not quite so good in the games either side against Alloa the previous week and Clydebank the next. Sweet, sweet.

Other highlights are Jumbo Muir’s waltz all the way from our penalty area through half of the Clyde team at Shawfield before finally putting the ball in the net, Lee Sharp’s belter at Almondvale in 1996, the 5-2 win at Tynecastle in 1982* against a Hearts side desperate for promotion (we were up the park three times in the second half and scored each one) and the 0-0 draw in 1970 in the League Cup semi-final against the Celtic team that made the European Cup Final that season. The replay was 2-2, then in extra time a (Lou Macari?) cross was flagged by the linesman as out of play until Wilson headed it in. The flag mysteriously went down. (Bitter? Me? No. It’s only been forty one years.) We did have a bit of revenge. Celtic had scored another and started to play keep-ball. When we got it back we played keep-ball too. Except we suddenly switched to a quick passing move up the left, put in a great cross and scored. In subsequent seasons we had 3-3 and 2-2 draws at Parkhead in the league. After our second equaliser in the latter of those the ref was looking round desperately for someone to give him a reason to chalk it off. The linesman didn’t help that time.

Yet the real emotion wasn’t for these or any promotion. Somehow the crucial last day relegation avoiders in 1973, 4-1 against Dundee Utd, and 2003, 4-1 again, Raith the victims, have meant much, much more. Perhaps it’s the release of the fear that makes sure it’s so. The hope fulfilled. We non-glory hunters who follow lower league sides don’t get that very often.

Addendum:-
*It seems I have misremembered this game slightly. Big Rab’s blog a week or so ago featured a newspaper clipping which says we were 2-1 down at half time that day. So we were up the park not 3, but 4 times in the second half; and scored each one. Even better.

In his afterword to the article the programme editor says that in addition to being a long-term Sons fan, “Jack Deighton lives in Kirkcaldy and has taught in Cowdenbeath and Dunfermline. Jack knows all about pain.”

SFL Div 2, New Bayview Stadium, 27/8/11.

We don’t get days like this very often. Utter dreamland.

At half time it was 4-0 going on a basketball score. Dumbarton were totally dominant. I don’t know what the corner count was but we were in double figures. Whether East Fife were suffering from their exertions against Dunfermline in midweek is problematic (and they also lost a midfielder early on due to a reckless challenge on his part) but they were never at the races here.

The first came from the selfless Pat Walker chasing down a hopelessly lost cause and forcing a corner which was pushed out on the opposite side for another. The Fife defence switched off, Mark Gilhaney took it short to Martin McBride who curled it deliciously into the far corner of the net. The next followed a flick on by Pat Walker from another corner, the ball broke to Prunty. 2-0. The third (from another corner?) was another case of the ball falling to Prunty. The fourth was headered by Jamie Lyden from yet another corner – from the right this time. It squirmed under the keeper, the only one of the six he was at fault for.

I cannot remember when the last time was we were 4-0 up away from home at half time. Neither could the rest of the – actually rather disbelieving, though delirious – Sons fans around me. It may never have happened before.

Then came something else I’ve not seen before. Training apparatus was set out in the interval and the team came out early to do a session.

This was, I guessed, a response to the fact that in the previous two games we had lost early goals in the second half.

There was a small flurry by the Fife on the restart but it didn’t come to much. Apart from a little understandable looseness at times given the huge lead we had, normal service was resumed thereafter and again we carved the E Fife defence apart at will. Over elaboration, by Mark Gilhaney in particular, meant no more goals for a while. Then Jamie Lyden came into contact with an opponent in our box. It was soft – though I’d have screamed for it at the other end – and the ref may have felt sorry for the Fife. But so abject were they Jamie Ewings saved the penalty.

Prunty finally got his hat-trick before adding a fourth after a great pass from sub Kieran Brannan following a fine run.

This is probably the first time since the mid 1950s a Son has scored four in an away match. In that famous game – Arbroath 5 Dumbarton 4 – Hughie Gallacher scored all four of ours while Dave Easson got all of Arbroath’s.

It may seem strange that, despite his four goals, Bryan Prunty isn’t my man of the match. But Pat Walker deserves it for his tireless running and getting battered by the defence every time he challenged for a high ball. Prunty actually had quite a few more chances which he hit straight at the keeper.

But overall the whole team was a success – no exceptions. With better final balls and less elaboration we might have had a rugby score.

Jamie Lyden is enough to make you forget Nicky Devlin, plus Jamie has goals in him. Jamie Ewings had only one hairy moment when he played the ball just a little too far round the charging attacker on a back pass but he managed to get rid of it quickly enough.

After our somewhat shaky start the boys should not lack confidence now.

I’ve been a bit knackered this week. I started back at work, which is always a shock to the system. That tree I mentioned three years ago – I’ve been blogging for three years? – is looking a bit peaky; but perhaps it always does. Time for reading has fallen drastically.

But I’ve been busy on another count. The man in charge of the East Fife programme has asked me to write an article to appear in the issue for our game there next Saturday (27^th Aug) which got me irrationally excited.

I’ve splurged out 1203 words and I’ll need to cut it for publication. So that’s my weekend gone.

(Well I may go to Brechin today but the prospects aren’t good.)

SFL Div 2, The Rock, 19/3/11

Matches between the Sons and the Fife are never dull it seems. That makes it 11-10 to us over this season’ s four games.

A good win, this.

I believe it’s the first time this season we’ve gone behind and subsequently won the game.

The three points give us a bit of daylight over Stenny (and Alloa.) Peterhead need to turn things round. At the minute they look in a bad way.