Dumbarton manager Stevie Aitken was disappointed with his side’s defending for Ryan Hardie’s goal, speaking after their 1-1 draw against St Mirren at the CID Stadium on Saturday.

The Sons had gone ahead via Andy Stirling, who returned to the starting line-up, before Hardie equalised at the end of the first half.

Both sides pushed for a winner towards the end of the game, but the Sons supremo thought his side deserved more from the game.

He said: “I’m very disappointed on that [marking for the St Mirren goal] and we had a go at the players. There were some harsh words for them at half-time as it wasn’t good enough allowing their striker to score, and that turned the game and the goal gave St Mirren a lift.

“We dominated for long spells, especially in the second half, and I thought up until about the 80-minute mark then we looked like the team that was going to win it. St Mirren rallied towards the end and had a couple of chances.

“But I think over the whole game we created more than St Mirren did, we’re disappointed we’ve not got the three points. I thought we deserved to win the game.”

Winger Stirling made a scoring return to the side after being left on the bench for recent league games.

And Aitken wants more consistency from the former Stranraer player if he wants to solidify a starting spot in the team.

He added: “We dropped him last week, we wanted a reaction from him. Andy on his day is as good as anyone in this division. He’s got great ability, we just have to get more consistency off him.

“I thought he took his goal well. He was quiet in the first half, in the second half we got a bit of a spark off him when we swapped him and David Smith on the wings.

Wingers are wingers, they have some great days and you can have some poor days. Andy just has to work on his game a bit, which we’ll do with him.”