Dumbarton’s captain Andy Dowie admitted after Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Morton that his side would have taken the point and clean sheet had they been offered it before the game, writes Jack Crawford.

There was little in the way of chances as the sides battled to an opening day stalemate, but Dowie says there were positive signs for the Sons.

He said: “We’re delighted with that start. If we had been offered that at the start of the game we’d have probably taken it. It was great to get a clean sheet on the first day.

“We had a couple of chances but over the piece we didn’t deserve to win the game but we did well for our point.”

Dowie lead his defence to a clean sheet against a talented Morton attack, which featured Robert Thomson, who finished last season as top scorer for Dumbarton before making a Summer switch to the Greenock side, as well as highly rated youngster Jai Quitongo, and the skipper concedes that it was a difficult test.

He added: “We had to work and fight very hard to get the point.

“The back four defensively done really well. They played with three strikers and they were all changing position a lot so it was difficult for us but the clean sheet means that we’ve done our job.”

Looking ahead to next week’s trip to Falkirk, who suffered a 3-1 defeat to St Mirren on Saturday, Dowie expects another hard day at the office but thinks that Dumbarton have the right tools to get a result.

He said: “It’ll probably be a similar game to today. We won’t have much possession and we’ll need to be very well organised. When our chances do come up we’ll need to take them.

“We’ve got a good mix of experienced boys that have played in the Championship for a number of years along with young boys trying to make a career for themselves.”