On The Rocks - A Dumbarton FC Website

Written by Administrator Tuesday, 19 June 2007 12:03

Just visited the official DFC website and noticed that they are using a rounded corner motif on the left hand side menu, just like what I had on OTR ooooh way back in 2001.

Ahh, makes you laugh.

Written by Administrator Sunday, 29 April 2007 22:03

Well, that's that then. Yesterday, Sons continued their dismal record against Queen's Park, going down 2-1 at home. So Sons finish in 5th place on 59 points, 8 behind East Fife. Not a disaster but hardly great.

Our results against the top 4 just show that Dumbarton just did not have the quality to compete with these teams. Sons took 1 point out of a possible 12 against Queen's Park, 3 out of 12 against Berwick, 3 out of 12 against East Fife and 5 from 12 against Arbroath. In total, 12 points out of 48.

Dumbarton's performance in March didn't help either. The fixtures computer was particularily harsh, with Sons basically playing two games a week for the whole month and back to back matches against Berwick, East Fife and Stenhousemuir. Eight games played with one win and two draws to show for it. Not good.

And it could have been worse. For the first half of the season, Steven Dobbie was playing for Sons on loan from St. Johnstone. In the January transfer window, he was signed by Queen of the South. But despite only playing for half the season, he still ended up as Dumbarton's top scorer with 11 goals. Without him, Sons would have ended up near the bottom of the league.

So where do Dumbarton go from here? Personally, I think McCabe has been OK and should be given another season. Dumbarton's record under his reign has been W19 D5 L17 which is not terrible. The key will be who he brings in for next season and who he lets go.

Written by Administrator Friday, 20 April 2007 10:45

Dumbarton head up my way tomorrow to play bottom of the table East Stirlingshire in the second last league game of the season. And while the top 4 places look done and dusted it is still mathematically possible for the Sons to clinch a playoff place.

First off Queen's Park have to lose tomorrow, at home, against second bottom Elgin City. Yeah, I know it's a long short but bear with me.

Then Dumbarton need to beat the Shire (which the pessimistic among you might say is also a long shot!). Ideally, Sons really need to hump East Stirlingshire as goal difference plays a big part in the equation.

Assuming Queen's get beat 1-0, they will have 62 points and their goal difference will be +24. If Dumbarton win 1-0, Sons' will have 59 points with a goal difference of +13, setting up a final match against Queen's in which Sons need to win by 6 goals. But if Sons can dole out the required humping to the 'Shire, let say 6-0, bringing Sons up to +18, they would 'only' need to beat Queen's by 3 goals.

But don't bet the house on it!

Written by Administrator Monday, 26 March 2007 12:09

Yesterday's 2-0 defeat by East Fife was the final nail in the coffin of Dumbarton's promotion hopes. Sons are still on fifth place but now 11 points behind East Fife, a gap which looks pretty much unsurmountable.

There's always next season, I suppose. By which time, McCabe should have sorted his team out, bought in some decent players and generally prepared them for a promotion challenging attempt.

Aye, and pigs might fly.

Written by Administrator Thursday, 22 March 2007 08:39

It was to be expected I suppose. Dumbarton lost again last night by a single goal against a team who played most of the second half with ten men.

That brings Sons record in March to P6 W0 D2 L4, which is pretty miserable. I think I can safely say that Gerry McCabe is not going to win "Manager of the Month". "Worst Manager of the Month" maybe.

I think it's also safe to say that Dumbarton are not going to get into the playoffs. Which is good thing. Getting a playoff place would just be another excuse for the club to extract more money from the fans.

Written by Administrator Monday, 19 March 2007 14:05

It took a month in total, but my Sky Broadband is now working. :-)

Around the 21st of February, I was informed that the exchange fault had been fixed. But there was still no connection. So it was back on the phone to support. This time they ran a tone test on my line, which failed. And the passed the call onto Tier 2 support.

A day or so later, Tier 2 phoned me to explain the situation. The failed tone test meant it was BT's responsibility to fix the problem but rather than raise a fault case with BT, Tier 2 reckoned it would be faster to ask BT to reprovision the line, i.e. basically disconnect and start from scratch. This would take up to 3 working days.

And on the third working day, my connection sprang into life and all was well with world!

I've got to admit that since the move to Sky, my line feels a bit faster than it was when I was with PlusNet. There has only been the odd disconnection, luckily during the wee small hours and I got my first month refunded. So I'm actually fairly happy with things now. Hopefully that will continue.

Written by Administrator Monday, 19 March 2007 13:50

...to downright diabolical.

There's not much you can say after getting a 5-1 humping by Stenhousemuir. I mean 5-1 from a crappy team like Stenny. Just unbelievable. The same Stenny team who got beat by Elgin, scraped a win and a draw against the Shire and got thrashed 5-2 by Montrose.

Dumbarton are now in 5th place, five points behind East Fife who themselves are in a bit of a freefall just now. And guess who Sons are playing next? Yip, back to back games against East Fife starting at New Bayview on Wednesday night followed by The Rock on Sunday. So if Dumbarton can win both games, they will jump into fourth and a playoff place.

But are Dumbarton worthy of a playoff place? I don't think so. If we somehow cling on to a playoff place and somehow even get promotion, what could we expect next season? Another season of misery I reckon. I can't quite believe I'm saying this but I'd rather Sons stayed in the third and built a side worthy of winning the league and competing the second division than go up with a team that are just not of a high enough standard.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We still need to beat East Fife twice in the next 7 days. Given current form, that looks unlikely.

Written by Administrator Wednesday, 14 March 2007 15:57

Dumbarton's miserable form continued last night with a 1-1 draw with Stenhousemuir. It's all looking a bit grim.

Written by Administrator Tuesday, 13 March 2007 08:31

The Mad March Misery continued on Saturday when Sons threw away a two goal lead at Arbroath. Sons were up 2 goals in 12 minutes thanks to Andy Geggan and John Henry but just before half time Dumbarton were reduced to 10 men when John Dillon managed to get himelf booked twice in two minutes.

In the second half Arbroath scored twice to even the score up and Dumbarton held on for the point.

Next up are Stenhousemuir tonight at The Rock and again on Saturday through at Ochilview. If Dumbarton are going to challenge for anything, they really need to get 6 points here.

Written by Administrator Thursday, 08 March 2007 13:35

Berwick Rangers inflicted their second defeat of Sons in 4 days last night at Sheilfield. Dumbarton took the lead after 11 minutes when Craig Winter headed in a Ryan Borris cross.

But Berwick were not to be beaten. They equalized shortly before half time thanks to a deflected Gary Wood shot and sealed the victory with 8 minutes to go with a goal from Kevin Haynes.

Sons travel to up the east coast to face second place Arbroath on Saturday who scraped a 2-1 win over struggling Elgin City last night. Ex-Son Ian Dobbins scored the winner in the 90th minute, a goal which lead to a 22 man punch up with two Abroath players and one from Elgin City being red carded.

Hopefully, this will mean Sons will be playing against a less than full strength Arbroath side and get a win that they really need to get a playoff place.