Written by John - OTR Saturday, 03 October 1998 00:00

A bigger than normal crowd turned up at Boghead for this clash, a match that I had been looking forward too.

Losing an early goal certainly put a bit of dampner on things though. In the 9th minute, a cross-cum-shot came in from the left. Kenny Meechan could only palm the ball out and it fell straight into the path of McBain who headed into an almost empty goal.

Dumbarton went 2-0 down in the 21st minute after what must be an example of the worst defending you'll ever see. County's Ferris took the ball about 40 yards towards the Dumbarton goal beating 4 or 5 Sons players on the way, none of whom appeared to make any attempt to put a tackle in, and he placed the ball beyond Kenny Meechan.

The team woke up a bit after this and started to show a bit of dig. McKinnon got booked for a challenge on the County number 4 who limped off a few minutes later. Dumbarton then started to take control of the game but didn't threaten the goal area often enough. Mooney did hit the bar with a superb 30 yarder dipping shot which brought shouts of "those goalposts are too small" from the crowd.

Just at the end of the half, Paddy Flannery scored what will be a contender for goal of the season. Willie Wilson crossed the ball over from the right. The ball was heading for Paddy who had his back toward goal. To the shock of every Dumbarton fan in the ground, he attempted the overhead kick as the ball was dropping. And, unbelievably, he connected with it and sent the ball low into Nicky Walker's left corner. That'll go a long way to improved his tarnished reputation.

The team came out for the second half and tried their best to pull back another goal but despite dominating the midfield again, they rarely troubled Nicky Walker. Billy Melvin came close with a low drive and substitute Martin Glancy missed a relatively easy chance in the box and blasted a shot way over the bar.

It's looking like the same old story. Lots of possession and control but there's nobody who can put the ball in the back of the net.