Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter | Sport

Tuesday, 6th January, 2009

Published: Tuesday, 4th September, 2007 11:30

SONS IN DISMAL DISPLAY

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Stranraer 2 Dumbarton 0

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Pic by: Donald Fullarton

THERE are lucky devils and poor devils in the range of football club supporters across the land.

Some have celebration Saturday nights when results are recorded in their team’s favour, the cockles warm in their hearts.

The poor devils suffer in the almost eternal silence of defeat . . . then go to their beds.

The ever loyal band of Sons of the Rock fans who would walk the proverbial 500 miles to see their ‘heroes’ were all tucked uneasily under their duvets on Saturday night, praying that their slumbers would not be disturbed by a nightmare.

For their agony had been ignominious after sitting, or standing, through a real life nightmare at neat Stair Park, Stranraer, on Saturday afternoon.

They had just witnessed a vintage AWOL display by Sons who showed a disturbing lack of awareness throughout a drag of a match - and looked dreadfully like a team kicking out the last balls of a tiring season rather than a team committed to promotion.

This, surely was Dumbarton’s worst hour and a half on a field of play since Dick Jackson cut the Boghead Park grass in preparation for a Ne’erday home match against Stranraer which Sons lost 4-0 in their famous 1972 centenary year successful promotion and title winning campaign.

For the sake of these incurable Sons fans, I hope history has a chance to repeat itself with another promotion, and that the scars inflicted on them at Stair Park will have long gone at the end of a season of rejuvenation.

Sadly, at this point, I would be foolhardy to even have a vague vision of a league flag being flaunted in defiance from the masthead at the Strathclyde Homes Stadium, not after the faults and failures down at the ground on the shores of Loch Ryan.

The stark recollection of this game was that the young Sons played like a team without some big brothers to lean on.

They played like a team still in the pains of growing up in a game, especially in the third division of the Scottish League which is an eminently streetwise environment.

Individually, they are tough for their years, individually they have talent, but collectively they played like long lost cousins in a reunion of ‘Getting to know you’.

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Black, around his safe as houses front garden, in the 71st minute, when, after a ball was belted off his goal-line, Black saved at the feet of Sons striker Tommy Coyne.

Had that resulted in the equalising goal, maybe the whole course of the match would have changed. That is hindsight guessing.

Throughout I cannot recall one solitary, solid shot from Sons which offered threat to the home of Mr Black.

In the first half, which was as boring as a scratchy telly repeat of ‘Gone With The Wind’, their own acting had a scratch about it.

When Stranraer scored in the 17th minute from a drive by Michael Mullen, there was a quiet acceptance, a slowly growing inevitability about the outcome, even though, as the dour battle continued, Sons still had equality of pressure.

The second period was pursuing a similar vein with Sons never out of the picture but failing to make a scoring input or impression.

They did become a little more threatening in the latter stages when all three subs, Paul McQuilken, Chris Gentile and Robert Campbell, were used.

But in the 84th minute Gregor Tade put the game to bed with Stranraer’s second counter.

Did this match constitute a timely wake-up warning for Sons or was it maybe an irrecoverable watershed?

The onus now lies with them in succeeding matches to come up with that vital answer before the tide sweeps them ashore as just another team in what was scheduled and planned as a season of promotion.

Two time-served former Sons players, James ‘Banjo’ McKinstry and Stevie Bonar, played a big part in the home side’s win, with ‘Bones’ using all his experience to dominate central midfield..

Dumbarton: Nugent; Canning, Haswell (McQuilken 62), O’Byrne, Craig, Tiernan, Hamilton (Campbell 62), Henderson, Coyne, McFarlane (Gentile 70), Russell. Subs not used: Yule, keeper Shaw.

Stranraer: Black; McKinstry, Thomas (White 53), Kane, Mitchell, McLaughlan, Cashmore (Gillies 60), Bonar (McCusker 78), Mullen, Tade, Gibson. Subs not used: Cochrane, keeper Ferguson.

Referee: Steven Nicholls.

Attendance: 343.

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