| Despite
a brave performance 10 man Sons lost out to a late Alex Williams
goal. After probably edging the first half Sons went behind to a
Kenny Brannigan header from a rare Stirling corner.
Just when the large traveling Sons
support thought it couldn't get any worse Alex Williams did his
impersonation of a wee terrier dug as he nipped at Dave Stewart.
With Williams pulling and pushing at Stewart in plain view of the
nearside linesman big Dave was getting more and more annoyed.
Unfortunately Stewart lost it and swung a shoulder charge at Williams
when this didn't work he swung his whole arm and Williams went
down like a sack of spuds. Referee xxxxxx consulted with his
linesman and the result was a red-card for the big left back. A
very stupid action by the man who should be the most responsible
player in the team which cost Sons dear.
Half-Time: Stirling Albion 1
Dumbarton 0
When the team re-emerged for the
second half you would have thought that Stirling were the man short as
Sons dominated the match. With a couple of early chances Sons
had the Binos on the back foot and were duly rewarded with a goal
courtesy of Paddy Flannery. Paddy kept his spot as the top
goalscorer of the division after a hard-working display topped off
with his glancing header from a Joe Robertson corner to level it.
Sons went all out for the winner and
some very cynical fouling by Brannigan on Crilly and Flannery should
have seen the ex-Bankie follow Dave Stewart off the pitch.
With attack after attack in the box
Joe Robertson was taken down in the box in what looked like a
stonewall penalty - unfortunately the ref blanked this and played on
(if it wasn't a penalty it had to be a yellow card for Robertson for
diving).
Danny McKelvie then raced on to a
Paddy Flannery knock down and found himself one-on-one with keeper
Chris Reid only to have the ball smother by the ex-Hibs stopper.
At the death Sons could have snatched
as a McKelvie through ball found Flannery in the box but with the ball
stuck under his feet he couldn't get a shot in.
In the cruelest of twists in the last
minute Stirling received their first corner of the half and the rather
ineffective Alex Williams knocked the ball over the line to steal it
for Albion.
Even in defeat the majority of Sons
fans applauded their teams effort - sometimes the luck isn't with
you. No doubt manager Tom Carson had some harsh words for
captain Dave Stewart who should be leading by example and not getting
ordered off in vital promotion matches.
A word on Stirling for a very young
side (half of them looked about 14) they did battle back to snatch the
points.
The only good news of the weekend was
that both Montrose and Peterhead lost so Sons didn't lose ground on
their rivals fro second place (lets face it we ain't catching Brechin).
Full Time: Stirling
Albion 2 Dumbarton 1
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