SPFL Tier  3, The Rock, 26/4/25.

The last home game of the season and an entertaining one.

Annan had the best of the opening twenty or so minutes but really only created one opportunity. It was a golden one though but loanee keeper Shay Kelly pulled off an incredible point-blank save. I still don’t know how he did it.

Then we got a free-kick reasonably far out from which I wasn’t expecting much but Ryan Blair beat the keeper with a shot at a fairly savable height I thought but which squeezed in close to the post.

One-nil at half time and soon Annan’s task got more difficult when a second yellow card was shown to one of their defenders. from where I was it looked as if his slip had simply caused Michael Ruth to fall over him but the ref signalled it was a trip.

Annan then brought on sub Tommy Goss. At 6 feet 4 inches he towerd over everybody else on the park. Not good when we were playing with a makeshift centre back pairing neither of whom are centre backs. (Curiously the same was true of Annan’s line-up. No centre backs playing at centre back on either side is surely an extremely rare phenomenon.) Goss began winning balls in the air bringing out another superb save from Shay Kelly but their forward blazed the rebound over when it was surely easier to score. Goss then converted a corner and Annan looked more likely to win the game – which they had to if they had any hope sof avoding the relegaton play-off spot.

A few minutes we had a pitch invasion. No, not really, but the crowd did end up on the pitch. A fire alarm had gone off in the stadium and the game had to be suspended.

That turned out to be the turning point. After the restart we scored twice in quick succession. Firstly Tony Wallace was played in by fellow sub Joel Mumbongo but he took what felt like an age in beating the same defender twice before finally planting the ball in the net. Also Mouhamed Niang was put on Goss at set pieces after which Annan seemed to stop trying to find him.

Two minutes later another quick break saw Finlay Gray play the ball across the box. Joel Mumbongo perhaps ought to have scored but seemed to miss the ball. However he mananged to confuse the keeper who then failed to stop the ball reaching another sub Jinky Hilton who put it away.

Things were not over. They were given a penalty and Shay Kelly took his good time getting into place going behind the goal line and seeming to aplly something to his gloves, time-wasting for which he was given a yellow card. His ….housery worked, though, as he got down well to save the shot from Goss. Man of the match for me.

The home season ended on a playing high, then. Only Stenhousemuir away next week before a season unforgettable for all the wrong reasons is over.

Will we still be around for the next one though? An owner whose only interest in the club is as a site for housebuilding might well pull the plug. Fans are powerless in this regard.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 26/10/24.

Two wins in a row! Great.

And against a barrage of media interest in our opposition, all but egging them on.

Their story could have gone two ways today after their administration on Monday and subsequent fifteen point deduction. Either it could have galvanised them or else they could have continued stumbling along as they have been this season.

Two from Jinky Hilton and a single from Ryan Blair did for them, though.

So we’re now second bottom (I note we would still have gone above ICT even without their fifteen point penalty) but we’re only five points off top spot. It’s a crazy division.

We’re at home to the league leaders next week. It doesn’t get easy.

SPFL Tier 4, Ainslie Park, 16/3/24.

I had noted from the league table that we could go above Spartans if we beat them by four but I never expected it to happen. This was just one of those odd games that occur from time to time.

The early minutes were a bit of a non-event with neither team really threatening but then Craig Durnan surged forward and passed to Michael Ruth who seemd to me to run into a blind alley but he drew the foul and Ryan Blair stroked it round the wall and in off the post for our first.

They hadn’t laid a glove on us till they were awarded a free-kick. It was a well-hit strike but Jay Hogarth maybe wasn’t as well positioned as he might have been.

We kind of took control for a while and started peppering their goal. A Jinky Hilton strke was well saved by the goalie’s feet but from the resultant corner we got another on the other side and Aron Lynas made sure he got on the end of it. Our third came not long after. Another corner saw a bit of ping-pong in their box before the clearance was placed on the volley into the goal by Gallagher Lennon. The flight of ball forward for their second was misjudged by two of our defenders and the header on fell kindly for their scorer.

In  the second half Jay Hogarth stood up well to a chance at the near post to stop them equalising and then Ryan Blair all but copied their first from much the same position. Again their keeper was probably too far left in the goal. Our fifth was all about Michael Ruth. From inside our half he chased a pass back and pounced on the keeper’s poor nudge forward before rounding him and scoring.

Our sixth was a peach, Finlay Gray driving forward from the halfway line. I thought he would shoot but instead he slipped the ball to loanee James Graham who’d got himself into space in the box and dinked it very neatly past the keeper.

It’s not often we win 6-2, never mind away; still less to a team above us, so well done to the lads

But.

What price Spartans beating us if we get them in the play-offs? It’s a funny old game.

SPFL Tier 4, New Bayview*, 9/3/24.

Well; I wouldn’t have given you odds that the game would be this close after the first five minutes. Nathan Austin had scored from a loose ball after their player had waltzed through our left hand side and Jay Hogarth only partially blocked the shot. Austin then somehow managed to hit the post when another goal looked certain and then they hit the bar with a long range effort. Another 5-0 or 6-0 shellacking as on Tuesday night loooked very much on the cards.

Our main tactic seemed to be to lump it up to the small man. Michael Ruth is a decent hold-up player but he’s not the tallest guy on a pitch.

Towards the end of the half we settled down and began to create. A great Michael Ruth turn allowed him to get a shot away from among a few bodies but it was straight at the keeper. Then Finlay Gray worked himself into a one-on-one but his shot went past the post.

The first ten minutes of the second half were a total turn round. We were all over them. A nice interchange between Ryan Blair (on as a sub for a harshly booked but not very effective at left back Blair Malcolm) and Tony Wallace got the ball to Finlay Gray just outside the box. He killed the pass then blasted the ball into the het in almost the same movement.

Our next goal was entirely down to Michael Ruth’s selfless running. He chased down a ball he had no right to get, made the defender play it and then nicked the ball before sending it across the edge of the area.  Finlay Gray gave it a nice dummy (he probably got a call)  and Jinky Hilton stroked it past the keeper. Delirium in the away end.

It didn’t last; we conceded poorly from a corner. (Why we didn’t leave at least one man up on opposition corners I have no idea. If we had, the penalty area would have been less crowded with more chance to clear a ball and someone to play it to.)

East Fife were more into it late on and I got increasingly annoyed that our assistant manager, Frank McKeown, kept telling our players to slow the game down. We might have won the game if we’d gone for it. (We might not have but I’ll never know now.)

Late on Jay Hogarth pushed a swerving shot somewhat uncomfortably onto the bar. A stronger hand would have pushed it out for a corner and subsequent events might have taken a different turn. East Fife reworked the situation and the ball got crossed to Nathan Austin whose header looked savable but was only deflected into the net by Jay Hogarth’s hand, not pushed away. Another late goal lost. I don’t suppose any Dumbarton fan was surprised. We make a habit of it. As we do of no-one moving to create space at our throw-ins (but on that one we always have.)

It was my first look at Hogarth, Gallagher Lennon, Cian Newbury and Aaron Healy. They all seem to be a bit raw yet for the hurly-burly of our division. Marc Kelly and James Graham came on for the last few minutes. On that evidence Kelly is no Michael Ruth.

*Apparently now the MGM Timber Bayview Stadium. Please yourselves.

SPFL Tier 4, Borough Briggs, SPFL Tier 4, 29/4/23.

Another ground new to me ticked off the list.

But the game was turgid end-of-season stuff.

We had nothing to play for. Given they needed a result I was surprised Elgin were so lacklustre throughout though. Before their last minute winner (another header from a set-piece, this is getting to be a habit) they only troubled Harry Broun in goal twice; once after Martin McNiff got himself into a fankle and let in – of all people – Kane Hester, Broun saved with his foot, and another from a long range shot which Broun had to dive full length to push away.

Not that we gave their keeper much bother- a Ryan Blair shot in the first half stung his palms, Finlay Gray forced him into a diving save late on – but earlier Ally Love could perhaps have kept his lob down a bit more.

That late goal, after an unnecessarily conceded free kick, deprived us of another clean sheet. It sent them and their fans into delirium though.

I hope we’re keeping our powder dry for the play-offs.

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 25/2/23.

We have gone seriously off the boil. That’s eleven points dropped in our last six games. So, not a good time to lose at home for the first time this season.

As last week we went behind pretty early. At least this time we got an equaliser through Ryan Blair but we gave away a penalty early in the second half.

It seems from Pie and Bovril that we were truly bad today too.

Plus we’ve got a game on Tuesday against Stenhousemuir at home and they’ve come onto a game recently.

Then it’s away to Stranraer next Saturday and our record there is awful.

By the time we play Stirling Albion on Tuesday week we could well be behind them.

SPFL Tier 3, Bayview Stadium, 3/9/22.

Well. I’m not a jinx. And the club record number of wins at the start of a season was broken again. We’re eight points clear. I keep thinking sometime I will wake up.

This was my first time seeing this Sons side and it was a strange experience. The difference between last season and this is night and day. Indeed I do not recall ever seeing a Dumbarton team have so much ‘dig’ in it. Every ball was contested, the press was coordinated, the determination impressive.

Not that it was a very good game. It didn’t contain much flowing football. But a win is a win.

My impression was that East Fife had more of the ball in the first half but the half-time possession statistics (according to the BBC website) suggested the opposite. Our goal came form a quick turnover in midfield when Ryan Blair sent Declan Byrne through with an arrowed pass and he ran on to dispatch it past the keeper into the far corner. A minute later Declan nearly repeated the feat but this time his shot from a slightly narrower angle hit the post and bounced out. Byrne was a terrier up front, putting himself about but also able to hold the ball up distribute it.

We had a few half-chances in the second half but mostly put the ball over the bar. There was one lovely corner routine which ought perhaps to have led to a goal but the final shot was scuffed and subsequently hacked away.

There very few moments of concern in our box. Brett Long in goal didn’t have to make a save. One East Fife effort did hit the bar but Brett may have had the scoring trajectory covered.

There was also a good amount of game management going on in the second half. Nice to see.

Next up is Stranraer away. They are our bogey team. A good test then.

SPFL Tier 3, Ochilview, 20//8/22.

I don’t know what to say about this. I’m gobsmacked.

We’ve only ever once before in my lifetime won our first four league games – in 1959/60. And I can’t remember that.

This sort of thing is so rare in the life of a football fan.

Congratulations to the players and everybody at the club.

A goal for Ryan Blair (though some give it as an own goal,) one by Martin McNiff and the clincher by Finlay Gray.

I will note though that we’ve beaten three out of the bottom four and only one of the top four. But given the situation it’s unlikely we would have beaten the rest of the top five.

Conditioned as I am by many years of disappointment I am now of course fearing the bubble will burst – but hoping it won’t.