Written by John - OTR Saturday, 22 August 1998 00:00

After two weeks toying with the idea of being a table topping team, Dumbarton went back to doing what they do best; playing crap, losing an easy goal, then missing golden opportunites to score.

The only moment of action in an exceptionally tedious first half was the Stenhousemuir goal. A long cross fired over from the right, found Hamilton in acres of space and he headed the ball away past Kenny Meechan, who was rooted to the spot. Meechan's lack of motion is starting to get really annoying these days. I've lost count of the goals we've lost where Kenny hasn't moved a muscle. Time for a change, I reckon.

Just like last week, Dumbarton improved in the second half. But there were far to many high balls played up the park which when giant players like Crawford Baptie are in the opposing defence is a total waste of time.

Some chances were created. Martin Melvin totally miscued a sitter in the six yard box. One of those horrendous swipes at the ball in which he the only he hit was air. Professional players just shouldn't be doing that sort of thing. Flannery, in front of goal, was his usual self and he also missed a sitter. But when he was doing his target man role he was good. Great control, magic turns and accurate lay offs.

We've got this theory about Flannery's lack of goals in competitive games. It's all do with the size of the crowd. He scored two goals (allegedly) in a pre-season friendly against Ardeer. He scored a hat trick (allegedly) against Clyde the other week in a closed door friendly. There was probably about 50 or so people there at each game. The only competitive goal he scored was against Albion Rovers where the attendance was 193. Basically, the number of goals he'll score in a game decreases as the crowd increases with a cut off value of around 200 people. So it looks like the only way he'll score is if we all creep into the ground and cower behind the wall so as not to put him off.

Getting back to the report, the game was effectively finished when Stenhousemuir scored their second. Admittedly it was a great strike from Hamilton from outside the box but Kenny Meechan, again, looked flatfooted and the shot beat him at his near post.

When the ref blew for full time there was no booing. One fan was vented his rage on one of the players but the rest of them traipsed out in silence. Well, apart from Sandy who got in his customary "Rankine Must Go" shout. If the team keeps playing the same way, it'll not be long before we're calling for Wallace's head.