Dumbarton manager Jim Duffy slammed his side’s performance in their 1-0 defeat to Peterhead on Saturday.

Sons failed to muster a shot on target as they fell to their third defeat in a row in the league, and now face a battle for their League One lives in the remaining seven fixtures.

Duffy has called for consistency from his squad after a good performance in the 4-0 Scottish Cup win against Huntly during the week was followed up with Saturday’s lacklustre showing.

He said: “We weren’t anywhere near the levels we showed on Tuesday, for instance in terms of the link-up play and decision making. We just seemed to want to kick the ball as far as we could.

“I said at half-time we need to try and bring the ball down and take a bit more care of the ball, but it really never happened.

“Other than the last ten minutes, when there was a bit of frantic balls thrown into the box we never really had any great intensity to the game at all.

“The whole build up play was really poor today and the frustrating thing is we fluctuate too much between performances. We go from a really good performance on Tuesday to a really mediocre performance.

“We were way off the levels I think that the players are capable of.”

There were two changes from the side that won against Huntly, with Duffy having an eye on the club’s busy upcoming schedule of seven fixtures in the next two weeks.

Nat Wedderburn and PJ Crossan were replaced by Tomas Brindley and Rabin Omar, who joined on loan from Morton during the week.

In a first half of limited opportunities, the closest either side came to a goal was when a swinging cross to the back post from the visitors bounced off Omar and came off the post before Sons managed to clear the danger.

Peterhead found the only goal early in the second-half when former Dumbarton man Ben Armour, who failed to score for Duffy’s side in 10 games in 2018/19, curled a terrific effort across goal and into the far corner on 53 minutes.

Sons failed to trouble Blue Toon goalkeeper Joshua Rae in the remainder of the game, with substitute James Wallace, who also joined on loan from Morton during the week, looking like Dumbarton’s most creative and lively option in his 30-minute cameo – but he couldn’t find a way through.

The defeat leaves Sons just a point above the relegation play-off spot in League One, with ninth placed Clyde also having a game in hand.

Dumbarton are back in action away to league leaders Falkirk tonight (Tuesday) before Airdrieonians visit the C&G Systems Stadium on Thursday evening.

Premiership side Aberdeen, with new boss Stephen Glass in charge for the first time, then visit on Saturday in the third round of the Scottish Cup, with the game being broadcast live on BBC One Scotland. Kick-off is at 12.15pm.