Written by John - OTR Saturday, 24 January 1998 00:00

They came. They saw. They left empty Buckfast bottles strewn over Dumbarton. Yip, Motherwell fans were in town for the Scottish Cup tie. A quite a lot of them too, around 2000. There were more Sons fans than usual at the game and the atmosphere was thick with the smell of dusty scarves.

As per usual, Dumbarton didn't start too well. Stevie Gow had to clear off his own line and Kenny Meechan pulled off a fine low save from a Coyne header as well as stopping a few others. Ownie Coyle was, thankfully, fairly ineffective. Admittedly he does look a better player and showed some nice close control but that was all. We were all relieved when he was substituted in the 72nd minute. Well, it gave us another chance to give him torrents of verbal abuse and it meant he wouldn't be able to score the winner in the last minute which he does have a talent for.

So at the end of first half it was 0-0. I was pleasantly surprised but concerned about Dumbarton's lack of penetration and generally poor passing as well as Kenny Meechan's aimless punts up the park.

The second half started disastrously. Jamie Bruce made a mess of a clearance which left the ball rolling slowly near the penalty spot. In the ensuing rush, McSkimming beat Coyle to the ball and he blasted it high into the net. The goal saw the start of a period of dominance by Motherwell in which attack after attack rained in on the Dumbarton penalty box. Mind you, if the far side linesman had any knowledge of the laws of the game he might have realised that three or four of these Motherwell attacks were blatantly offside. In fact, he seemed to have difficulty in making any decisions for himself even when he was in a better position to decide than the referee. He wasn't a favourite of the home support.

But, thanks to two or three good saves by Kenny Meechan, Dumbarton weathered the storm and the team realised that the game was here for the taking. Grace came on for Brittain in the 59th minute which lead to the Sons getting much more of the ball in midfield. A few attacks were put together but nothing came of them. Dumbarton's confidence continued to grow and the team's effort was rewarded in the 76th minute when Lee Sharp was upended in the box. From where we were standing the challenge seemed fairly innocuous. In fact, we weren't even sure if it was in the box but the highlights vindicated the referee's decision. After a minute of so of treatment, which added to the suspense of the situation, Lee Sharp took a perfect penalty, sending Stevie Woods the wrong way and drilling the ball low into the corner. The home crowd went wild.

A few minutes later came the moment that will live on in the memories of Dumbarton fans for years to come, the "Flannery Must Score" moment. Brian Martin who had been solid for Motherwell the whole game, misdirected a header back towards his own keeper. Flannery pounced on the loose ball and sprinted through on the keeper. Woods came out to edge of his box. "He's got to score", we all thought. But no, Flannery's shot was just the right height for Woods and he deflected it out for a corner. It was Flannery's golden opportunity to show that Morton were wrong to let him go and he blew it, big time.

I don't recall much of note happening from that point until the referee blew for full time. There probably was but it I was still in shock after Flannery's miss.

Overall, we were happy with the draw. After all we could have been 3-0 down at half time. So it's off to Fir Park on Tuesday to see if we can get through to a glamour tie with Rangers in the next round.