SPFL Tier 2, Stark’s Park, 26/9/15.

This is getting to be like a stuck record. (Oh dear; time expired simile outbreak.)

We didn’t look bad, very tidy on the ball in fact, sound enough defensively. And we even created some chances (well, half-chances.) But we never really looked like scoring.

Then again nor did Raith – till they did when we weren’t organised enough at a set piece.

And our set pieces weren’t anything to write home about. At least two were wasted with short balls and came to nothing. Willie Gibson (I see the club website has him as Wullie Gibson) had a particularly poor game; both those set pieces, many misplaced passes and the ball continually getting stuck under his feet. I’d have hooked him long before Stevie Aitken actually did.

We also lack height up front and we’re back to situation normal (for most of my many years following the Sons) with throw-ins. Very little movement.

It was my first look at loanee Eamonn Brophy. He looked lively enough, capable of scoring if he gets chances, making one for himself in the first half but he dragged it just wide. But this team doesn’t create chances. And we’re shot shy. Kevin Cawley had a header just over in the second half and Eamonn Brophy a shot blocked – but that was it.

I must say Donald McCallum looked sharp when he came on for Brophy. He could be very useful as an impact sub.

But this was a tight game, with the teams mostly cancelling each other out.

It looks like we won’t lose many goals. But if we can’t score we won’t achieve anything.

I’d been toying with the idea of travelling to the Rock for next week’s game. Maybe not now.

A snow-capped Ben Lomond on 2/5/2015. Photographed from stand of Dumbarton Football Stadium. Ben Lomond is the only Munro I have climbed. (I say climbed. There’s a path. You can walk up it.)

On the same day and from the same location I took this photo of Sons players applauding the fans after the last game of the season vs Raith.

Most of these players have now left the club.

I photographed the War Memorial for Milngavie and District when I was over in Dunbartonshire for the Raith game at the end of the season.

The memorial is set in a sort of square just off the town centre. The inscription reads, “Nobly they kept alight the lamp of liberty.”

I think the figure is holding a dove of peace in her hand but it’s hard to be sure.

And without a ball being kicked. (Not by us anyway.) Plus with six games to go.

Congratulations to manager Ian Murray and the squad.

Tonight’s 1-0 win by Falkirk over Cowdenbeath means that Sons will play SPFL Tier 2 football again next season. Survival in this league has to be our first aim every season we’re in it. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

While it is true that either Cowdenbeath or Alloa can outdo our current points tally of 33 the arithmetic means it is not possible for both of them to do so since they play each other in the last game of the normal season. (What a tasty encounter that may be: though I think the last time they had a crucial last day game against each other – in 1991, for promotion in that case – I believe it was a 0-0 draw.) The lowest we can now finish is in eighth place, one above the play-off spot. Our present seventh position is way more likely, though.

We’re 9 points behind Raith Rovers with 18 to play for. Catching them would be a tall order but still worth striving for.

To emphasise what an achievement this is for the club it is worth pointing out that no part-time team has stayed at this level for so long since league re-organisation in 1994. (Cowdenbeath may yet equal us in this regard but are 1 point behind Alloa at the moment with the possibility of having to negotiate the play-offs to do so.)

Yes, I know I’ve done this one twice before but on Saturday last we Sons fans had a new angle on the ground from the Railway Stand:-

Main and South Stands:-

The North Stand – named for local author and avid Rover Val McDermid. (It takes all sorts I suppose):-

Scottish League Cup, Glebe Park, 2/8/14.

This was not an advert for the beautiful game. Very few chances were created between the two sides. A Brechin player looked to have a tap-in in the first half after their wide man got round David van Zanten far too easily and squared the ball but somehow the guy in the centre contrived to miscue so badly the ball went for a throw in.

We didn’t seem very direct – I can’t see that way of playing succeeding in the league this season, but then again for years we’ve needed to tighten up at the back and this was a clean sheet.

I can only think of their keeper having the one save – punching it out wide from a Scott Agnew free-kick. Our goal came from the resultant throw-in; the scrappiest goal you’ll ever see, Andy Graham’s effort ricocheting from two defenders’ bodies before crossing the line.

Chris Turner didn’t look fully fit to me. Archie Campbell was lively when he came on and got behind their defence a few times. Mitch Megginson screwed a great cut back from him wide. New on-loan keeper Danny Rogers didn’t have much to do – one good save apart – but seemed confident enough.

Improvement required for the Raith game on the 9^th, though.

What with the World Cup and other things intervening I haven’t yet mentioned the league fixtures for next season.

I won’t have to travel far for the first game, which is Raith away. (Further than I used to certainly – I used to be able to walk to Stark’s Park – but not far.)

October looks interesting!

Sat Oct 4 Cowdenbeath H
Sat Oct 11 Hibernian A
Sat Oct 18 Heart of Midlothian A
Sat Oct 25 Rangers H

SPFL Tier 2, Dens Park, 3/5/14.

Well, that was a strange experience. To see ten thousand opposition fans go from expectation to apprehension to joy then all the way over to fear was something.

It says a lot about our commitment that Dundee spent the last five or so minutes taking the ball to the corner flag.

We had the better of the game – without creating a clear-cut chance – until they scored. Once again our inability to deal with crosses cost us. Their scorer, Nade, was the best player on the park, though, I thought. Maybe Jamie Ewings could have made a better fist of the attempted save but the Dumbarton fans were way up the far end of the ground so it’s hard to tell. It was poor defending for their second too but Jamie had no chance with that one. A Colin Rhyming Slang flick had hit the post in between times but that was as good as it got first half.

Sons fans kept chanting out updates to the Hamilton score – among other gems like, “you only sing when you’re winning,” and, “we forgot that you were here.” A bit like the Aberdeen game.

Second half we pushed them really hard, got the penalty and scored it. There followed two more even better penalty claims after the first of which I said to Big Rab, “We’re never gonna get two today.” That just doesn’t happen to a wee club on a day like yesterday. Their keeper still had to make two great saves to gain them the points though. All this wa sup the far end so I wasn’t quite sure who had the efforts on goal.

Around this time the young Sons choir started singing, “We can smell the shite from here,” at the opposition fans’ discomfort.

There was no barrier at all to the pitch at the stand opposite us. We all knew there was no chance of the invasion not happening at the end. Two other home stands’ occupants also rushed on at the final whistle. For a moment I feared for our players’ safety but they all made it okay. Ian Murray made sure they didn’t run up the tunnel immediately but stayed to congratulate the fans (who reciprocated.) There were several hundred at least of us there yesterday, a good turn out for a nothing game for us.

It was weird to witness such outpourings of relief and joy and not feel a part of it. I’ve been at another side’s promotion winning game before when we were the away team (vs Raith in the 1980s, Dunfermline lost unexpectedly in their game the same day) and it was a very detached feeling then too.

So. We ended the season fifth, with a positive goal difference. I can’t believe it’s over so soon.

SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 19/4/14.

Since I was at Eastercon I wasn’t at this game. It looks like the promotion play off is out the window for sure now, especially since we play the top two in the last two games.

Mind you, it would be nice to beat Dundee on their own patch in the last game.

If both Livingston and Raith drop any points over the next two weekends fifth place is assured, which would be a magnificent achievement. Since they play each other on May 3^rd that’s quite likely.

SPFL Tier 2, Stark’s Park, 12/4/14

Straight away as the teams came out I noticed their keeper was wearing an all orange number which nearly matched our away strip. It was about ten minutes in before it was changed for a black top. A woman Sons supporter shouted out, “what about the shorts?” Ooh-er, missus. (The shorts were changed for black ones during half time.)

This was a comprehensive win. We had six efforts on target to Raith’s two before we scored. The goal had been coming and Mark Gilhaney’s first time drive when the ball came out to him was a fully deserved result for our endeavours up to then. Jamie Ewings had two excellent saves – one from a defensive header for which he had little time to react but still diverted on to the bar – in the first half.

Our second was a great individual goal from Mitch Megginson, slaloming through their defence before slotting it past the keeper. Does Mitch score ordinary goals?

A comfortable enough first half. I know Raith were missing several midfielders for one reason or another but you can only play the team you’re up against; and we did, rather well.

The third came when Colin Rhyming Slang – who had a good game overall – reacted quickly to the break of the ball in the box to knock it in at the near post.

Their goal followed on from a passage of play notable for the most blatant handball I’ve ever seen, the ball being knocked down by the Raith attacker from about head height as he was on the run. How the ref, two linos and the fourth official between them could not see it is beyond me. The ensuing corner came back out to their player who curled it in well thus ruining our potential first away clean sheet of the season. But the corner should not have been.

Raith had a bit of a flurry after that but any chance they had of more goals was ruined when their defender was given a straight red for denying Garry Fleming a clear goalscoring opportunity and the game kind of petered out after that.

Curiously for the second straight game at Stark’s Park Jordan Kirkpatrick had to leave injured.

There is now not even the arithmetical possibility of a relegation play-off. Fourth place is possible but will be difficult, fifth would still be a remarkable achievement.

Edited to add:- Chris Turner did a lot of quiet, unobtrusive stuff in the game allowing the other midfielders to get on with playing on the front foot.