Written by John - OTR Sunday, 05 August 2001 00:00

The new league campaign was started with Dumbarton unveiling a new face. Unfortunately, it was the new club mascot, Pellie The Elephant, ably sponsored by the local purveyor of fine fauna, Ryan's Pet Centre.

The first real chance came in 13 minutes when an Andy Brown shot was pushed round the post by the Brechin goalie. From the subsequent corner, Paddy Flannery got up virtually unchallenged and headed the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0 to the Sons.

6 minutes later, Brechin almost equalised. Davie Stewart was outjumped by the stocky Brechin number 7. His header hit the post and was scrambled away.

The turning point of this game came in 28 minutes when Scott Murdoch bundled over a Brechin player in the box as the ball was heading over the byeline. The referee immediately pointed to the spot. The Brechin player certainly went looking for the penalty and Murdoch, with all his experience, should've known better. Kevin Bain scored from the spot kick.

From this point, Dumbarton toiled and the half finished with Brechin in the ascendancy.

Dumbarton came out fired up for the second period and they should have scored when Andy Brown had the ball at his feet in the box follwing a great cut back by Dickie. But, as is often the case, the shot was easily saved by the Brechin City keeper.

Shortly after, Brechin took the lead when number 7, Charlie King lifted the ball over Hillcoat. Dumbarton had several chances after this but very few troubled the away team's keeper. In contrast, Hillcoat made two great saves to keep the scoreline down.

So what off the new faces:-

Scott Murdoch - a smaller, fatter version of Chris Smith. Had a reasonable game but was definitely at fault with the penalty incident.
John McKeown - I wasn't impressed. He (literally) struggled with Templeman the whole game, Any other ref would have given more fouls against him for use of arms.
Danny McKelvie - Didn't get enough time on the pitch to make an impression but an older gentleman behind me had watched him "week in, week out", presumably at Clydebank, and he believed that McKelvie was a "ball player". Jury's still out on that one.