SONS star Jordan Kirkpatrick is looking to make up for lost time after nailing down a spot in the Dumbarton starting 11.

Despite an impressive debut season at the Rock last campaign, Kirkpatrick had, by his own admission, suffered a slow start to league proceedings.

But the young midfielder put in an industrious performance akin to last year in Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Alloa Athletic — whilst also picking up the crucial second with a header from a Scott Agnew corner in the second half.

Talking to SportScene following the tie, Kirkpatrick revealed he has been disappointed with how he has played so far this season.

He said: “To be honest, for the last few games, I have not been happy with my performance.

“But the gaffer has managed to keep my confidence up and, lucky enough for me, it has paid off today with my header for the goal.

“I’m starting to get back into it, unfortunately Chris Turner is out just now but it gives me a chance to get a bit of consistency and hopefully try and keep this space and keep working and get fitter.

“Despite that I’ll keep kicking on and hopefully I’ll continue to get better as the weeks go on.” Kirkpatrick could have left the stadium with two goals to his name on Saturday following a jinking run which out-foxed three Alloa defenders.

However, with no real pressure, his effort was palmed away by the keeper — only into the path of Colin Nish who slotted home into the empty net to seal the tie with the third.

Obviously delighted to get himself on the score sheet earlier in the half, Kirkpatrick laughed off the miss.

He joked: “I had far too much time on my hands — definitely.

“I should probably have been a bit more selfish and kept my head down and smashed it into the bottom corner.

“At the time I probably had too much to think about – but lucky enough for me big Nishy was there to slot it in for me.” Dumbarton are now four games unbeaten after the weekend’s victory followed draws with Falkirk and Hearts, and a victory over Livingston.

Kirkpatrick highlighted the progress the side have been making in recent weeks — praising manager Ian Murray for the turnaround.

He continued: “To be fair we have been due a win over the last few weeks.

“We started poor but we seem to have kicked on in the past few games.

“The gaffer has just been working on it and been doing things how he sees best — and to be fair it is starting to work for him.”