SPFL Tier 3, New Central Park, 05/04/25.

Or maybe I should go….

Selection bingo obviously works.

We controlled this from the beginning even if I was nervous every time they moved up the park before we scored but at times it looked a bit like an old-fashioned end of season game.

Then Joel Mumbongo scored with a header from a Kalvin Orsi cross. A collector’s piece.

Then Kalvin got the ball on the wing, skinned his man and proceded to waltz past three of their defenders before striking his shot from about the D.

The next was a peach. Their keeper had just hit the ball aimlessly out for a throw-in, which was taken – to Carlo Pignatiello. Carlo moved infield and curled a Froxyesque curler into the top corner.

There was one strange moment when the ball looped up in our box and keeper Shay Kelly was in two minds about how to deal with it. He kept it out somewhat awkwardly.

Mouhamed Niang and Joel Mumbongo had picked up bookings in the first half and at three-nil up it made sense to remove Niang for the second half as being more likely to pick up another. Craig McGuffie was the replacement with Michael Ruth on for Orsi at the same time.

A telling sub as within five minutes a Kelty defender didn’t get his header in and Ruth was able to run in from just past halfway before slotting it past the keeper and inside the post.

Just after Joel Mumbongo went down after a challenge in the box and had to be stretchered off the pitch.

However, things went from bad to worse for Kelty when one of their players got a second yellow card for a trip.

A few minutes later Matt Shiels – on for Tony Wallace – nudged a Ruth free-kick past the keeper.

I just about missed our sixth. A cross looked to be Michael Ruth’s to head in but he was shoved in the box. I looked at the ref expecting him to blow but instead Craig McGuffie put the ball in the net.

By this time we were full of flicks and backheels and generally playing exhibition stuff.

Football is really bizarre. Where did this display come from? I know Kelty were poor but we were more than good enough to take advantage.

The lads obviously took confidence from winning last week. They should take even more from this.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 28/12 24.

Well that’s the first time we’ve played Kelty and I’ve not been at the game. Maybe I should always miss them.

It sounds like it was pretty uneventful and that Kelty were toothless, which is strange given they were the division’s highest scorers at the day’s start. (They’re still joint highest.) It’s our first clean sheet in the league too.

From the outside it looks like the red card for Kelty’s Scott Allan might have changed the game. It’s good we took advantage of it though, we usually don’t.

And a brace for Kalvin Orsi is beyond rarity, he rarely ever scores, never mind twice.

All in, a good way to end the year.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 16/11/24.

A much needed win after a nothing first half in which the only things of note were a great Brett Long sideways leap to prevent QoS’s first away league goal this season, a QoS defender’s attempt to score into his own empty net with a header which their goalie just scrambled off the line and a Michael Ruth effort that just squeezed past. It seemed his (bad) luck in front of goal still continued.

The second half was much better with Sons doing most of the attacking. Jinky Hilton hit the bar and the keeper was lucky it fell into his arms when it came down again after rebounding off the ground. Then Michael Ruth was shoved in the back in the area but it wasn’t given – despite the ref flinging yellow cards about like they were confetti.

Ruthie got his reward about 70 minutes in. That rarity, an early Kalvin Orsi cross, found Finlay Gray whose strike was blocked but fell for Ruthie to bury it. I’m pleased for him. His overall wrok-rate is simply brilliant but I think his rcent lackd of goals had been getting to him.

Then they were awarded a free kick a few yards outside our penalty area. As he lined it up I thought Brett Long  had got his positioning all wrong. So it proved. The up and over duly found the opposite bottom area of the goal. QoS’s first away goal of the league season and to watch them you could understand that stat.

The lads’ heads could have gone down after that but they kept plugging away and we git a series of unfruitful corners as time -up loomed. From the aftermath of one of them Mark Durnan got his foot in the way of the defender’s and the ball and was kicked. So: penalty. From where I sat I hadn’t realised it was in the are until the ref pointed at the spot.

Sub Tony Wallace duly dispatched it, to much rejoicing in the stands.

I hope the win does the boys ‘ confidence some good; our next two games are tough. Both against Alloa, at their place next Saturday in the league then at ours the following Friday in the Cup.

SPFL Tier Three Play-off Final, Second Leg, Ainslie Park, 17/5/24.

I’m still processing this.

For so long this season promotion looked a long way off, but seven wins out of the last eight games in the last quarter gave us momentum and in the play-offs themselves the team handled the situation perfectly.

Mind you after three minutes of this one I had that familiar sinking feeling. I knew as soon as the cross was hit a goal was coming. And so it was.

Thank goodness we got back into it quickly so that there was no possibility of nerves getting the better of us. Jinky Hilton’s corner was well met by Sean Crighton and – not for the first time at Ainslie Park this season – their keeper spilled it. I didn’t see who scored. I was on the grass banking behind the goal near the corner flag and Ainslie Park is tight and does not have good sight lines when there’s a big crowd. Only when I got home did I find out it was Michael Ruth.

From them on the first half was quite dour with Jay Hogarth having only one save to make and their keeper not much troubled either. The most worrying thing was Sean Crighton having to go off injured. Aron Lynas has played at centre half for us before though he’s really a right back but up against the foot taller Blair Henderson I feared for him. Yet despite losing their first mutual challenge easily he pretty much handled him relatively easily. 1-1 at half time and a nervous 45 minutes (plus) beckoned.

We came out better than Spartans in the second half. First Finlay Gray hit the post after good work by Kalvin Orsi and Michael Ruth. I wondered if we’d rue that not going in. But then Michael Ruth stood up to be counted. A brilliant first touch near the halfway line saw him set off on a run at their defence. He cut inside and then placed a shot back across the goal, leaving the keeper stranded. Superb stuff.

Only once did Spartans threaten our goal but a combination of a defender (Cian Newbery?) and Jay Hogarth forced their player wide and it went out for a goal kick. Then they were given a penalty in stoppage time. I was too far away to see what had happened for it to be given. As it turned out there was too little time for Spartans to capitalise on their equaliser.

The final whistle nevertheless still came as a relief .

So now 2024 joins 1972, 1984, 1992, 1995, 2002, 2009 and 2012 as promotion seasons I have witnessed.

Even if Mark Durnan has been a defensive rock since he came back from injury it was fitting that Michael Ruth secured promotion for us. Throughout the season he has been our best player.

SPFL Tier Three 3 Play-off, Semi-Final, second leg, Forthbank Stadium, 11/5/24.

Like water torture. This was indeed a long 90+ minutes.

Albion looked a side lacking in confidence, not surprising when you slide into a relegation play-off spot.

In the first half they only threatened our goal once, after a bit of ping-pong in the box following a corner. Jay Hogarth saved the first effort but when the rebound was played across goal their attacker air-kicked a sitter.

We ought to have scored when a great move culminated with Div Wilson going for the near post but just shaving it into the side net. (Just for a moment it seemed he had scored.)

In the second half Albion came out to throw everything at it even going to three at the back. As a result our midfield was overrun at times but Jay Hogarth never really had a save to make. One shot did hit the post but that was it.

We had a few counter-attacking forays but tended to overcarry the ball when a pass was on (Kalvin Orsi and Finlay Gray I’m looking at you) or else players strayed offside so we never put the tie to bed. (Curiously, the linesmen flagged at the earliest opportunity, something which is very rare these days.) Michael Ruth was again superb up front but never got the clear chance his hold-up and general play deserved.

The final whistle was more of a relief than anything else even though Stirling never looked like scoring.

So it’s on to the Rock on Tuesday evening for the first leg of the Play-off Final against The Spartans then to Ainslie Park (of ill memory but also great memory) on Friday.

SPFL Tier 3 Play-off, Semi-final, First leg, The Rock, 07/04/24.

A pretty nerve-racking 90+ minutes all in all.

Unlike in the past two seasons’ play-offs we came out of the blocks quickly. Kalvin Orsi and Carlo Pignatiello were all over their left hand side and it was from their combination that Orsi put over a cross for Jinky Hilton to bury. We really ought to have gone on from there.

However, an attempted clearance by their left back bounced up onto his hand and fell for him to pass it up the wing. When their forward cut in I just knew he was going to score and he did indeed put it past Jay Hogarth’s right hand at the near post. Hogarth went down like the proverbial sack of potatoes. Were we too busy waiting on the handball call? (As I undertood the rules any touching of the ball by an attacker’s hand in the lead-up to a goal counted as handball. But who knows the handball laws these days?) Whatever, Manager Stevie Farrell was booked for his protest.

The first half from then on was a slog, noticeable only for Finlay Gray twice being chopped down – once off the ball which the ref and both linos completely missed, though the other was punished by a yellow card – and Kalvin Orsi suffering a set of studs high on his leg – an incident also somehow missed by the officials.

The second was also a slog. Towards the end James Graham came on and injected a bit of pace which resulted in a penalty being awarded to us. I was too far away to tell if it was justified. Comments on Pie & Bovril suggest it was. Whatever, the ref perhaps owed us one.

Tony Wallace kept his cool through the Stirling keeper’s almost Emiliano Martinez levels of sh**housery and out it away.

So, a slender lead to take into Saturday’s second leg at Forthbank.

Another nervy 90 (or even 120) minutes no doubt.

Spfl Tier 4, The Rock, 27/4/24.

We started this quite well with Kalvin Orsi and Carlo Pignatiello tearing up their left hand side. One such foray saw a great cross onto Michael Ruth’s head but he somehow managed to skew it over the bar.

Then Elgin began to come into it and some comic defending, a missed header and poor marking, left their player alone  ust outside the six-yard box and he squeezed it in.

Jay Hogarth didn’t look comfortable at all, he fails to command his box. Their second came from a free header from a corner. 0-2. At this point it was all Elgin. A long-range shot clattered our bar. If it had gone in the game would have been over.

As it was a carbon copy Orsi, Pignatiello combination again saw the ball home in on Michael Ruth’s head. No mistake this time. 1-2 half-time.

The second half was not uneventful but not inspiring. Twice Jay Hogarth was exposed in a one-on-one and both times made the save. Good at these and shot-stopping it’s a pity about his box-commanding.

Flurries of substitutions didn’t much affect the game but James Graham got himself some space in the area to use his feet to get a shot past their keeper. 2-2. As it finished.

So one game to go before the normal season ends and on to our now traditional humping in the play-off semi-final.

SPFL Tier 4, New Bayview, 11/11/23.

This is only the second time this season I have watched the mighty Sons of the Rock in action. But East Fife’s ground is only 7 or so miles away from where I live so it seemed only right to turn up.

We survived an early scare when Tony Wallace headed the ball but straight to an East Fife attacker for a one-on-one only for Brett Long in our goal to bail him out.

A minute or so later we took the lead a ball into the box reached Kalvin Orsi who poked it home for his first goal in 784 days.

Thereafter we kind of fell out of it for a while with East Fife knocking the ball about quite well but never really threatening. Then we had a spell where we had four great chances in about three minutes but East Fife’s keeper made one good and one magnificent save and there was a great last minute block to prevent us scoring again. We did get the ball in the net once more but it was chalked off for offside.

The second half was fairly uneventful. Our final balls were just a bit off. East Fife barely looked like scoring except for when Brett Long misjudged a situation, coming for a ball he was never going to get, and was left stranded. Enough defenders got back though to prevent a goal.

The fact that their keeper got their man of the match award kind of sums things up.

I must say Michael Ruth’s centre forward play was superb. He held up the ball and played others in. Sadly he didn’t get enough of the ball in the box to be able to score.We also had players actually showing for the ball at throw-ins. That is not the Dumbarton way.

The ref made some odd decisions. Par for the course these days.

Up front for East Fife Nathan Austin was a shadow of the player he used to be.

SPFL Tier 3 Play-off, Galabank, 9/5/23.

Well. What do you say about a shambles like this?

Except: so much for a record number of clean sheets.

That’s not any good when your defence falls apart in the games that matter.

It was bad enough being two goals down in 24 minutes but Kalvin Orsi’s sending-off only made it worse.

A season that had seemed a relative success (when did we last end up with a positive goal difference?) has ended in embarrassment.

Saturday’s second leg is now the deadest of dead rubbers.

Good luck to Annan in the play-off final.

SPFL Tier 4, Forthbank, 25/3/23.

Well what an odd experience that was.

Despite our scudding last weekend and them on a roll what with going top by two points in midweek, this had a Stirling win all over it.

Yet still, I went to the game and, pre-match, had a pretty good feeling about it.

There was a pretty good turn out of Dumbarton fans too and the players seemed to appreciate it.

That good feeling almost evaporated after two minutes when Greg Buchanan was handed a yellow card for absolutely nothing. A couple of minutes or so after that it was Finlay Gray’s turn to see yellow. He seemed to me genuinely to have been fouled at the edge of the box.

Then a few minutes later Ross Maclean was shoved in the back in retaliation by one of their defenders when the ball was dead – right in front of the ref. No card – of any colour. Then Brett Long was shown yellow for time-wasting. He was trying to get the match ball after a ball boy had thrown him a substitute. Ross Maclean also got a yellow in the first half. I was thinking we would be lucky to end up with even nine men on the pitch. To contrast this Ally Love got an elbow to his face – play on. Gregg Wylde got caught by a dangerously high Stirling boot – again play on.

Somehow in all this we managed to score. Peter Grant had brought a save from their keeper from a corner but the goal was from open play, a Kalvin Orsi cross headed back across the keeper by Ross MacLean. It looked to me an easier save than the one he had made.

Their goal came from a corner (following a corner.) It looked to me like the the ball had gone out off one of their players. But the subsequent header was uncontested.

The ref wasn’t so egregious in the second half. The talk was all that someone (the supervisor perhaps) had had a word with him. If he’d carried on in the second half like he did in the first there would certainly have been fewer bodies on the pitch at the end. He did finally start wielding yellows to Stirling players but he couldn’t avoid it the fouls were so blatant.

Our second was a blast from Finlay Gray after Stirling hadn’t cleared their lines.

Despite having a bit more possession Stirling created very little from open play. That their second equaliser came from a corner following a corner (great block by Greg Buchanan) was severely disappointing. It was a carbon copy of their first.

Still what could have been a five point deficit is only two.

I only hope we have a few more players to call on soon than we had for this one. We were down to only five subs on the bench and Kalvin Orsi’s injury towards the end looked a sore one.