DUMBARTON manager Stevie Aitken was pleased with his new signings performances, despite losing 2-1 to Scottish Premiership side Dundee in last night's pre-season friendly.

Gregor Buchanan 70th minute header had cancelled out Cameron Kerr’s first half strike, however Kerr struck again late on, giving Paul Hartley's men victory in Dumbarton’s first warm-up fixture ahead of the 2016/17 season.

And despite the defeat, the latest additions down at The Rock looked sharp, even thought this was their first time out on the pitch as Dumbarton players.

Aitken said: “You obviously want to win every game you play in there's no doubt about that but at this stage it's not about that.

“We got back into the game at 1-1 and I thought we had a couple of good chances after that, we lost a goal but we started making changes to give people game time which disrupts play a bit.

"But that's to be expected, Dundee have played a couple of games so they're a bit ahead of us in pre-season you know. It's taken us 45 minutes to get going and had to do that with a wee chat at half-time and I thought the second half was really good and it was really positive.”

The club's new signings Andy Stirling (Stranraer), Robert Thomson (Brechin), Craig Pettigrew (Stranraer), Ryan Stevenson (Ayr) and David Smith (Falkirk) all started last night's fixture, and impressed their new boss.

Aitken added: “They've been great since they came in, obviously I know Andrew and Craig from my days at Stranraer and they were terrific.

“I thought Robert Thomson played really well up-front leading the line, I thought his movement was good and his touch was great, he had a great chance.”

“Ryan obviously he's played at the top level, he calms the game down and he's got plenty of experience and he's going to be a big player for us next year.”

The Sons only returned to pre-season last week, much earlier than usual with the changes to the BetFred Cup this year meaning that competitive fixtures fall a lot earlier than normal.

And the Sons manager thought his players' fitness was good, especially considering they have only been back for a handful of sessions and that this was their first game back.

He said: “I thought it was a good game, pre-season games are always difficult as you're trying to find your fitness.

“I thought our fitness levels at this stage were very good considering we've only been back a week and we've only had four or five sessions together, so I was really happy with how it went and at this stage that's what you're looking for.”