Written by John - OTR Saturday, 17 January 1998 00:00

This game was neatly summed up by the reporter on the BBC - "football at its most basic". Both teams tried hard but the conditions put paid to any chance of fine flowing football. It was wet, windy and very cold and portions of the pitch looked like mudbaths. Accurate passing was nigh-on impossible so the traditional Scottish tactics of 'humping the ball up the park as hard as possible' were employed.... with little success.

Stevie Gow returned to the Dumbarton defence in place of the injured Jamie Bruce and he played competently considering his long lay off.

Queen's Park made the brighter start and Kenny Meechan had to be alert on several occasions. Dumbarton then came back into it and started to threaten on a regular basis but the ball always seemed to end up in the hands of the Queen's keeper, Lindsay Hamilton.

In the second half, Dumbarton maintained the upper hand, creating several clear cut scoring opportunities. Flannery squandered a header from an excellent Willie Wilson cross and Glancy (or was it Ward) had an effort saved by Hamilton in a one-on-one situtation. This sparked the opposition into life and Meechan had to look lively to tip over a long drive. Shortly after, Queen's rattled Kenny's bar.

Certainly not a game to remember. In fact, it was rubbish. Hopefully we can raise our game for the visit of Motherwell on Saturday.