Written by John - OTR Sunday, 27 February 2000 00:00

Wow, a game that had everything. Cruching tackles, dramatic fightbacks,a sending off. And Dumbarton managed to win, whatever next.

The first half was a pretty dire affair, thanks to Montrose's insistance on playing a very deep off-side trap. However, in the 38th minute, the trap was sprung when Toby King was released and he took the ball on and whacked it by the keeper. The funny thing was that I thought Toby was a mile offside when the ball played. But the linesman, for once, kept his flag down to Dumbarton's advantage.

The second half wasn't much better until the substitution of Smith for cult hero Turbo Hringsson. Turbo's pace brought new life to the game and in the 64th minute, it brought about a sending off when Turbo was taken out by the last man.

You would have thought that was have spurred the Sons on to score another goal but no. It saw the start of a dogged Montrose fight back. They pulled a goal back with a nice shot which looped over Derek Barnes' head. A few minutes later they took the lead thanks to some dreadful Dumbarton defending at a corner. Quite unbelievable really. Ten man Montrose running rings round eleven man Dumbarton.

It took Dumbarton a while to recover from this but gradually they started to get back into things. Willie Watters, making his debut for Dumbarton, hit the bar from a great by line cut back.

In th 81st minute, Stevie Jack, still playing in a midfield role these days, took the ball for a wee run towards the penalty box. When he got there, he was clumsily challenged by a large Montrose defender who missed the ball completely. Stonewall penalty but the manner in which Stevie fell made it look a bit theatrical much to the annoyance of the Montrose team. Stevie actually damaged his shoulder in the fall and after he went off, Joe 'Reliable' Robertson stepped up to convert the kick in off the post to make it 2-2. Dumbarton continued to pressurise and with one minute to go, John Dillon ran down the left wing and put in a superb cross. Turbo Hringsson got on the end of it and glanced the ball superbly beyond the Montrose keep to take the 3 points.

Not a great perfomance but 3 points is 3 points and they all count.