DUMBARTON boss Stevie Aitken was pleased with his side’s work-rate and character to claim a point against Dunfermline last Saturday.

The Sons opened the scoring through Joe Thomson to lead at half time, but goals from Nicky Clark and Joe Cardle with 10 minutes to go looked like it had sealed the victory for the visitors.

But Garry Fleming’s equaliser made sure the hosts came away with a point ahead of a trip to Paisley on Saturday to face St Mirren (3pm).

But Aitken was disappointed with the manner in which the Sons conceded their goals.

He said: “The players gave it everything today against a good side. We’re in the division up against these full-time clubs with big budgets.

“I know what budgets they’ve got compared to us and it’s night and day.

“Last week we went to Tannadice and probably should have got something. Today, against a strong Dunfermline side, we’ve got a point but it could have been more.

“We’re competing really well in the division, and that’s a credit to the players because they’re up against it.

“We get three hours to work with them a week and they work really hard and we were strong.

“We were disappointed with the goals we lost because Alan Martin should deal with the first one and we lost our nerve for the second, but overall a draw might have been fair.

“I’ll be biased and say we should have nicked it, but it’s a positive point, something we’ll take onto next week.”

And the Sons boss revealed numerous players in his team were not fully fit, but still put in strong performances.

He added: “Robert [Thomson] had to be patched up before the game as did Garry Fleming. Darren Barr at 2pm wasn’t making it because his wife has gone into labour so we weren’t too sure we were going to have him.

“We’ve got guys who weren’t really 100 per cent but credit to them because they certainly put a shift in.”