SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 7/3/26.

An odd thing happened at this game.

We looked like an actual football team.

Unlike last week where we started as if we hadn’t seen each other before, this was cohesive right from the kick-off. We peppered their box with crosses and though balls.

Mind you with every wasted promising situation I was beginning to think that this had them scoring from their first opportunity written all over it. Thankfully that wasn’t to be.

Diminutive midfield loanee Alexander Smith (known as Smudge or Smudger apparently) was putting himself about to good effect with some great footwork. He also carried out defensive duties, tracking back well and harrying opponents.

It was frustrating not to be ahead at half time.

That frustration ended on 51 minutes. A great cross from the overlapping Ali Omar – we seemed to be playing three at the back with him on the left – found Gordon Walker free towards the back post. His bullet header was diverted by the keeper onto the bar but it came down and bounced off his back into the net.

Spartans then began to play with a bit more urgency but didn’t trouble loanee keeper Aidan Rice much except for a good save he made with his feet.

Then Scott Tomlinson got the better of a defender whose feet got in a muddle and his cross was converted under the keeper with a great back heel flick by Leighton McIntosh.

The third came because Spartans were overcommitted.  A swift counterattack saw Scott Tomlinson cross again this time for Scott Honeyman to deliver the coup de grace.

Players and fans were enjoying themselves now even if there was time for Aidan Rice to make a good save from the only threatening shot he faced from outside the box.

We need this kind of performance to carry on to Tuesday night against Stranraer. Especially since Edinburgh City also won yesterday to keep within touching distance of us.

SPFL Tier 4, Galabank, 10/2/26.

Well, I wasn’t at this, but it could vey well be the death knell for our SPFL tenure.

Made worse by the fact their winner was scored by Joel Mumbongo who couldn’t hit a barn door for us last season.

It’s now five points taken from the past thirty three possible. That’s not just relegation form. It’s oblivion.

We’ve only won twice at home in the league all season.

And this Saturday we’re at home again – to Stranraer, historically our Kryptonite.

There’s no hiding place any more. We’ve played the same number of games as Edinburgh City and are only two points in front – which could be evaporated by game end on Saturday (though they are playing leaders The Spartans.) But we can’t rely on others.

The overly hasty appointment by new owner Mario Lapointe of Frank McKeown as manager after Stevie Farrell was given the boot looks increasingly disastrous.

Mario may have a brain for business but it seems he doesn’t know a lot about football.

It’s now very, very difficult to see where even a point is going to come from – never mind a win.

Moreover, finishing bottom will mean we’re gone. We won’t win the Tier 4 play-off. And going down into the Lowland League (West) will be all but impossible to come back from.

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 31/1/26.

Well, this was a six-pointer and we lost it. So, instead of being 8 points ahead of them with a win or 5 with the draw we are now only two in front.

We started the season ten points ahead due to their fifteen points deduction. They have now made up eight of a difference – and nine of them were against us. They seem to have a hex on us.

We started well enough and had most of the possession and loads of corners. Mark Durnan had a good header well saved by the keeper before we scored. From a corner the keeper only just tipped the ball against the bar and the header back came down from the bar again and fell for Leighton McIntosh to put it in from two yards. Said keeper by the way ought to have been off for continuing to contest his yellow card for time wasting while Leighton McIntosh was gettng treatment for an injury. He must have been at it for at least two minutes moaning at the linesman.

They hadn’t troubled Brent Long in our goal at all then not long before half-time Adam Livingstone was booked for walking into somebody – they fell over at the slightest excuse all game, refs really should be more wise to this – and as a result backed off a challenge in the ensuing attack allowing his man inside where a pass to a free man led to an uncontested shot into the net.

It was all over when they scored again even though there was most of the second half to go.

Yes we did hit the bar twice but that’s what happens when you’re on a bad run.

I would have said Edin City didn’t deserve to win they only had three shots on target all game but they scored twice and we didn’t so they did deserve it.

It now looks increasingly likely we will finish bottom and I can’t see us winning the play-off. It will after all be against a team who will have momentum with them.

New owner Mario Lapointe’s lack of knowledge and instinct for football is costing us big time. The decision to replace sacked manager Stevie Farrell with his deputy Frank McKeown within a day or so is utterly inexplicable.

It’s a more scary time to be a Sons fan now than it was when we were in admin.

SPFL Tier, Meadowbank Stadium, 6/12/25.

Well. Not a good start to the new era. It might as well be a continuation of the old one. (Oh, wait.*)

We lost four goals again. That’s three games in a row now. And we lost a goal early on – to another penalty conceded. Yet another penalty followed just before half-time and things were made worse before the break by losing another goal at 45+5 minutes.

We couldn’t even keep it tight after the break. 4-0 down after 47 minutes.

I’m guessing Edinburgh City took their feet off the accelerator then – or it may have been their substitutions weakened them. Whatever, we actuually managed to score three unanswered goals from then on, two of them penalties of our own – but all much too little too late.

*The installation of Frank McKeown, the previous assistant manager  under Stevie Farrrell, late in the week probably means it is a continuation. I would have said it’s an ill-considered appointment except it maybe wasn’t considered at all. It smacks too much of haste and didn’t really inspire much hope, a feeling only underlined by this loss.

McKeown has a lot to do to win the fans over and increasingly the same might apply to new owner Mario Lapointe, to whom many thanks are due for saving the club from going under totally but whose lack of knowledge of Scottish football and the way things work is beginning to look a touch ominous.

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock,* 30/8/25.

Like a fortnight ago against Elgin this was a display of the footballing black arts. They were diving and falling over at the slightest hint of contact and the referee was conned by it nearly every time. It’s the sort of thing we need to get wise to and maybe develop ourselves.

Nevertheless this was a result we deserved. We didn’t create anything like enough and I can barely remember an effort on goal barring Ally Roy’s header (straight at the keeper) from a Scott Tomlinson cross. Our goal came from a corner and seems to have been put into his own net by ex-Son Edin Lynch.

Their goals were too easily won, though given the ref’s performance I suppose our players were thinking any sort of tackle would be given as a foul, which indeed their penalty was given as. It didn’t look like much to me but in the box perhaps best avoided.

Despite some signs of Ally Roy and Leighton McIntosh forming a partnership up front, they were living off scraps. We need a creative midfield fast.

*Marbill Coaches Stadium

SPFL Tier 3 Play-off, Semi-Final, Second Leg, The Rock, 7/5/22.

We needed an early goal to have any hope of putting the wind up them. Needless to say it wasn’t forthcoming.

The first half was pretty much nothing. And, criminally, no urgency on our part .

A quadruple substitution early in the second half brightened us up and brought a goal from a Kalvin Orsi cross and Kris Syvertsen’s head.

The great comeback on?

No. This is Dumbarton, vintage 2022.

It would only ever have taken one goal to down us. And it did. Three minutes after ours. Our defence parted like theatre curtains. No-one put in a challenge to stop their player getting his shot away.

Mind you, it had been coming. They had had several efforts on target thwarted by Kieran Wright or else squandered.

But the damage had been done in the first leg – and all through the season.

So our centenary year will be spent in the bottom tier of the top league in Scotland.

Even if that’s been our natural habitat for most of my life there’s now an air of doom about the club that has never been there before. The murkiness of the club’s ownership is a constant threat and contributed greatly to our recent woes.

I dread to think where we’ll spend the season after next.

If we still exist.

Expletive deleted.

SPFL Tier 3 Play-off, Semi-Final, First Leg, Ainslie Park, 03/05/22.

Calamity.

Shambles.

Disgrace.

Choose your own noun.

Whichever, this was a come-uppance that has been coming all season.

We weren’t the worse team in the first half; indeed we had several opportunities to put in good crosses, notably from Ross MacLean, but the delivery was never acceptable enough except when Conner Duthie put one over for Josh Oyinsan to head. Josh’s angle was slightly wrong and the ball just cleared the bar. That would have made it 1-1 and might have changed the game.

But our perennial ability to shoot ourselves in the foot manifested itself when George Stanger underhit a back-pass and Kieran Wright couldn’t prevent the forward getting past him to be presented with an open goal.

Their second was also an abject disaster, a corner somehow not being cleared and the ball going in off Gregor Buchanan. At that point any thought of winning this tie all but disappeared.

Mind you, if we had approached the start of the first half the way we did the second things might have been different. For the first twenty minutes we were all over them, creating space down the flanks and getting crosses in. It was two odd substitutions though with Kris Syvertsen who had looked as if he might create something and big Josh (who admittedly wasn’t at his best) being replaced by Kalvin Orsi and Callum Wilson. At this point Paul Paton was bossing the game from the base of midfield and it was his cross that was looped over the keeper from the edge of the box for our goal. Young Callum did his best, twisting and turning past defenders several times, but nobody was able to be calm enough to finish off his work.

Their third killed it. Another defensive mix-up and a reasonable save from Keiran Wright was followed by a failure to clear the ball which fell to a guy who couldn’t miss.

At 2-1 and with us on top there was the possibility of getting an equaliser but that goal knocked us back. 3-1 was always going to be a different prospect.

The final nail in the coffin with minutes to go – another short pass back latched on to by the home attack – just completed the humiliation.

The thought of watching the second leg was by then almost unbearable.

So; unless some sort of miracle happens on Saturday we now know where we’ll be playing next season; Tier 4.

Who knows where we’ll be the season after that?

The club is in deep trouble on and off the park. It’s its 150^th anniversary later this year. What a sorry state it’s in to greet that.

Profound change is required.

SPFL Tier 3, Balmoral Stadium, 23/4/22.

This was an odd experience. I’ve been at an away ground before where the home team could win promotion that day (Stark’s Park, when Jimmy Nichol was Raith player-manager) and it was a much more raucous affair.

For a team about to win a championship the home crowd was strangely muted. Maybe it’s an Aberdeen thing. Alex Ferguson said that the most encouragement the Pittodrie faithful gave his team was that, “You could hear them rustling their sweetie papers.”

Whatever the only chanting in the first half came from the small cohort of Dumbarton fans giving it the usual. “We’re only here for the party,” “What a shitey home support,” and “Shall we sing a song for you,” were each given a run-out.

We had the better of the earlier exchanges and their keeper made more saves (two) than ours (one) in the first half. Ross MacLean was worked into a good poaition on the left of the box but his shot was at a perfect height for the keeper to save it. Then Connor Duthie had a shot blocked and Josh Oyinsan shanked the rebound wide. Josh worked another opportunity afew minutes later but his finish was a bit weak and close to the keeper. At the other end Kieran Wright came out to smother a shot in a one-on-one. A pretty nothing first half in truth. The home team were just that though, a team, clearly used to playing with each other. Their passes generally found their target whereas ours could be wayward. However they didn’t look like a side hoping to win their league that day, with not much urgency to their play.

In the second half they did step it up a bit, but only a bit. Patience is a virtue and their one good opportunity was put away, former Son Mitch Megginson unaccountably left free at the edge of our box to rilfe it home. There was really only one winner after that, though we had a flurry towards the end. In retrospect the three changes our manager Stevie Farrell made simultaneously on 66 minutes perhaps made us less potent.

The plastic pitch had done for Eoghan Stokes 14 minutes in. It looked like his studs got too much grip on it and he was forced off.

Balmoral Stadium itself is a kind of soulless place to play football. At the edge of an industrial estate and overlooked by radio and microwave transmitters, it has a tiny stand (a bit like Boghead’s old Postage Stamp) straddling the halfway line with flat surrounds beside it and on the other three sides, though with three shallow stepped enclosures on the side opposite the stand. If there’s one persion standing in front of you you won’t be able to see any of the action. You have to be on the rail. In adddition the goal nets are almost touching the “terracing” barriers behind the goals.

Anyway, congratulatiosn to Cove Rangers on their winning the league.

As for us, a nothing game next Saturday before the nerve shredding play-off. For the second season in a row we’ll come up against Edinburgh City, away on 3^rd or 4^th May, with the home leg on 7^th May. I’m not looking beyond that.

Today Sons’ new league season begins. It doesn’t seem any time at all since the aggregate play-off win against Edinburgh City and of course we have had three games in the League Cup* already but this is the big one.

We kick our SPFL Tier 3** campaign off away from home against Clyde. What with the usual churn of players in the close season I have no idea what to expect.

At least with luck we’ll go the full 36 games this time unlike in the past two seasons.

Sometime during it I might even get to see us play in person rather than on a screen.

* Premier Sports Cup

** You can call it cinch League One if you wish.

SPFL Tier 3, Play-off Final, Second Leg, The Rock, 20/5/21.

So we survived. Just.

But we were Dumbarton nil to the last.

That Edinburgh City goal made it nervy for the last forty minutes or so. Had it not been for their forward diving and so receiving a second yellow card it might have been worse. They had looked full of belief just after they scored – or rather we looked a bit unsure of ourselves at the back.

Speaking of the goal, as soon as it was lofted in I was screaming for Sam Ramsbottom to come for it. He didn’t, and the forward took advantage of the combined defensive uncertainty. It was a neat finish by him but Ramsbottom cost us there.

We hadn’t looked at all troubled first half but we had the wind behind us then. Not that we made anything of it.

Adam Frizell had a good (self-created) effort just tipped away by their keeper. Otherwise we threatened not at all.

This has been a dreadful season. I suppose we deserve to stay up – because we did – but the watching has been hard.

The way things are going next season will be just as tough. Unless things change at the club.