Posted in Dumbarton FC at 12:00 on 29 November 2017
SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 28/11/17.
I suppose a point against a team above us is not to be sniffed at but that’s two games in a row now we’ve failed to see the game out from a winning position. Then again we’re part-time and they’re full-time and we ussually don’t do as well in midweek fixtures.
It was good to see Greg Morrison get his name on the score sheet. He’s looked a bit lacking in confidence recently. A goal should help with that.
Pity Inverness C T thumped Brechin though. A draw there wouldn’t have been a calamity.
Since they’re top of the league I’m not expecting anything from Saturday’s game at St Mirren.
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Posted in Dumbarton FC at 20:00 on 19 August 2017
SPFL Tier 2, Palmerston Park, 19/8/17.
Ah well. That’s the unbeaten record in the league gone then.
I had always thought we would struggle for a result here since we played a game only 65 hours beforehand. And they had a few of our ex-players in their ranks – which usually means they’d score. The damage was only one goal though.
And amazingly, due to results elsewhere we actually moved up a place in the table.
Football’s a funny old game.
Looks like a tough one next week against the team that’s now second.
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Posted in Dumbarton FC at 12:00 on 25 September 2016
SPFL Tier 2, Stark’s Park, 24/9/16.
What an odd game. We started brightly enough then fell right out of it. They missed two great chances, one pulled wide when it looked easier to score then Alan Martin made a great save on a one-on-one after a short pass back.
But it was only delayed. We were opened up far too easily and the lad put it into the corner. We could have equalised when a throw-in got all the way through to Daniel Harvie but he could not control the bounce off his body and the ball looped over the bar.
Their second was again too easily created but the deflection was cruel to Alan Martin. We were so out of it I said, “We’re not coming back from this.” Their third was unsavable. The scorer was given too much space and simply belted it from a distance. It struck the post before nestling. “We’re definitely not coming back from this.”
Stevie Aitken made two subs at half time, Josh Todd for Craig Pettigrew and Sam Stanton for Andy Stirling. Robert Thomson had a neat back-heel that was cleared off the line but it wasn’t till Ryan Stevenson came on for Garry Fleming that we got presence in midfield. Stevenson it was who reduced the deficit when finally he took the responsibility for a shot that everybody else in the move had shunned. Consolation only I thought but somehow we managed to score again, a bit of pinball in their box ended by Robert Thomson but don’t ask me how as we Sons fans were up in the gods in the angle of the main stand about as far away from the goal at the north end as it is possible to get. For a few seconds I wasn’t even sure the ref had given it.
So, a drubbing ended up adding only one to our minus goal difference. We need to start playing (for which read defending) before going three goals down.
We’re now second bottom – and we won’t get any points next week. League leaders Queen of the South are at the Rock and notwithstanding the result there last time our record at home against them is awful.
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Posted in Architecture, Art Deco at 19:42 on 24 September 2016
I was over in the west in April (for the Queen of the South game I think) and took in Helensburgh again.
This shop (in Sinclair Street?) has very minor Art Deco touches:-

Detail of windows to right:-

This building (definitely in Sinclair Street) is impressive in its upper reaches:-

Roofline detail:-

This cartouche looks like it may be a representation of St Andrew:-

Edited to add:- I have since discoverd this is one of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s designs.
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Posted in Football at 12:00 on 3 August 2016
There is only one football team named in the bible.
Such is the claim anyway.
The relevant quote comes from Matthew 12.42:-
“The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it:”
Notch one up for Dumfries’s finest.
In my present reading, Walter Scott’s The Heart of Mid-Lothian (which itself by way of a dance hall provided the name for another football team,) there is much talk of religion and quotation from the Bible. An explanatory note had this reference from Proverbs 17.3 which casts doubt on the declaration in the first paragraph of this post:-
“The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but the Lord trieth the hearts.”
Granted the relevant noun would need to be capitalised to make the abbreviation truly apposite but then so does the QoS one. At any rate I’m sure many Jambos (see nicknames in the link’s sidebar) would concur with the sentiment.
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Posted in BBC Alba, Dumbarton FC at 20:03 on 17 April 2016
SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 16/4/16.
It started well. It finished; well…..
Pity about the bit in between. And the injury to big Christian Nade is a blow as we’ve only looked a team this season after he joined us.
I watched this courtesy of BBC Alba of course and things were looking okay at half time. Tom Walsh had even hit a good cross!
What happened in the second half though? We totally fell out of it even before Nade’s injury. Jamie Ewings didn’t have much of a hope with any of the three goals; a poorish kick-out led to one of them but the defence should still not have let Raith through so easily. They seemed to just walk through for two of the three, the other coming from a not deep enough clearance by Fraser Wright.
Despite never having hit a decent cross before this game Tom Walsh ended this with two assists, and doesn’t Steven Saunders love a goal against Raith? Too little too late of course.
We really need something from Saturday now but a draw against St Mirren might not be good enough. We don’t want to be relying on Rangers and Raith even if Queen of the South do the needful.
I note that with Rangers and Hibs progressing to this year’s final East Fife’s record of being the only team outwith the top division to win the Scottish Cup has now been lost. And wouldn’t it be just the thing if Hibs finally win the thing again after totally horsing up the league? (Or Hibsing it as now seems to be the parlance.)
Mind you it’d be a laugh to see them navigating a European campaign from the second tier.
Then again maybe not.
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Posted in Dumbarton FC at 10:00 on 14 April 2016
SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 12/4/16.
Football’s an odd game and this one was certainly an example. Hardly started when their keeper made an absolute hash of a kick-out, hitting it straight to Christian Nade who strode forward with the ball, shot while still well outside the penalty box and buried it.
A nice settler you’d think in such an important game but we promptly fell out of it allowing Queens too much space and time. But still Garry Fleming could have settled nerves further if he’d put away the chance that came to him but the keeper redeemed himself a little with a good save. Jamie Ewings performed the needful on a one-on-one but only delayed the inevitable. The atmosphere was strangely quiet, the crowd perhaps too nervous to make much noise – except when the stand-side linesman made a ludicrous decision to award a throw-in the wrong way after a ricochet.
Still, Queens’ pressure gradually built up then Ian Russell did what he has done against us ever since he left. Quite why he was given the space at the edge of the box to pick up a headed clearance is another thing entirely.
Then what should have been a body blow when they cut through us just before half-time to take the lead. I couldn’t see us getting anything from the game at that point.
But a few minutes into the second half the match had turned on its head. First Tom Walsh cut out a pass near their penalty area, beat the last defender and curled a beauty high past the keeper into the top corner. In our next foray upfield Christian Nade got his head to a Mark Docherty corner and scored. (It may have bounced off a defender’s back on the way in.)
That same stand-side linesman failed to make a decision at all after a Queens player had got a nick on a crossfield pass and a Queens player took it on himself to take the throw. The ref put his whistle to his lips as if to amend things but didn’t. What are these guys paid for?
It was all still a bit nervous with not much goalmouth action but with five minutes to go after another corner Greg Buchanan was attempting an overhead kick when he was bumped in mid-air and the ref gave the penalty. (It looked a bit six and half a dozen to me but I’ll take it.) Garry Fleming tucked the award away. 4-2. Breathless stuff.
That’s the first time this season we’ve scored more than three in a league game. Timely indeed.
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Posted in Dumbarton FC at 19:13 on 7 April 2016
SPFL Tier 2, Ibrox Stadium, 5/4/16.
I meant to post about this yesterday but for some reason it slipped my mind.
This could have been worse. Given the significance of the evening for Rangers we could have been in for a doing and I feared that. I also feared the outcome even more when Livi went one up on Hibs, but that went our way as well in the end.
But how can a team go from an abject surrender to Queen of the South to what seems to have been a resolute performance against the best team in the division? Unless, of course the players tried harder on a bigger stage: but that would be a form of cheating all the other times.
Queen of the South up next on Tuesday, but we could be a point behind Livi by then.
On a more cynical note: how long will it be after Hibs get back to the top tier once again before we in the lower leagues are cut off once more (as we were by the SPL)? That’s the subtext I read into this “good for Scottish football” spiel which has greeted Rangers Tier 2 win. The way things were was only good for two clubs, not Scottish football as a whole.
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Posted in Dumbarton FC at 12:56 on 20 March 2016
SPFL Tier 2, Palmerston Park, 19/3/2016.
No comment.
Seriously.
What can I say?
Roller coaster doesn’t even begin to describe the experience of being a Sons fan.
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Posted in Dumbarton FC at 12:00 on 12 January 2016
The fruit of our Cup win against Queen of the South is one of the two above, who have still to settle their tie.
On paper either of them should beat us. But it’s a home game which may count a bit in our favour.
To be played on the first weekend in February.
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