Written by John - OTR Tuesday, 12 December 2000 00:00

I was surprised that this game went ahead given the amount of rain that was falling in Falkirk area in the late afternoon. But it did, although the game wasn't confirmed as being on until about 6.15 which meant a bit of tight journey for the Sons fans. But not me, as I live a mere 5 minute walk from the ground!

Shire seemed to adapt better to the very heavy underfoot conditions and had the majority of the play in the first half. The Sons were guilty of giving the ball away far too easily and their best effort was a shot from 25 yards by the shaven-headed Stevie Jack which came off the cross bar.

The second half was much more exciting.

Dumbarton's goal came in the 54th minute. A long ball was played down the line to Andy Brown. Bomber did some great work to create a chance to cross the ball in the from the corner. Bonar (I think) had shot blocked. The ball then fell to Joe Robertson who made no mistake from about 10 yards.

Shire responded by hitting the post twice within 10 minutes and Joe Robertson had to look lively to clear a net bound corner from going in at the back post. During this period, Shire were very strong and had Dumbarton pegged in their own half for long periods.

The man in bright blue, the referee, turned down a blatant penalty appeal when Joe Robertson was flattened from behind in the six yard just as he was about to stroke the ball home. But the ref made up for this by not giving a penalty to Shire in the last ten minutes when quite a few of his colleagues would.

The most unbelievable part of this match was played out by Bomber Brown. A long ball was played down the centre of the pitch. Big Andy ran between two defenders and managed to lift the ball over the advancing keeper. It looked net-bound all the way. The ball bounced once and it was still net-bound. The celebration cheer started to go up. Bomber turned towards the fans. The ball hit the ground again, on the goal line, and stayed there. Motionless. Stuck in the mud. Right on the goal line. The look of disbelief on the fans and Big Andy was priceless. It was a shame for Andy as he was, without a doubt, my Man of the Match.