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.

SPFL Tier 4, Stair Park, 4/3/23

Sons fans do not travel to Stair Park with expectation. Not expectation of a good result anyway.

So, this was a delightful suprise. Then again we needed it as Stirling Albion won again.

Ross MacLean did the business for us first half and Gregor Buchanan put a gloss on it in the second.

On now to the big one against Stirling at home on Tuesday (weather permittting.)

It’s not a must win but it’s verging on a can’t afford to lose.

I’d take the draw now.

Scottish Cup, Round 3, New Douglas Park, 26/11/22.

Not bad. An away win against a team in the league above is never shabby. (Even if Clyde fans are despondent about their side this season.)

From the sounds of it (on Pie and Bovril) we played really well in the first half and ought to have been out of sight. Two – nil at half time due to David Wilson and Ryan Wallace. Losing a goal midway through the second probably caused a bit of nerves but one in injury time by Ross MacLean makes the scoreline look comfortable.

We should be aproaching every game with confidence at the moment.

But this is Sons we’re talking about.

I wonder who we’ll get in Round 4.

SPFL Tier 4, Borough Briggs, 12/11/22.

Gosh. I didn’t expect this. 4-0 sounds pretty comprehensive.

And it’s made even better by our lead at the top of the division being stretched to five points.

Four different scorers too – Ross MacLean, Gregg Wylde, Aron Lynas and Ryan Wallace, plus another clean sheet.

All this without Finlay Gray, who has been perhaps our most influential player, and no out and out striker.

SPFL Tier 3 Play-off, Semi-Final, First Leg, Ainslie Park, 03/05/22.

Calamity.

Shambles.

Disgrace.

Choose your own noun.

Whichever, this was a come-uppance that has been coming all season.

We weren’t the worse team in the first half; indeed we had several opportunities to put in good crosses, notably from Ross MacLean, but the delivery was never acceptable enough except when Conner Duthie put one over for Josh Oyinsan to head. Josh’s angle was slightly wrong and the ball just cleared the bar. That would have made it 1-1 and might have changed the game.

But our perennial ability to shoot ourselves in the foot manifested itself when George Stanger underhit a back-pass and Kieran Wright couldn’t prevent the forward getting past him to be presented with an open goal.

Their second was also an abject disaster, a corner somehow not being cleared and the ball going in off Gregor Buchanan. At that point any thought of winning this tie all but disappeared.

Mind you, if we had approached the start of the first half the way we did the second things might have been different. For the first twenty minutes we were all over them, creating space down the flanks and getting crosses in. It was two odd substitutions though with Kris Syvertsen who had looked as if he might create something and big Josh (who admittedly wasn’t at his best) being replaced by Kalvin Orsi and Callum Wilson. At this point Paul Paton was bossing the game from the base of midfield and it was his cross that was looped over the keeper from the edge of the box for our goal. Young Callum did his best, twisting and turning past defenders several times, but nobody was able to be calm enough to finish off his work.

Their third killed it. Another defensive mix-up and a reasonable save from Keiran Wright was followed by a failure to clear the ball which fell to a guy who couldn’t miss.

At 2-1 and with us on top there was the possibility of getting an equaliser but that goal knocked us back. 3-1 was always going to be a different prospect.

The final nail in the coffin with minutes to go – another short pass back latched on to by the home attack – just completed the humiliation.

The thought of watching the second leg was by then almost unbearable.

So; unless some sort of miracle happens on Saturday we now know where we’ll be playing next season; Tier 4.

Who knows where we’ll be the season after that?

The club is in deep trouble on and off the park. It’s its 150^th anniversary later this year. What a sorry state it’s in to greet that.

Profound change is required.

SPFL Tier 3, Balmoral Stadium, 23/4/22.

This was an odd experience. I’ve been at an away ground before where the home team could win promotion that day (Stark’s Park, when Jimmy Nichol was Raith player-manager) and it was a much more raucous affair.

For a team about to win a championship the home crowd was strangely muted. Maybe it’s an Aberdeen thing. Alex Ferguson said that the most encouragement the Pittodrie faithful gave his team was that, “You could hear them rustling their sweetie papers.”

Whatever the only chanting in the first half came from the small cohort of Dumbarton fans giving it the usual. “We’re only here for the party,” “What a shitey home support,” and “Shall we sing a song for you,” were each given a run-out.

We had the better of the earlier exchanges and their keeper made more saves (two) than ours (one) in the first half. Ross MacLean was worked into a good poaition on the left of the box but his shot was at a perfect height for the keeper to save it. Then Connor Duthie had a shot blocked and Josh Oyinsan shanked the rebound wide. Josh worked another opportunity afew minutes later but his finish was a bit weak and close to the keeper. At the other end Kieran Wright came out to smother a shot in a one-on-one. A pretty nothing first half in truth. The home team were just that though, a team, clearly used to playing with each other. Their passes generally found their target whereas ours could be wayward. However they didn’t look like a side hoping to win their league that day, with not much urgency to their play.

In the second half they did step it up a bit, but only a bit. Patience is a virtue and their one good opportunity was put away, former Son Mitch Megginson unaccountably left free at the edge of our box to rilfe it home. There was really only one winner after that, though we had a flurry towards the end. In retrospect the three changes our manager Stevie Farrell made simultaneously on 66 minutes perhaps made us less potent.

The plastic pitch had done for Eoghan Stokes 14 minutes in. It looked like his studs got too much grip on it and he was forced off.

Balmoral Stadium itself is a kind of soulless place to play football. At the edge of an industrial estate and overlooked by radio and microwave transmitters, it has a tiny stand (a bit like Boghead’s old Postage Stamp) straddling the halfway line with flat surrounds beside it and on the other three sides, though with three shallow stepped enclosures on the side opposite the stand. If there’s one persion standing in front of you you won’t be able to see any of the action. You have to be on the rail. In adddition the goal nets are almost touching the “terracing” barriers behind the goals.

Anyway, congratulatiosn to Cove Rangers on their winning the league.

As for us, a nothing game next Saturday before the nerve shredding play-off. For the second season in a row we’ll come up against Edinburgh City, away on 3^rd or 4^th May, with the home leg on 7^th May. I’m not looking beyond that.

SPFL Tier 3, Balmoor Stadium, 26/2/22.

This was somethiing of a disaster.

As if losing two goals in the first ten minutes wasn’t bad enough we were then down to ten men when Paul Paton picked up two yellow cards. And then they scored a third before half-time. Amazingly we got back into it with two goals through Ross MacLean and Eoghan Stokes.

Ross MacLean then also got a second yellow.

The inevitable followed as Peterhead got a fourth but the scoring wasn’t finished as Carlo Pignatiello got a third for us in injury time.

I’m not advocating we play with nine men in every game but that’s the second time this season we’ve managed to score in those circunstances – and with the same referee on both occasions. I hope we never get him officiating again.

This was a must not lose. And we lost.

We’ve got Queen’s Park (gainst whom we’ve played 3 and lost 3 this season) on our tatty field at the Rock next up.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to see where points are going to come from.

SPFL Tier 3, Broadwood Stadium, 12/2/22.

Well, that was much needed, but by all acoounts Clyde were rubbish.

Still, a win’s a win and not to be sniffed at.

And it was done without big Josh Oyinsan up top. (Pulled hamstring apparently.)

I wasn’t at the game and haven’t seen any higlights yet but it seems Carsy scored from open play! Our other two came from Ross MacLean.

And we’re up to the heady heights of seventh.

Mind you, Peterhead may be two places below us but they’ve got two games in hand.

Next Saturday against Alloa (in eighth) at home is a potential big one.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 29/1/22.

This was encouraging even if Cove were clearly the better team. They passed the ball well, seemed confident in possession, looked as if they had been together for years (which they have by and large) and absolutely brimmed with the confidence you’d expect from the league leaders.

But we were never completely out of it.

We played against the wind in the first half and coped well with it, though without making their keeper do much. Sam Ramsbottom, too, had no more than a couple of things to deal with. Five minutes before half-time we got a penalty when Ross MacLean (reprieved from his ban by the reversal of last week’s red card) sucked ex-Son Morgyn Neill into tripping him at the bye-line in the box. At this point my live stream started buffering so I missed Carsy’s conversion. One nil up at half-time is an unusual experience for Sons latterly but very welcome.

I was less sanguine six minutes into the second half. They were given a penalty that no-one in the ground or watching on the stream could see a reason for – bar the ref. 1-1.

Cove immediately looked in total control and scored again. A cross ball found their man on the right in too much space. His cross was deflected up and Sam Ramsbottom could only tip the ball across the six-yard area where it was scrambled into the net. Game unxpectedly on its head inside two minutes. From then on I had no hope whatsoever of getting something from the game. We couldn’t seem to get a decent out ball. As soon as we cleared it it would come back. Passes forward were hit too long (the wind contributing but account ought to be taken of that) or not to feet.

But despite their dominance Cove didn’t score the goal that would have killed the game though they had a glorious chance which their player somehow managed to scoop over the bar from about six yards.

Towards the end we started to penetrate their half more. It was good to see the team hadn’t resigned themselves to a defeat. Then we got what was perhaps a lucky second penalty when Carlo Pignatiello was adjudged to have been fouled in their box at a fifty-fifty. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the free-kick go the other way. But it was about time our luck changed.

Carsy despatched his second pen of the game superbly, so notching his first brace ever. All his goals this season – his best scoring – have come from set-pieces. I think it makes him our joint top scorer. He has four.

Our next three games are away against teams above us in the table. We’ll need to take something from those. How that will work out we’ll need to see.

The team ought to take encouragement from this performance though.

This post’s title is the perennial cry of the lesser spotted Scottish football fan.

However, Saturday’s Scottish Cup game against Dundee largely hinged on a red card being shown to Ross MacLean for violent conduct as a frsult of which we played the whole second half with only ten men.

This red card has now been rescinded.

How we might have fared with a full complement on the park is of course unknowable. But given we pushed Dundee fairly hard with only ten men it’s a reasonable assumption that we could have done even better with eleven on the pitch.

The ref has perhaps cost us a place in the next round – and the revenue that would bring – and a possibly lucrative draw in that round (though Dundee got Peterhead away – a tie which could have been negotiated by us into a quarter-final.) We were punished for an offence that in effect never happened. He was seemingly due to be fourth official at a Tier 1 game tonight and is due to do the same at another on Saturday. It doesn’t seem equable.