Written by John - OTR Wednesday, 25 February 1998 00:00

This may sound strange but Dumbarton should have absolutely gubbed Montrose. Unfortunately, the good old combination of crap defending and poor finishing meant that Sons slumped to yet another home defeat.

The game started reasonably enough, with Dumbarton having a goal disallowed after Ward was adjudged to be in an offside position when a shot from Mooney or Grace hit the post and Wardie ran in for it.

Shortly after that, things started to fall apart. Montrose's first goal came from a low cross taken on the volley and put through Kenny Meechan's legs. The second came from a through ball which caught the defense napping. Meechan got a hand to it but it fell to Colin McGlashan who easily put it away.

Dumbarton then surprised me by actually scoring. It wasn't a pretty goal by any means, the ball being bundled over the line by Colin McKinnon following a corner, but it did give a glimmer of hope to the fans who were by this time starting to lose patience with the players and Wallace. A few minutes later, in typical Dumbarton fashion, the Sons shot themselves in the foot when Willie Wilson, who was having a nightmare of a game, weakly headed the ball back to Kenny Meechan. A Montrose forward nipped in, rounded the keeper and put the ball into the empty net.

Wallace must have said something to the team at half time because they came out fired up and ready to go. With the strengthening wind behind them, Dumbarton dominated the game. Keeny Meechan didn't get a touch of the ball for almost 15 minutes. Martin Mooney brought it back to 3-2 when he hit a wind-assisted 30 yarder into the top corner. This inspired the team and they piled on more pressure but we couldn't score. There were goalmouth scrambles, shots being blocked by Montrose players throwing themselves infront of the ball, headers over the bar, shots going inches wide. It wouldn't go in. So once again we were beaten by a team who took their chances. They had 4 chances and they scored 3. We had umpteen and scored two.

Wallace must go.