Written by John - OTR Saturday, 05 September 1998 00:00

There was an article in the Falkirk Herald last week about the state of the East Stirlingshire terracing. Basically Falkirk Council have ordered the closing of all the terracing until safety work is carried out. The 'Shire board didn't think that Dumbarton would bring a big support so there wouldn't be a problem getting everybody in the stand. Well, it turned out that the stand was almost filled to capacity and I estimated about half of the 225 spectators were Sons fans, which I would say was a large travelling support for the third division especially considering that the Scotland game was on at the same time.

The first incident the fans saw was Craig Brittain being carried off the pitch in the 7th minute following a strong 50-50 challenge in the Sons penalty box. He was taken to Falkirk Royal for x-rays and Davie Reid came on in his place. This didn't seem to upset the team though and Mooney and Flannery came close with efforts in the first ten minutes. In the 18th minute, Joe Robertson got his first league goal when he slammed the ball in the back of the net from six yards following a cross from Willie Wilson. At this point the game looked like it would be a walkover.

But, once again, Dumbarton sat on their lead and basically handed control of the game back to the 'Shire. It wasn't really a surprise when they equalized in the 42nd minute but it has to be said that the defending was sloppy. A 'Shire forward in the Sons penalty box with three Dumbarton players around him still managed to lay a square ball to the unmarked 'Shire warhorse, Billy McNeill who hit the back of the net with a powerful shot

'Shire kept up their efforts at the start of the second half but good defending and solid handling from Kenny Meechan kept the scorelines level. In the 58th minute, Toby King got the ball in the penalty area from a Joe Robertson cross. He took a couple of paces forward to the edge of the six yard box and blasted the ball into the net at the far post to make it 2-1 for the Sons.

Ex-Son Shug Ward came on for the 'Shire in his customary winger role but Willie Wilson kept him under control most of the time.

The 'Shire started to press forward for an equaliser in the last ten minutes but some fine tackling by Toby King in the midfield led to a couple of chances for Mooney but he was too knackered to make anything of them.

There were a couple of strange occurences in the game. One was seeing the referee calling Keeny Meechan and Davie Reid together for a wee chat. I'm not quite sure what was going on between them but I did hear Davie shout at Kenny for not rolling the ball to him when he was free which is certainly something that gets me annoyed at times.

The other strange occurence was that Paddy Flannery was applauded off the pitch when he was subbed for Smith. He actually had a good game even though he didn't score any goals. He did put two off-side efforts away but they don't really count, do they ?