The winger was on the bench for the recent matches against Livingston and Morton but he returned to the starting 11 on Saturday and set Dumbarton on their way to a 4-1 victory with the opening goal against Alloa.

With competition for places at the Rock as tight as it has ever been, Gilhaney is well aware he needs to perform to keep his place in the team and speaking after the match he said: “After being out the team the last couple of weeks it was good to get the goal that got us going.

“You can see the strength we have throughout the squad but you just need to look after yourself in this situation and do well when you get the chance.

“We had a strong team out there and then the boys on the bench did really well when they came on in the second half as well.

“Everyone has been doing well when they have had their chance in the team but now that we don’t have any midweek games I would imagine the gaffer will stick with roughly the same team from now on in.” The win all but guarantees Dumbarton have achieved their pre season aim with four games to spare but Gilhaney knows the remaining four matches will be far from meaningless with Dumbarton still pushing for the promotion play-offs and their opposition pushing even higher up the league.

The 29-year-old winger added: “Our target at the start of the season was to stay up but now we can kick on — if results go our way next week then we have the Queens game here which hopefully will be a huge game.

“Obviously we are the underdogs going into the last four games but we certainly have a chance.

“We have Hamilton and then Dundee so even if we don’t have a say in the play-offs we will have a say in who wins the title which will be good because it means every game between now and the end of the season we are actually playing for something so it is a good month coming up.”