SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 27/4/21.

Who would be a football fan?

This was excruciating.

We had a couple of bright moments in the first half but their keeper was never really troubled by them. And we had Sam Ramsbottom to thank for keeping it level with a very good save from a header from a corner.

The second half was totally forgettable till the last two minutes. Over the piece it’s up there with so many others this season as being the worst football match I’ve ever seen. Misplaced passes, miscontrols – I know the pitch is bumpy and needs a lot of rain to improve it but still.

We created nothing.

The subs didn’t help as we ended up with almost no midfield and five or six front men. This felt like a recipe for Forfar breaking upfield to score and indeed they could have tested Ramsbottom a few times but their final touch was missing.

It was easy to see why both teams were in trouble at the bottom of the table.

The game had 0-0 written all over it and was a dispiriting watch.

Ninety seconds of the ninety minutes were left when P J Crossan neatly got past his full back and crossed the ball. It ran behind a despairing lunge by a defender and fell to fellow-sub Conner Duthie who buried it. This was totally at odds with the rest of the game. A “get out of jail free” card.

The agony is now prolonged to Saturday and Tuesday.*

Why do they do it to us?

Why do we fans do it to ourselves?

*(Covid permitting, Clyde’s postponement tonight for one of their squad having a positive test puts the cat among the pigeons.

Scottish Cup, Round 2, The Rock, 23/3/21.

Well, maybe we’re not so rubbish after all.

Mind you this was Huntly’s first game after the long lay off (and probably their last for this season.)

We pretty much controlled the early stages with Huntly more or less sitting in but they began to make inroads after about twenty minutes.

We broke the deadlock following a corner where Ross Forbes played the ball to Adam Frizell outside the box; he ferreted it on to P J Crossan on the right who beat his man and cut it back for Jaime Wilson to score.

Just before half-time we scored again, another Forbes corner was powered into the net by Ryan McGeever.

Second half we never looked troubled apart from a free-kick which Chris Smith (thank goodness) in goal dealt with well. We played the ball about at the back a lot trying to pull Huntly out of shape. The third came after a great through ball from Forbes to Wilson whose chip the keeper got just a fingertip to on its way over him into the net.

The fourth was down to Adam Frizell worming his way through the defence and feeding Forbes who looked stretched but poked it past the keeper.

This was far more comfortable in the end than I had feared. The chances we made we by and large took. It ought to give the confidence a huge boost.

Onwards to the next round and Aberdeen at home on April the 3^rd.

We’ve got three other games in the league before that though, one of those only two days before it.

Strange times.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 3/3/20.

That should do it. Forfar can still reach 54 points and we’re on 38 but they’ve averaged less than a point a game up to now so if they kept that up they’d only get to 35. We’re now 22 points ahead of Stranraer so they’re definitely out of sight. We’ll be in Tier 3 again next season I should think. (I can’t see us reaching the promotion play-off places.)

We dominated the first half and played some pretty stuff at times but never really threatend their goal until a cross reached Stefan McCluskey whose close effort from near the bye-line was saved by the keeper and went for what all the Sons fans near me thought was a corner – as did the linesman – but the ref gave a goal-kick. I suppose it could have rebounded back off McCluskey but it didn’t look like it.

The goal wasn’t long delayed, a neat move leading to a header into the path of Ross Forbes who finished it well.

Ir was much the same in the second half with Forfar having a bit more of the ball but mostly being woeful with it. Conor Brennan only had one save to make, from a long-range effort.

The clincher was again a good move with Jai Quitongo hammering home after a neat P J Crossan pass following a Forbes through ball.

Stefan McCluskey had the best game I’ve seen from him but he still doesn’t have much end-product and too often takes a negative option. Rico Quitongo continues to make strides at left-back; he’s a much improved player from the one of the beginning of the season. His brother Jai can clearly play a bit, with a good touch, but he has a tendency to go up blind alleys or overdo things. And Stuart Carswell looks to be coming back to his best. He’s been off the boil for a long time. I wonder if he’s been carrying an injury.

Clyde again on Saturday at their place. (Weather permitting.)

SPFL Tier 3, Stark’s Park, 21/12/19.

It is, as they say, a funny old game. Granted they were several players short but so were we. We only had three on the bench – and one of them is the reserve keeper.

I’d have taken a draw. To say I’m happy with a win against the league leaders away when they hadn’t lost at home before today would be an understatement. And with a clean sheet too, more than a rarity for us. It’s days like this that make supporting a wee team worthwhile.

We were at it from the off and had much the best of the early exchanges but our failure to punish their misplaced midfield passes threatened to bite us when a delightful chip left their forward one on one with Conor Brennan who managed to get his fingertips to the attempted lob to push it on to the bar and reacted well to get the rebound.

Not long after, we scored. Conor Scullion tussled for the ball but seemed to lose it only for it to fall for Stuart Carswell whose delicious back-heel set up Scullion for a cross into the box. He pulled it back to P J Crossan who slotted it home (apparently via a deflection.)

Raith had a warning when Morgyn Neill’s header from a corner went straight to a well-positioned keeper but a few minutes later it was two. Crossan won a free-kick. He feinted to take it quickly but thankfully relented. Joe McKee drilled it into an unmarked Ryan McGeever who powered it into the bottom corner.

I was dreading forty-eight or so minutes hanging on to a lead but in truth Raith didn’t threaten us too much second half. They kept playing it down the inside right channel but only made Brennan make one save – a header from a cross. Otherwise any efforts they had were off-target.

So that’s now three away wins in a row, we’re up to fifth again, only four points from fourth position and five from first place.

That’ll do.

Scottish League Cup* Group E, Galabank, 13/7/19.

A win! A win I wasn’t expecting – certainly not after only signing five of the players on show within the previous forty-eight hours.

But this ought to be tempered with caution. Annan were far from impressive even if they are only one tier below us. But compare last season’s equivalent game at Spartans – two tiers below us – where we only got a draw.

With nine new players starting I had no idea who was who to begin with – apart from Kyle Hutton and Stuart Carswell, the latter now Sons captain and the stand-out player on the park.

We had the better of the early stuff, several efforts on goal (Annan’s first did not arrive till 40 mins in – their second was only a couple of minutes later but both were wide of the mark; indeed, crosses aside, Jordan Pettigrew in Sons’ goal did not have a save to make in the entire game) and a lot of corners in our favour but I still never felt our defence was comfortable. Too many years watching Sons does that to you.

New right back Lewis Crawford – a local lad – was solid and got forward well, he had our first shot on goal but it was blocked and not long after a header which unfortunately was straight at the keeper. He’s no Sam Wardrop though. Rico Quitongo on the other flank seemed defensively sound and got forward too.

Paul Crossan (P J Crossan on the club’s squad list) looked effective on the wing, reminiscent of Andy Stirling in build. He cut inside well and looks to be an upgrade on Bobby Barr.
Ryan Tierney up front held the ball up impressively but whether he’ll be able to do it against better defenders remains to be seen. He took his goal well though. Neither of our front two is on the tall side but Tierney still managed to win quite a few balls in the air. Mati Zata in midfield, though, looked like a fish out of water, not really getting into the game at all.

An Annan fan sitting near me said to his mate sometime during the second half that Dumbarton looked organised. How that’s so is a miracle given our lack of time together or maybe it’s just a reflection of Annan’s lack in that regard. Or (at the risk of getting ahead of myself and despite Sons fans less than enthusiastic embrace of the signings so far) do we simply have better players than them?

Three games against teams in higher divisions now before the league starts. Make the most of the win.