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.

The league fixtures for next season (2022-23) have been published.

We start against Stirling Albion at home on Jul 30^th and finish on May 6^th home to Stranraer.

I really don’t know what to think about this. It’s been a long few seasons of not being very competitive and I dread the same again. Not least that, unlike the last time we were in the lowest divison – 14 seasons ago – there is now the prospect of falling out of the SPFL altogether if that trend continues.

We are only three or so weeks away from our first League Cup game, also starting at home against Stirling Albion. It’s not much of a close season these days.

I didn’t post about it here but Sons’ previous manager left the club by mutual consent (to be fair it most probably was mutual) a day or so after our survival in tier 3 was secured.

On Saturday the club announced his replacement, Stevie Farrell, most recently manager of Stranraer. Stevie was previously at the Sons as an assistant manager so knows the club, as well as the SPFL divisions below tier 1.

I suppose there is now at least some prospect of playing some attacking football.

We’ll need to get some players in though. At the minute we’ve only got one, and he’s a defender.

SPFL Tier Three Play-off Semi-Final, second leg, The Rock, 11/5/21.

Another unrelaxing 90 minutes.

Stranraer had the best of the first ten minutes but then we began to come into the game and dominatedthe rest of the half. We actually played some football, passing the ball around on the deck!

I thought we’d rue the two chances Jaime Wilson didn’t put away, playedd into the edge of the box and running on to shoot which the keeper blocked but the rebound he skied over. Then another good passing move saw him hit it first time but wide.

His goal came after a bit of ping-pong in their box. It fell to him and he just smashed it.

The second half Stranraer came out very lively and it was like that for the rest of the game with us only making the occasional foray upfield. It was after one of these that Carsy mistimed his challenge at the edge of the box and gave away a penalty. Thankfully their player hit it against the base of the post and it bounced out for a goal kick.

We could maybe have scored again when Robert Jones worked space for himself in their box but didn’t pull the trigger early enough and also when Nick McAllister ran almost the length of the pitch betaing several defenders only for the keeper to save his shot with his leg, and Robert Jones couldn’t get to the rebound in time.

Unfortunately Jaime Wilson hobbled off halfway through the half. What goal threat we’ll have without him is dubious.

Curiously the time seemed to fly by. 20 minutes left became 15, then 10 then 3, then injury time but Stranraer couldn’t fashion thnmselves another chance.

So now it’s on to the play-off final. Against Edinburgh City, the first time we’ll have played them, I think – in this incarnation anyway. Away on Monday, then home on Thursday of next week.

SPFL Tier Three Play-off Semi-Final, first leg, Stair Park, 8/5/21.

So, Dumbarton nil again.

I suppose it was too much to ask for a goal given we actually scored three last time out. But no greater harm done.

On to Tuesday night’s second leg then.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 3/3/20.

That should do it. Forfar can still reach 54 points and we’re on 38 but they’ve averaged less than a point a game up to now so if they kept that up they’d only get to 35. We’re now 22 points ahead of Stranraer so they’re definitely out of sight. We’ll be in Tier 3 again next season I should think. (I can’t see us reaching the promotion play-off places.)

We dominated the first half and played some pretty stuff at times but never really threatend their goal until a cross reached Stefan McCluskey whose close effort from near the bye-line was saved by the keeper and went for what all the Sons fans near me thought was a corner – as did the linesman – but the ref gave a goal-kick. I suppose it could have rebounded back off McCluskey but it didn’t look like it.

The goal wasn’t long delayed, a neat move leading to a header into the path of Ross Forbes who finished it well.

Ir was much the same in the second half with Forfar having a bit more of the ball but mostly being woeful with it. Conor Brennan only had one save to make, from a long-range effort.

The clincher was again a good move with Jai Quitongo hammering home after a neat P J Crossan pass following a Forbes through ball.

Stefan McCluskey had the best game I’ve seen from him but he still doesn’t have much end-product and too often takes a negative option. Rico Quitongo continues to make strides at left-back; he’s a much improved player from the one of the beginning of the season. His brother Jai can clearly play a bit, with a good touch, but he has a tendency to go up blind alleys or overdo things. And Stuart Carswell looks to be coming back to his best. He’s been off the boil for a long time. I wonder if he’s been carrying an injury.

Clyde again on Saturday at their place. (Weather permitting.)

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 28/12/19.

I thought we were going to get away with it when we scored with five minutes to go, with Ryan Tierney slotting home – especially since we held out for 48 minutes last week.

But it wasn’t to be, and they equalised almost straight away.

Given we only had 13 players available, a pretty bare bench with only two on it – one of them a goalie – a draw’s not a bad return; even if Stranraer are bottom of the league and hadn’t so much as drawn a game in ages.

Down to sixth again though, but the gap to the relegation places is about twice as large as to fourth place.

I hope manager Jim Duffy has a cat or two to bring out of the bag when the transfer window opens in the New Year, though; we need bodies.

Hopefully decent ones.

Scottish Cup,* Third Round, The Rock, 23/11/19.

Well, we’re through. This was an odd game though.

After a fairly even start we scored after a neat move culminated in Isaac Layne passing to Adam Frizzell who still had a lot to do, beating a man before shooting. It appeared to deflect a little but still it seemed the keeper might have done better.

We immediately fell out of it, surrendering the midfield and allowing Forfar to flood forward. Consequently it wasn’t a surprise that they equalised but it was a shocking goal to lose, as nobody seemed to put in a challenge before the cross which was headed out to a Forfar player totally unmarked on the edge of the box. His curled shot was just watched into the net by everybody.

Despite Forfar having most of the game they didn’t actually force Connor Brennan in goal into any saves after that except for dealing with crosses and the like. (I use ‘dealing with’ in the widest sense as in one case he palmed the ball out almost straight to a Forfar player who thankfully didn’t make the most of it.)

In what seemed like our first foray up the field in a long time we won a corner. Stefan McCluskey swept in the corner for Ryan McGeever to power a header into the bottom corner.

It was soon all over as the most Route One goal you’ll ever see came when their centre half misjudged a Connor Brennan kick-out and Isaac Layne latched onto the ball to drive it past the advancing keeper.

At 1-1 I was dreading them scoring as we could really do with them not getting the confidence boost a win could have brought. The way we played today I doubt we’d have got back in the game. Unfortunately Stranraer achieved just that likely boost against Dunfermline today. Let’s hope that it’s short-lived.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be too harsh as we were missing the influential Joe McKee today. His general play and delivery from crosses and set-pieces is a big asset. Also out was Rhegan Tumilty, I assume because his parent club doesn’t want him cup-tied.

*William Hill Scottish Cup

SPFL Tier 3, Stair Park, 19/10/19.

Well, it’s a welcome clean sheet – our first in the league this season – and I didn’t expect us not to win but yet still go up one place in the league. The only disappointment is we didn’t score. But you can’t have everything.

So we’re now in a promotion play-off place, again. On goals scored ironically.

Early days still, though.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 24/8/19.

Well. Not counting chickens or anything but the mood around the Rock and with the players must be a lot better after the last two games. We don’t have a great record against Stranraer either so it was a fine result.

New loan signing Reghan Tumilty seems to have made a good impression on the fans. Long may that continue.

And Brechin’s low points record is safe (from us anyway.)

Some odd results today. Maybe this division will be a lot tighter this year than people thought.