Written by John - OTR Saturday, 04 April 1998 00:00

At the pre-match drink, Joe "The Predictor" Mitchell stated with assured confidence that Dumbarton would win and that Earth Summit would win the National. And he was right. Correct on both counts. Sandy and Jim The Hippy had, independently, also picked Earth Summit to win. Must have been something to do with the fact that its colours were yellow and black. However, Joe went on stretch the boundaries of credibility when he forecast that Dumbarton would only lose one game, a league game, in the next year. It'd be great if that one would come true, winning the Challenge Cup, the League Cup, being in the semi's of the Scottish Cup and having the league sewn up all by April. Ahh, we can dream.

Sons's new signing from Clydebank, Billy Melvin made his home debut and he was quitely impressive. We all thought "He'll do". But first impressions can be deceiving. Take Mark Falconer for example.

Apart from a wee scare in the first 10 minutes when the ball was desparately cleared off the line by a Sons defender, Dumbarton totally dominated the first half, pegging the Shire back for long spells.

On the half hour mark, Dumbarton took the lead. A deep cross (or it may have been a corner) was fumbled by the goalkeeper under pressure and the ball broke to Wilson at the edge of the box and he fired it home in between two Shire defenders. Not long after, Mooney smacked a free kick off the base of the post but unfortunately no-one was there to pick up the loose ball.

It was Shire who started to dominate the second half but their attacks were generally limited to long shots from defenders, although Barnes saved with his feet at one point in a penalty box scramble. Dumbarton managed to attack on the break, with Grace playing in almost a centre forward sort of role and doing it well.

The highlight of the half was seeing Martin Mooney leaving his studs in when trying to block a clearance from the Shire No. 4, Campbell. Campbell, being basically a thug, didn't like this, and took Mooney out from behind moments later and had a wee kick as well. The ref booked him when a red card was more appropriate and Mooney was replaced for his own protection by Glancy. You can't beat a bit of violence to keep things interesting.

The last ten minutes were especially nerve-wracking as Shire applied more and more pressure but the Sons defence held out which was quite remarkable as Shire had 3 or 4 corners.

Unsurprisingly, the final whistle was met with cheers and sustained applause from the Sons fans. Could the team have turned the corner ? Time will tell.