Written by John - OTR Tuesday, 17 February 1998 00:00

A small crowd, no atmosphere, a cold wind and awful pies. I'd forgotten just how bad some midweek games can be.

Jim the Hippy took a long dinner break from his nightshift to join me and the usual hardcore of Sons fans at Firs Park. And I got another complimentary. It's now starting to become a habit.

As you can imagine, this game was awful. Few chances were created by either side. East Stirlingshire's goal had a touch of luck about it. A low ball was played across Dumbarton's back four. It looked pretty harmless. But Stevie Gow stuck his foot behind him as the ball came across. It struck his boot and sat up nicely for an incoming Shire player who took it into the box and scored.

Dumbarton made three serious chances in the whole game. In the second half when it was still 0-0, McKinnon forced the keeper to tip over a stinging shot. Not long after Shire took the lead, Ross McCuaig hit the post and in the last ten minutes a low drive flashed across the six yard but not one of the 3 Sons players in the 6 yard box at the time could stick a leg out to put the ball into the net.

Overall, it was a another poor performance by the Sons but that didn't seem to bother Ian Wallace who looked remarkably relaxed during the whole game, casually leaning against the dugout. It's time for him to go.