Written by John - OTR Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00

A superb result for Dumbarton tonight. Clydebank's experienced team were no match for a Dumbarton side who found their form at the right time.

The first 15 minutes, Bankies played some nice crisp passing football and I felt that this was going to be a bad night. But Dumbarton held firm and began to play their own brand of the beautiful game. One touch passing, which has rarely been seen this season, reappeared.

The reward for this came in the 39th minute, Mark Crilly, who had an outstanding game in midfield, took the ball from his own half strolled up in the Bankies half, played the ball to O'Neil. After a wee change of direction, O'Neil passed to John Dillon on the left wing. Dillon made a run to the byeline, cut the ball across to Paddy. Paddy controlled the ball with his thigh, and volleyed it off Henry Smith's right hand post. From my viewpoint, the ball appeared to cross the line, but it ran across the goal where big Andy Brown was on hand to put the ball in the back of the net. 1-0 to the Sons.

The second half started slowly, but this time Sons didn't give anything anyway in the first few minutes. In the 60th minute, Sons extended their when Paddy Flannery ran onto a long through ball and coolly slotted the ball beyond Henry Smith, despite the presence of three Bankie defenders.

Clydebank helped their cause no end when McGowan got himself sent off for an over vigorous jump at Paddy Flannery, who ended up in the advertising hoardings. From this point, it was looking like it was going to be Dumbarton's day. In fact, Dumbarton could have extended their lead shortly after the red card incident when Mark Crilly crossed in only for the unmarked Andy Brown to head over the bar.

The Bankies threw on the incredibly rotund Barry Lavety but despite his presence Sons maintained their lead and finished the game well on top.