SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 5/9/26

A win is welcome but I couldn’t say we really deserved it.

The game was very bitty but while Elgin looked good at times with passing and movement they didn’t threaten our goal at all first half. They were the better team footballing wise, though. At least they looked as if they had a clue what they were supposed to be doing, whereas, of course we didn’t. In particular our set-piece delivery continues to be atrocious.

At least we seem to have dispensed with the playing out from the back rubbish. Returned keeper Harry Broun, brought back to the club due to Aidan Rice being injured playing for his parent club, maybe doesn’t suit that, but who knows?

It was selection bingo all over again and we seemed to be back to the 3-5-2 which served us well enough towards the end of last season, but with Leighton McIntosh dropped for new boy Robbie Cleary who partnered Deryn Lang up front.

Josiah Sowa was agreeably tenacious at left wing-back but it nullified his attacking qualities.

In effect our first was a one man effort by Robbie Cleary and the second not something you’ll see very often.

Ali Omar took a free-kick from inside our half. At first I thought, “He’s overhit that, what was he thinking?” then, “Where’s the keeper? It might beat him,” then “It’s going in!” then, “Was it a direct free-kick?” which of course it was.

We stood off them too much after the subsequent substitutions, our midfield disappearing, and of course the inevitable happened.  We’d managed to survive the one minute off the field for a treated injury but were still re-organising back with eleven men when they scored. Too easily.

The performance wasn’t great – too many misplaced passes, no creativity, no penetration – but sometimes you win when you don’t deserve to. And you can’t rely on a worldie like we saw today.

I’m sure a different manager could get more out of these players. They’re good enough; they just need better direction.

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 4, The Rock,* 16/08/25.

This was a brutal watch. From the start we were more or less on the back foot. Elgin hit the bar with almost their first foray upfield.

They took the lead half an hour in, the scorer given too much space and rifling it past Shay Kelly. I think their keeper only had to field one ball the whole half, a cross cum shot from Scott Tomlinson.

They were much more streetwise, falling over at any contact – and the ref didn’t see through them. Indeed he gave some baffling decisions all through the game, not least only a yellow card for what was in effect an assault on Dom Docherty who had to leave the pitch after lengthy treatment, nursing his shoulder. They were also time wasting from when they scored until we got the equaliser.

That came after about the only decent move we had all game, Leighton McIntosh getting down the right and crossing for Scott Honeyman to bundle it in. He fell over in the effort, I think it went in off his chest.

They had a succession of corners towards the end and I feared the worst. We also gave away a couple of silly free-kicks (well one of them was the ref being conned again.) The last was just outside the box. Their stepping over routine opened up the wall but Shay Kelly got down magnificently to touch it round the post.

Whatever else this game showed how difficult this season is going to be.

Edited to add: I meant to say it was the first time I’ve seen a goalkeeper penalised under the new eight second rule. Not Shay, the Elgin keeper.

*Marbill Coaches Stadium

I mentioned in this post that our journey up to and back down from Elgin last April turned out to be a peregrination through the heartland of the Highland League.

It meant I have now visited nearly all of the towns which have hosted past or present Highland League clubs during my lifetime.

The first of these would have been Inverness (home to Caledonian FC,* Clachnacuddin and Inverness Thistle*.) I have walked past Caledonian’s former Telford Street Park ground and been to a game at Clachnacuddin’s Grant Street Park but never saw Thistle’s ground, Kingsmills. I think I may have visited Dingwall (Ross County) around the same time. After that – or possibly before – it would have been Brechin (many times now) to see The Sons of the Rock play Brechin City at Glebe Park. Next up was probably Fort William. Another trip to Inverness saw us take in Nairn (Nairn County) and Forres (Forres Mechanics.)

I don’t think I went to Aberdeen (Banks O’ Dee, Cove Rangers,) until well after those trips.

Then on our first sojourn up to Orkney we passed through Brora (Brora Rangers) and Wick (Wick Academy.) A year or so later a journey up to Aberdeenshire saw us in Inverurie (Inverurie Loco Works,) Huntly and Turriff (Turriff United.) In 2019 we went to Peterhead and on to Fraserburgh. The year after that on another trip to Peterhead we visited Pitmedden (Formartine United.)

And so to last April’s journey, passing through Grantown-on-Spey (Strathspey Thistle) and Rothes before reaching Elgin (Elgin City) with a side trip to Lossiemouth. Then finally, on the way back home, Keith.

So, out of all the towns/cities to host clubs in the Highland League during my lifetime I have only Buckie (Buckie Thistle) and Banff (Deveronvale) to visit.

*The present SPFL club whose name contains these two descriptors was formed when Caledonian and Inverness Thistle merged in 1994 to ensure entry into the then SFL. That merged team, Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC, have never played in the Highland League.

Borough Briggs is the home of Elgin City FC.

This is the reason we made the trip up north in April. I had never visited Borough Briggs. And the mighty Sons of the Rock had a game there.

(Of current SPFL grounds the only ones I still have to visit are St Mirren Park, Paisley (I was at St Mirren’s old ground in Love Street,) Victoria Park, Dingwall (Ross County) and Central Park (Kelty Hearts,) though there are some others I haven’t photographed since it was a long time ago.

During World War 2 a pillbox was built on the west terracing (called, I believe, the Bank.) See here. Those nefarious Germans could have attacked from anywhere after all. Sadly it was demolished as part of the conditions for Elgin joining the SFL, as it then was, in 2000.

Borough Briggs from road:-

External facade:-

Opposite view from first above:-

East Goal:-

North enclosure from entrance gate:-

Main stand from east terrace:-

Inside North Enclosure, with west terrace beyond:-

Borough Briggs east Tterrace from North Enclosure:-

Main stand from west terrace:-

SPFL Tier 4, Borough Briggs, SPFL Tier 4, 29/4/23.

Another ground new to me ticked off the list.

But the game was turgid end-of-season stuff.

We had nothing to play for. Given they needed a result I was surprised Elgin were so lacklustre throughout though. Before their last minute winner (another header from a set-piece, this is getting to be a habit) they only troubled Harry Broun in goal twice; once after Martin McNiff got himself into a fankle and let in – of all people – Kane Hester, Broun saved with his foot, and another from a long range shot which Broun had to dive full length to push away.

Not that we gave their keeper much bother- a Ryan Blair shot in the first half stung his palms, Finlay Gray forced him into a diving save late on – but earlier Ally Love could perhaps have kept his lob down a bit more.

That late goal, after an unnecessarily conceded free kick, deprived us of another clean sheet. It sent them and their fans into delirium though.

I hope we’re keeping our powder dry for the play-offs.

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 25/2/23.

We have gone seriously off the boil. That’s eleven points dropped in our last six games. So, not a good time to lose at home for the first time this season.

As last week we went behind pretty early. At least this time we got an equaliser through Ryan Blair but we gave away a penalty early in the second half.

It seems from Pie and Bovril that we were truly bad today too.

Plus we’ve got a game on Tuesday against Stenhousemuir at home and they’ve come onto a game recently.

Then it’s away to Stranraer next Saturday and our record there is awful.

By the time we play Stirling Albion on Tuesday week we could well be behind them.

SPFL Tier 4, Borough Briggs, 12/11/22.

Gosh. I didn’t expect this. 4-0 sounds pretty comprehensive.

And it’s made even better by our lead at the top of the division being stretched to five points.

Four different scorers too – Ross MacLean, Gregg Wylde, Aron Lynas and Ryan Wallace, plus another clean sheet.

All this without Finlay Gray, who has been perhaps our most influential player, and no out and out striker.

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.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 27/8/22.

Club history!

Never before have we won our first five league games in a row.

Being a Dumbarton supporter of long-standing this is a very unusual circumstance to behold. We have won five games in a row mid-season but I still wonder if I’m dreaming.

We’ve yet to play three of the top five though.

I just don’t know what to think about it.

It’s almost incidental who actually scored but it was Ally Love with two penalties within minutes of each other. (Not Carsy on penalty duty I note.)

It’s East Fife away next week in what, since I live in Fife, amounts to a home game for me.

But since I’ve not seen us live this season I have a quandary. Do I keep doing the same thing as I’ve done every Saturday so far or go to the game and risk being a jinx?