On The Rocks - A Dumbarton FC Website

Written by John - OTR Friday, 14 August 2009 09:32

Tomorrow, Sons travel up to Gayfield to face Arbroath in the second game of the league campaign. Arbroath got off to a winning start with a 2-1 win against a 9 man Cowdenbeath side last Saturday.

Written by Administrator Thursday, 13 August 2009 06:33

Exclusively available from your local Celtic shop and our new outlet in Burley. For details click here.

Written by John - OTR Tuesday, 11 August 2009 07:39

New donkey, Darren Gribben, has indeed left the club for pastures new according the official website and the BBC. "For personal reasons" they say, which could cover a multitude of real reasons like "didn't like the view" or "had a barney with the manager".

And it looks like he's ran back to Berwick Rangers asking if he can get back in. But Berwick have a full complement of strikers so it looks like that stable door has been bolted.

Did you see what I did there? Stable door....donkey.....you know, close the stable door after the donkey has bolted. I crack me up sometimes.

Written by John - OTR Monday, 10 August 2009 14:00

So, now that OTR is back, I'd better post some content.

League Reconstruction

Fucking jammie bastarding Cowdenbeath bastards. That's all I have to say on the matter.

The transfer market.

The usual donkeys out, donkeys in. Although one of our new, younger, fitter donkeys seems to have gone in the huff with our Chief Ass Kicker, Mr Chapman. Will we ever see Darren Gribben again?

The Pre Season

Pretty disastrous, eh? Including the Alba Cup, the Co-op Insurance Cup and the Stirlingshire Cup the record was P9 W2 L7 with the two victories being in the 'Shire Cup on penalties. To be fair, the majority of teams we played against were in higher divisions so perhaps it was to be expected. It's probably all part of Mr Chapman's Master Plan, you know the one that has us dicking around for most of the season experimenting with various exotic formations before realising that we play best in the good, old fashioned 4-4-2 formation, then storming up the league to win with one match to go.

The Season

Not a great start, losing 3-1 at home to the mighty Alloa Athletic. Before the season started, I'd look at the League Division 2 table on the BBC website, see Dumbarton sitting in mid position with zero points, the same as everyone else, and say to myself, "I'll have some of that". Mid table finish - a nice, realistic target. 

Aye right.

Written by John - OTR Monday, 10 August 2009 09:10

After some structural work and a fresh lick of paint, On The Rocks has a new look.

The previous version of On The Rocks was built on Joomla 1.0.x, the immensely popular content management system. A few years ago, I had spent a whole lot of time migrating all the behind-the-scenes database code of the into a Joomla component and then pu the whole site into Joomla. And then I left it. Didn't do diddly-squat with it. Na-da. Nothing. Didn't even get to round to putting all the old match reports up, not even the "Every game, Kenny" ones.

Time passed. Joomla went up to version 1.5 but OTR stayed on 1.0.x. More and more security holes were found in 1.0.x but I didn't get off my arse. Finally, with Joomla 1.0.x reaching its official end-of-life I began to rewrite the OTR component for Joomla 1.5. 

It was a bigger job than I expected - much bigger. Why is why the new site didn't go up until last night. But it's live now. There is still quite a bit to do but it will get done. Maybe!

Written by Administrator Monday, 04 May 2009 16:28

So barring a very unlikey scoring fest by East Stirlingshire on Saturday, Sons have won the Division Three title.

You have to hand it Jim Chapman here, he eventually found the winning formula and it paid off with a fantastic finishing sequence, including breaking the club record for minutes without conceding a goal.

I must be honest here - I didn't think Sons would do it. In fact, at the start of the year I thought a play-off place would be unlikely. I'd had the misfortune of watching a turgid 1-1 draw at Stenhousemuir followed the week after by the 5-2 hammering by East Stirlingshire. We were so poor in that game and so thoroughly taken apart by the Shire that promotion seemed like a pipe dream.

After New Year, I was at another defeat by East Stirlingshire, this time by three goals to one, although to be fair, it was a much closer contest and the 'Shire were helped by an exceptionally soft penalty in the second half. Still, I didn't get that promotion feeling.

Victories against Albion Rovers and Elgin got March off to a good start but defeats by Montrose and Annan and a draw against Albion Rovers, again cast doubt over the team's promotion credentials.

At the start of April, I saw a Sons victory against Stenhousemuir who were at that point in freefall. It was not a convincing performance but it was a victory and a play-off place was now looking good. This was the second 2-0 win in the space of week and was the start of what could be called the promotion run. Sons beat Forfar and Berwick before being held to a 0-0 draw against the then leaders Cowdenbeath in a game that saw Cowden's normal attendance figure trebled with a vast travelling Sons support. If we had won that game we would have taken over at the top of the table but we knew now that a playoff place was guaranteed.

The following week, Sons did make it to the top after Montrose came from behind to beat Cowden and Sons thrashed Forfar 4-0.

And then we come to last Saturday. I couldn't make it to the game but was glued to the Sky Sports videprinter. Forfar had managed to put two past Cowdenbeath in the first 5 minutes which was just phenomenal. Unfortunately, Cowden managed to get the score level by half time as Dumbarton were cruising to victory against Elgin and the 'Shire were ahead against Albion Rovers. The Cowden-Forfar game finished level and both Sons and the 'Shire won meaning that barring the unlikely huge defeat/huge win scenario, Dumbarton cannot be overtaken with one game to go.

Congratulations to the team, the manager and all connected with the club. Roll on next season.

What would really finish of the season on a high would be Queen's Park staying up, meaning that John Gemmell and Andy Rogers would stay in Division Three. That would be just fantastic. Failing that Stenhousemuir going up would be OK, as Gemmell and Rogers would still be the Third and it gives me another local away game to go to.

Written by Administrator Friday, 27 February 2009 13:03

Tomorrow, I'll be making it along to Ochilview to see the high-flying Sons play the even higher-flying East Stirlingshire.

The fact that Sons are still in contention in the league is something of a mystery to me. The last game I saw, way back in November, was against The Shire and Sons were on the receiving of an unbelievable 5-2 drubbing. Sons were absolutely shocking in that game and the match the previous week against Stenhousemuir. Any yet, we're still in there, sitting in fourth place, the last playoff position. The manager is obviously doing something right just not when I'm around.

Maybe I shouldn't tell him I'm coming!

Written by Administrator Friday, 06 February 2009 15:12

If anyone was planning on make the long trek to Elgin tomorrow - don't bother. The game's off.

Written by Administrator Tuesday, 18 November 2008 14:42

Jesus H Christ, that was just fuckin' awful. Even three days later it still feels a little surreal. I find myself wondering if it actually happened or was just one of the strange dreams that just feels real.

But it looks like it did. The BBC, the papers, the DFC website all agreee. East Stirlingshire humped Dumbarton by 5 goals to 2. To get a better idea of the scope of the defeat, it was 5-0 to the Shire with 3 minutes to go. Yes, you read that right, 5-0 to the Shire.

I'm not even going to bother going into the details. If you missed the game, count yourself lucky.

Written by Administrator Friday, 14 November 2008 12:16

Well, I suppose I'd best do some sort of write up of the Stenhousemuir game.

Quite frankly, I was disappointed. The fact that this was a top of the table clash and that Dumbarton were unbeaten in eight games must have raised my expectations of the game. I was anticipating some better-than-third-division quality football, some fluid passing, you know, GOOD football. But it was the same old shite.

Of the new players on show (well new for me), only a couple stood out. Stevie Murray and Ben Gordon. Murray certainly has the tricks and the ability to play at a higher level. Ben Gordon was pretty solid at the back, especially in the second half.

The match was marred by the two early red cards. Stennie's red was totally deserved, I thought. The "tackle" would not have looked out of place in a Bruce Lee movie or on Soccer AM's Kung Fu section. In contrast, I think Sons were unlucky to have Wilson sent off. A few years ago, the tackle would have been described as a 50-50 ball. It looked and sounded like both players played the ball at the same time but the Stenny player's rolling around and the reaction of his teammates lead the referee to produce the red.

The remainder of the first half was largely forgettable, with the exception of Gordon Lennon's appalling distribution and crossing.

The second half was a little better. The aforementioned Gordon Lennon was involved in Stenny's goal. There was a bit of a stramash in front of goal following a cross. Gordon Lennon at the back of the six yard area, headered the ball backwards into what he probably thought was a safe area. Unfortunately there was a Stenny player lurking who teed the ball up for Brand to hit a cracking shot into the net.

Dumbarton stepped up their play after that and for while were really exerting pressure, winning corner upon corner. But at no point did they ever look like scoring from one.

In the final ten minutes, Murray got some reward for his play when his goal bound shot took a deflection, wrongfooting the keeper, and ending up in the net, giving Sons an fortuitous draw.