SFL Div 2, Station Park, 24/9/11.

A welcome win. But… Something weird is going on.

We haven’t won (or even drawn) at home in the league. Yet away, we’ve won two, drawn one (and lost one.)

We had marginally the better of the early exchanges here though neither side looked likely to score until a run through led to a good save by the Forfar keeper and Brian Prunty just missed the rebound; in the stramash Mark Gilhaney’s blocked shot came back to him and he smashed it against the bar but Prunty was offside and his tap-in didn’t count.

We soon lost the hard running Pat Walker to injury but the sub David Winters scored when the Forfar defence stood still at a Scott Agnew free kick. In oceans of space and with his back to goal Winters fashioned a kind of horizontal bicycle bick to slot the opener.

All through the game Forfar played neat and tidy stuff and tried to pass the ball but generally looked curiously out of sorts. They had several half-chances but no clear cut opportunities.

Forfar’s keeper had at least three good saves though, one from Mark Gilhaney squirmed onto the post before bouncing out.

Our second came when a bit of dig from Scott Agnew in midfileld won him the ball and he despatched Gihaney whose cross was killed by Prunty to set up a volley which he thumped into the net.

Then came the most ridiculous sending off. A nothing situation gave us a throw in on the halfway line and a Forfar player pushed David Winters who fended him off with his hands. The ref scurried over flashing a red card. The Forfar guy escaped with only a yellow.

We managed to hold out without too much torment – though I was looking at my watch a lot – and we seemed quite well organised at the back. Paul Nugent was solid at right back. Loanee Ross McKinnon was okay at left mid but may not be quite match fit.

Apart from the win the most noteworthy occurence was Stephen Grindlay came for and held several cross balls!!!! That’s been missing from his game for too long. (He did miss one later on though.)

SFL Div 2, The Rock, 7/5/11

Well. We’ve had four clean sheets this season in the league and I’ve seen two of them!

This was as much of a non-event as might be expected when nothing rode on it for either side but that’s two points in successive games from teams who had beaten us thrice already. Two points I thought we’d struggle for.

Here’s a typical scene from the game. All twenty outfield players within a space of about twenty by ten yards. Absolutely no width.

Dumbarton had the balance of the play but made few chances although the Forfar keeper made two good saves from Pat Walker and Andy Geggan in the second half. Stephen Grindlay barely had a save to make yet Forfar should have gone ahead late on when their forward headed it wide instead of on target.

Was Stephen Grindlay making a bid to be retained here? He actually came for two crosses. Even more astonishingly he caught them both!

In the photo below the players leave the field at the final whistle.

So Stenny made safety and Alloa face the play-offs. Interestingly our total of forty points would have seen us relegated or in the play-offs in seven of the seventeen previous seasons where there have been ten teams in Division Two.

Isn’t it bizarre though that Alloa choose now to get rid of Alan Maitland as manager? Either it ought ot have been done months ago (I gather he offered to resign but was turned down) or else they should have waited till after the play-offs. The team is hardly going to be in the best frame of mind for these crucial games. Though if he’d “lost” the dressing room then I suppose there may be an improvement. But they now face an Annan team surely on a high after making the play-offs, and if they get through that they will play a side on a roll. Wierd timing.

SFL Div 2, The Rock, 23/4/11

We needed something from this. We won’t get anything from the game at Livingston next Saturday nor from Forfar who’ve also beaten us three times already this season.

It’s too close at the bottom. We’re relying now on Alloa losing twice (or only getting one more point) as Stenny play free-falling Brechin and then Peterhead in their last game. I think they might win both those.

A play-off against a team with a lot of wins behind them in the Third Division looms.

SFL Div 2, Station Park, 26/02/11

Ah well. Situation normal resumed. But if losing the first goal was a test I think we passed it.

Forfar are a big strong team. Ben Gordon and Jon McShane aside we are midgets in comparison.

They looked very good going forward in the first few minutes despite not carving us open the way East Fife did. When the goal came it looked a great strike. Stephen Grindlay had made a good save from an earlier effort but had knocked it back out, the guy just thumped it.

We barely registered until much later in the half then came into it. Jon McShane’s beautifully struck free-kick was finely placed but still should have been saved by the keeper who only turned it onto the post/bar and in. The ref looked as if he wasn’t sure it was a goal but eventually gave it. I briefly wondered if we had scored an equaliser in this season before yesterday then remembered we had – at Forfar, in the first game.

At half-time I thought we were lucky to be level.

Different story second half; we dominated and played some very good stuff. We had a fair few chances, Pat Walker desperately unlucky to have a curling shot go just wide, Mark Gilhaney electing to shoot first time twice when he had more time were the best of them.

We were pushing for the winner when Andy Geggan lost the ball three-quarters into their half and they broke upfield. Our cover had been sucked forward and the Forfar scorer had too much space available to him.

Alan Adamson withdrew two midfield players and threw on two more players in forward positions to go for it but the second equaliser wasn’t to be.

Had we won, and therefore equalled the 119 year old consecutive away wins record, I’d have felt obliged to go to Brechin on Tuesday night. As it is I’ll probably give it a miss.

It’s not over yet and those below us have games in hand, but we have enough in the team now to suggest we can beat the teams we have to, if not the ones pushing for the promotion play-offs.

Famous last words.

SFL Div 2, The Rock, 25/01/11

League goals for predictor:- 19.

Oh dear.

One step forward, two back.

And this against a team who hadn’t played in 66 days.

Who knows what might have happened if the game at Methil had been on. We could have been level on points with East Fife going into this one which would have helped confidence.

The thing is we have to score two goals to have any hope of winning a game because we always concede. (Grindlay, Devlin, Gordon, Nugent, Creaney, Gilhaney, Carcary, Geggan, Walker, Campbell, McNiff.)

I can’t see us taking anything from the Brechin game on Saturday either.

SFL Div 2, Somerset Park, 2/02/11

League goals for predictor:- 18.

Well. Not an auspicious start to the year.

According to Pie and Bovril it was never a penalty and we ought to have got something from the game.

But Ben Gordon was missing and so there was a makeshift defence.

No clean sheet but Stephen Grindlay was in goal so no surprise there.

Up and onwards to the Forfar game on Saturday.

SFL Div 2, Station Park, 7/8/10

Oh.

Dear.

This was a game we dominated (in terms of possession and territory) for most of it. Yet looking at the score you’d think the opposite.

We didn’t, of course, make much of the ball when we had it.

I feared the worst as soon as they scored – on their first foray up the park. Terrible defending all round and Stephen Grindlay didn’t cover himself in glory. We then got a quick penalty for the ball striking a Forfar player’s hand which Chaplain put away. We were on for about 7-7 at that rate. The same player then had a great chance, rounding the keeper, but put it wide of a gaping goal (with his wrong foot, but still.) I was reminded a bit of Fergus Tiernan’s miss in the opening game three seasons ago at Firs Park. The season turned on that moment, I think – and we all remember how it turned out.

Another reminder of that day was that today Stephen Grindlay made a great imitation of Peter Shaw. Both the second and third Forfar goals went right through him. He wasn’t the only one to blame in each case but he was a common factor.

The front two, Maxwell and Campbell, linked up well at times but didn’t really penetrate. Chaplain was ineffective at right mid, Nugent wasn’t any better than Chissie at right back and Chissie was out of position again at left back. And we had neither width nor pace. Why no Del Boy from the start? By the time he came on it was too late.

The sad thing is Forfar didn’t have to be good to win this. They only had to turn up and sling in crosses. A glance at the Sons TV footage of pre-season would probably have told them this.

Unfortunately there will be good teams in this division. I’m not at all sanguine about Livingston at home next week.

* It ought to be 144 but I thought I’d go for a nice round number. Judging by today it’s an underestimate anyway.

Long.

Hard.

Season.

Dumbarton lost only seven league matches last season.

Yet I was at four of them. (The two against the Shire at Ochilview, the January game in Cowdenbeath and the March game at Montrose.)

Until April I had only seen us win one league game (at Montrose in October) plus the penalty shoot out against Annan in the CIS way back in August. There were two draws along the way though.

On the face of it that would suggest I am a bit of a jinx.

But I can only really get to away games since I live so far from the Rock and the likelihood is always that the away team doesn’t do as well as it does at home; so that sequence wasn’t really a statistical quirk just an inevitable consequence of being a long distance supporter.

But in a triumph of perseverance – and hope firmly suppressed – I then saw us win two games in four days; at Ochilview against Stenny and at Forfar. The championship became a possibility that week because Cowden were not winning.

The rest is history.

All in, in the league I saw 4 wins, 3 draws and those 4 defeats.

As I mentioned before, for me eight out of nine of the away venues are travellable next season. Will I see more than three away wins?

The Rock, 26/4/09

We’re in the driving seat now! And three strikers scored.

I was actually more worried about this than the Cowdenbeath game last week and I was worried enough about that.

Forfar play Cowden next. I hope their manager (Dick Campbell) gets them back up for that game as, if Cowden don’t win, we could more or less clinch it – taking our good goal difference into account – with a win ourselves next Saturday. (Note to self: chickens not yet hatched.)

I just wish we didn’t have Elgin to play then. Games against bottom of the league teams are where Dumbarton sides tend to trip up.

It’s going to be a long week. (As this one was.)

Station Park, 7/4/09

Third away game in a row with a 2-0 win! It’s a good time for away form to improve.

First thing: why did Forfar play in black and red halved shirts? It made them look like Cagliari. Without the skill, obviously.

Not much happened in the first half, our midfield struggled to get into the game. We managed two attempts cleared off the line from Ben Gordon and Derek Carcary (who didn’t hit his hard enough) but Forfar had a couple on target too, plus a lot of corners.

The game was meandering in the second until we scored out of nowhere. The ball came out to Ross Clark on the edge of the box and he volleyed it precisely over the keeper. Nice finish. We weathered the Forfar push and started to look threatening on the break and Clark again scored by picking up the scraps when the ball reached him as he was following in. He nearly got a hat-trick after a fine move (confidence was brimming by this time) when McLoughlin should maybe have hit it himself but passed to the better positioned Clarkie but the ball bobbled just as he hit it.

I refuse to get my hopes up. The last time we won three on the bounce without conceding a goal we got one point out of the next nine.