On The Rocks - A Dumbarton FC Website

Written by John - OTR Monday, 26 July 2010 11:36

Bloody hell.

One minute I'm basking in the glow of Dumbarton's mid table finish and the next the new season is underway. So much for my site revamp plans.

So that's Dumbarton's first competitive game done and dusted, losing on penalties to Greenock Morton in the Alba Challenge Cup. A gallant performance against the team from the higher division, no doubt. I wouldn't know as I wasn't there.

It's a Mickey Mouse tournament anyway. As is the League Cup for which Sons have to traipse down to Dumfries for next Saturday. Another gallant defeat on the cards there methinks.

But that will get them out the way and leave the team to concentrate on the league campaign. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Apparently the Sons are playing some club named Clydebank FC on Wednesday. Now it's obviously not the real Clydebank FC, the Bankie Bastards of old, as they were involved in that tumultuous series of events which spawned the evil that is Airdrie United, but they are close enough to the previous incarnation to warrant the dusting down the old songs.

"And we hate Clydebank

And we hate Clydebank

And we hate Clydebank

And we hate Clydebank

And we hate Clydebank

And we hate Clydebank

'cos we are the Clydebank haters"

Classic.

Written by John - OTR Monday, 19 April 2010 12:13

Well, I did actually manage to get to Alloa on Saturday and saw the Sons take three points off the league leaders in a game with plenty of twists and turns.

The first twist was Dumbarton taking the lead when a low cross ball evaded the Alloa defenders and landed at the feet of the unmarked David Winters. Winters made no mistake, blasting the ball into the net. 

Five minutes later, another twist as Alloa's David McClune got his marching orders after holding back Iain Chisholm on the edge of the box. A red card seemed a bit over top until I realised it was McClune's second yellow. Fair enough, off you go son.

With the way the match had been going, I felt that Dumbarton were going to stroll through the rest of the game. The teams had been fairly even before the first goal. In fact, I had been wondering how the hell Alloa had such a commanding lead in the division. After all, I had seen Sons take them apart at the previous game at Recreation Park and we were on top here.

At the start of the second half, I began to see why. Alloa came out firing, really taking the game to Dumbarton. That pressure was rewarded when Chris Smith attempted an overly physical shoulder charge in the penalty area. From where I was standing, I couldn't see whether the contact was clean shoulder-to-shoulder but the physicality of the challenge was probably enough for the referee to make his mind up. Penalty to Alloa it was. And duly dispatched. 1-1.

Alloa kept up the pressure especially on Chris Smith who nearly cost Dumbarton the lead with some terrible defending and some ill-advised challenges. But Sons survived.

In the 64th minute, Wyness put Sons back in front from an Iain Chisholm cross and Wyness hit the crossbar a few minutes later.

As the game went on, it became end-to-end excitement. Sons had several great opportunities to score but missed and Alloa kept piling on the pressure with goalmouth stramashes galore and several corners in the final five minutes. 

I was a relieved man when the referee finally brought the game to a close.

So three points to Dumbarton, taking us into 5th place, thanks to Peterhead's humbling by Clyde. Sons are now four points off Brechin City in the fourth playoff place but we're going to need to win both our remaining games and hope that Brechin don't get two points from their remaining matches against Cowdenbeath (twice) and Stirling Albion. 

Still possible.

** Comedy moment of the match - The Alloa PA system playing the theme tune to the A-Team after Alloa scored. Hilarious. In a very bad way **

** Rare celebrity sighting of the match - A certain Mr Robert Ryan of pet shop and blogging fame was at the game today. **

Written by Administrator Saturday, 17 April 2010 09:08

I might actually make the game today.

Written by John - OTR Sunday, 07 March 2010 15:55

Yesterday's 1-0 defeat by Brechin City leaves Dumbarton's promotion hopes in a bit of state. Sitting in 7th place with 28 points, Sons are now nine points behind 4th place Brechin who have managed to open a 6 point gap between them and 5th place.

It looks too big of gap for Sons to bridge, especially with the backlog of games that are due to played in March and April as Sons traditionally do not do well on a busy schedule.

Personally,  I'd be happy with just finishing in mid-table given that it's Sons first season in the Second Division for a few years. But I'm also hoping that JIm Chapman can pull out a late season flourish just like last year.

Written by John - OTR Saturday, 16 January 2010 12:04

Another postponement.

Written by John - OTR Friday, 01 January 2010 10:42

Another unsurprising outcome.

Written by John - OTR Saturday, 19 December 2009 12:59

Frozen pitch unsurprisingly.

Written by John - OTR Wednesday, 09 December 2009 09:40

Following the disappointing Cup defeat against Morton, Dumbarton got back to league business last night against Peterhead.

A slim 1-0 win thanks to Scott Chaplain's 30th minute penalty sees the Sons leapfrog Peterhead into 5th place, only two points behind Brechin City and a potential play off place.

December is going to be an important month for Dumbarton. East Fife visit The Rock on Saturday 12th, a game Sons need to win to keep the pressure on the top teams. Tuesday the 15th will see Sons travel to Forthbank to take on second place Stirling in what should be cracking game. Another cracking game follows on Saturday 19th when third place Alloa visit the Rock. These will be crucial games for Dumbarton, which will either see us climb up into the playoff places or get stuck in the middle of the table.

Bring it on!

Written by John - OTR Monday, 30 November 2009 15:12

It's not often Dumbarton feature in the fourth round draw of the Scottish Cup. But thanks to the nil-nil draw at Morton on Saturday, our name was in the proverbial hat.

And the footballing gods have decided to award Sons or Morton a home game against the mighty Celtic of Glasgow.

Now that's an incentive. Full draw below.

Inverness Caley Thistle v Motherwell
Hamilton v Rangers
Morton or Dumbarton v Celtic
Hibernian v Irvine Meadow
St Mirren v Cowdenbeath or Alloa Athletic
Raith Rovers or Peterhead v Airdrie United
Dunfermline v Stenhousemuir or Cove Rangers
Forfar v St Johnstone
Clyde or Livingston v Dundee
Albion Rovers v Stirling Albion
Aberdeen v Hearts
Edinburgh City v Montrose
Partick Thistle v Dundee United
Ross County v Inverurie Loco Works
Ayr United v Wick Academy or Brechin
Kilmarnock v Falkirk

Ties to be played 9/10 January 2010.

Written by John - OTR Friday, 27 November 2009 10:57

Dumbarton travel across the water tomorrow to take on Greenock Morton at Cappielow in the third round of the Scottish Cup.

Morton have had a torrid time of it this season the First Division, winning 5 out of 15 league games. They have been on the end of some humpings too, 5-0 at the hands of Partick Thistle, 3-0 against Inverness Caley Thistle and another 3-0 the following week against Raith Rovers. This poor run saw manager Davie Irons being relieved of his duties in September with James Grady and Allan McManus assuming control.

This has definitely steadied the ship and Morton have won their last two games 5-0 against Raith Rovers and a 4-2 win against Airdrie.

Tomorrow will not be the first meeting between Sons and Morton this season. Morton defeated Dumbarton 1-0 at The Rock in late July in the ALBA Challenge Cup but both teams were pretty poor at this point so not too much can be read into that.

With both teams' recent improvement, it should be a good game, although history isn't exactly on Dumbarton's side with only one victory in the last ten games.