Given the vast differences in budgets, Saturday’s loss to Rangers came as no surprise and while an extended cup run with a win against Hibs would be a bonus, Saturday’s match against Livingston is the perfect opportunity for Sons to register their first points of the season.

After the first three games of the campaign Dumbarton remain rooted to the bottom of the Championship table without a point and, speaking after the Rangers match, midfielder Scott Agnew said: “I think the Livingston game is the most important for — it is brilliant coming to Ibrox and then going to Easter Road on Tuesday night is another great game for Dumbarton and a great game for me but Saturday is a massive game and we need to start putting points in the board in the league.” Manager Ian Murray agreed with Agnew and said it is a message he has been hammering home to all of his players, he said: “We need to keep plugging away.

“I have said to the players we can’t change the last three games, we can’t change the last year, all we can affect is Tuesday night and next Saturday.

“I’ll be quite honest — the biggest game out of the three of them is next Saturday at home to Livingston.

“We realise that if we get beaten against Livingston we are bang in trouble, we understand that, we accept that and it will be a long hard season but we have still got a chance to get ourselves going.

“The best thing that could happen to us is another big game on Tuesday and it is a great place to go.” Rangers comfortably dispatched Sons on Saturday but things could have been different had referee Brian Colvin shown Bilel Moshni a red card for a last man challenge on Scott Agnew.

At the beginning of the second half, with the score at 2-0, Agnew beat Moshni with a dummy and looked through on goal before Moshni cynically tripped him.

Asked if he thought Moshni should have been ordered off, Agnew said: “As far as I am concerned I am through one-on-one with the goalkeeper — I thought I had done well to get by Moshni and I thought I was through one-on-one with a clear shot on goal.

“I asked the ref but he has obviously decided it isn’t a sending off so there was nothing I could really do.

“It is hard enough coming here but a decision like that at 2-0 makes it even harder.

“They have great quality all over the park so when we get chances we need to try and make it count and that was a chance for us to get back into the game.”