Written by John - OTR Saturday, 27 April 2002 00:00

It certainly wasn't a classic but the nervy draw with Queen's Park was enough for Dumbarton to secure runner's up spot in the Division and therefore promotion.

The first half was a pretty forgettable afair. Both teams certainly put in the effort but there wasn't much in the way of decent chances. Most memorable aspect of the half was the poor performamce of the referee who seemed very relucant to give any fouls Dumbarton's way.

After 20 minutes, Andy Brown managed to bounce the ball over the bar from a cross from the left by Joe Robertson. A few minutes later Bomber spurned a great opportunity when the ball fell to him from a Stevie Bonar cross. Although Dumbarton were on top of the game, they weren't playing up their recent standards and the fans were getting restless but by this point news had filtered through that Elgin were ahead which helped keep things calm.

With 25 minutes on the clock, Andy Brown was brought crashing down on the left wing with a studs up challenge by the Queen's number 7 who didn't even receive a booking. Joe Robertson took the free kick but the keeper punched it away.

After 35 minutes, Joe Robertson produced a lovely, mazy run but his cutback on the by-line was blocked by the keeper.

Straight after the break, the deadlock was broken. Crilly was brought down in the box and Paddy Flannery showed his bottle and stepped up to slot it in firmly past the Queen's keeper to make it 1-0 to the Sons. This goal certainly relieved the pressure and Sons relaxed and began playing again.

Moments later, Paddy had two chances to make it 2-0 but first time he failed to get his head on a cross when he was unmarked on the six yard line and second time he headed over the bar. Paddy wasn't the only player guilty of missing crosses. Bomber had an almost identical chance in the 75th but he couldn't make contact.

Queen's Park used their three subs early in second half and this made a big difference to the balance of play. It was no surprise when they equalised in the 79th minutes. The penalty incident may have looked a bit soft but the way the referee Gilmour had been behaving, he was going to give Queen's Park anything. Whelan sent John Wight the wrong way and brought to scores level.

The promotion wagon almost came off the rails in the final minute of the game. Referee Gilmour gave Queen's another soft penalty. But John Wight pulled off a great save diving to his left to push the ball round the post. A shortly after the resultant corner was taken, the referee blew for the final whistle and the ground erupted in celebrations.

Unknown to a lot fans was the Albion Rovers had pulled drawn level with Elgin City and were throwing everybody upfield to get the winner. Their goalie had a shot cleared off the line in the final seconds. If their goalie had scored and our goalie hadn't saved that penalty, things could have been oh-so different.

Onwards and upwards.