SPFL Tier Three 3 Play-off, Semi-Final, second leg, Forthbank Stadium, 11/5/24.

Like water torture. This was indeed a long 90+ minutes.

Albion looked a side lacking in confidence, not surprising when you slide into a relegation play-off spot.

In the first half they only threatened our goal once, after a bit of ping-pong in the box following a corner. Jay Hogarth saved the first effort but when the rebound was played across goal their attacker air-kicked a sitter.

We ought to have scored when a great move culminated with Div Wilson going for the near post but just shaving it into the side net. (Just for a moment it seemed he had scored.)

In the second half Albion came out to throw everything at it even going to three at the back. As a result our midfield was overrun at times but Jay Hogarth never really had a save to make. One shot did hit the post but that was it.

We had a few counter-attacking forays but tended to overcarry the ball when a pass was on (Kalvin Orsi and Finlay Gray I’m looking at you) or else players strayed offside so we never put the tie to bed. (Curiously, the linesmen flagged at the earliest opportunity, something which is very rare these days.) Michael Ruth was again superb up front but never got the clear chance his hold-up and general play deserved.

The final whistle was more of a relief than anything else even though Stirling never looked like scoring.

So it’s on to the Rock on Tuesday evening for the first leg of the Play-off Final against The Spartans then to Ainslie Park (of ill memory but also great memory) on Friday.

I featured Forthbank Stadium, home of Stirling Albion FC, in 2011.

In March last year I took more pictures of which only the two below are substantially new.

East stand from car park:-

Looking north from east stand:-

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 22/04/23.

A win and another clean sheet – thanks to Brett Long for a penalty save and Martin McNiff for the goal, though Carsy missed a penalty for us. That’s a club record of clean sheets in one season for a single goalkeeper.

Combined with Annan’s defeat to Stirling this result means we will finish second.

Not that that matters much as we will be playing whoever finishes third, which might well be East Fife, or Annan.

The first leg is away on 9 or 10/6/23, with the second leg at home on 13/6/23.

Two games till to go before then though. Let’s hope for no more injuries.

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 18/4/23.

Well, I suppose a draw against the league leaders isn’t a bad result.

And it’s another clean sheet.

But this put the final nail in the coffin of us winning said league. Stirling’s much better goal difference means the title is theirs. All we’ve got to look forward to now is the play-offs.

They’ll be a nerve-racking experience.

SPFL Tier 4, New Dundas Park, 15/4/23.

A win?

And a clean sheet?

We’ve not seen either of those for six weeks.

I’m glad we’ve stopped the rot. I was beginning to wonder where a point was going to come from.

And results elsewhere mean we’ve clinched a promotion play-off spot. (I’d have taken that before a ball was kicked but after being top of the pile for so long it’s a touch disappointing we didn’t manage to push that over the line. And the other teams in the play-offs will be in a better psychological place for not having that disappointment.)

We have Declan Byrne and Russell McLean to thank for today’s goals. I must confess that second scorer is a surprise as when I saw him – at East Fife and Stirling – he looked like he couldn’t hit the proverbial barn door. Still, we’ll take small comforts.

Next up is Stirling Albion at home on Tuesday where they’ll be hoping to clinch the league title (that’s if the game goes on; it’s been postponed four times already.) Then it’s East Fife at home on Saturday and they’ll be on a high after putting eight past Stranraer today.

SPFL Tier 4, Galabank, 8/4/23.

As my younger son said to me today the wheels are no longer in the vicinity of the vehicle. They are some way back down the road.

We somehow managed to scrape up five substitutes, one of whom, David Wilson, scored with fifteen minutes left from a free-kick. Far too little, far too late. We were well out of it by then.

It doesn’t augur well for your team when you lose a goal in two minutes and another two well before half-time.

After that I was expecting a rout but it didn’t get that bad. Maybe Annan were saving themselves for their next game.

On to Tuesday night at home to Stirling. If they win they’ll have clinched the title, bar an absurd collapse. A draw – or even a severely unlikely win for us – will delay that outcome.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 1/4/23.

April Fool?

Sadly not.

Yes, the injuries and the pitch have certainly taken their toll.

What a difference a week makes. We looked okay against Stirling (apart from losing the same goal twice) and I was quite optimistic.

Not now. We apparently deserved nothing from the game. Aaron Lynas’s goal just before half-time was, it seems, the only bright point.

At least we have a whole week now before our next game, a tough trip to Annan.

But who knows how many players will be fit for it.

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.

This follows on from Dumbarton P-P Stirling Albion on Tuesday night – a completely farcical call-off made only when the game referee turned up and had a look at the pitch.

Every Dumbarton fan knows that a strip of pitch on the stand side doesn’t get the sun, so how come the groundsman didn’t make efforts to alleviate this or call for an earlier inspection? (There’s history with the present groundsman, too complicated to go into here.)

At least today’s call-off was after a 10 am inspection and no fans, local or travelling, were inconvenienced by it.

However it does mean that the rearranged Stirling game (now due on Tuesday) – if it goes ahead – has become a must-not-lose since they managed to reduce the gap to two points after gaining a win in added time today. And they still have a game in hand.

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.