| As
some eejit once said "it's a funny old game". Sons
performance at The Rock against East Fife was not a patch on the
previous two matches against Elgin and East Stirlingshire yet rather
than leave the ground win no points as in those two games we walk away
with all three???
With most Dumbarton fans using any
means possible to find out the Peterhead-Albion Rovers score it looked
like the Sons players also hand their minds on Balmoor Stadium for
most of this encounter.
Dumbarton started the match with a
much changed line-up to what most fans would call the best starting
eleven. John Dillon replaced the injured Craig Brittain at left-back
while Craig Lynes took Robert Dunn's (out with a hamstring injury)
place on the right of midfield. Also surprisingly missing was Martin
O'Neil in the heart of the Sons midfield with Stevie Bonar taking the
number 8 shirt. It appears Martin was at his wifes bed-side as
she gave birth and didn't know when he would arrive at The Rock so he
was named on the subs bench (he eventually arrived about 20 minutes
into the match - Congratulations Martin).
Even with this all new line-up Sons
were on-top for most of the first half encounters but again seemed to
have a problem creating clear-cut chances. In fact the first
real chance fell to the Fifers as a John Wight had to pull off a
reactionary save to keep the sides level.
On 25 minutes Sons took the lead and
it was in very controversial circumstances. Crilly got down the
right wing played the ball across to Flannery who drew the keeper
before passing to the unmarked Craig Lynes. As Lynes pulled the
trigger to put Sons one-up what looked like a strange deflection from
the diving East Fife defender (John Gallagher) put the ball over the
bar. The referee blew for what looked like a corner before
calling over Gallagher and red-carding him. The big defender had
handled Craig Lynes shot. Penalty to Dumbarton and a booking for
ex-Son Willie Wilson - excellent.
Paddy Flannery stepped up to take the
spot kick and despite the calls from one or two people in the stand
for him not to take it coolly dispatched it into the bottom corner to
put Sons in front.
Dumbarton 1 East Fife 0
With the man advantage Sons should
really have started to punish a rather unimpressive East Fife side but
instead the game appeared to even up and drifter to half-time without
Dumbarton capitalising (indeed we were quite happy for the half-time
whistle to let the boys re-group).
Half-Time: Dumbarton 0 East Fife 0
The second half was pretty uneventful
stuff with the one man advantage not showing at all. Some rough
tackiling on Joe Robertson and some poor refereeing were the only real
talking points apart from Tam's two substitutions. Martin O'Neil
came on for Craig Lynes as Stevie Bonar moved to right midfield and
Danny McKelvie came on for Andy Brown which turned out to be an
inspired substitution.
With his first touch of the ball
McKelvie should have been clean through as he dinked the ball away
from his marked and turned to out-run him. Only the Fifers
illegal handball stopped him unfortunately referee John Fleming missed
this and the professional foul went unpunished.
McKelvie and Flannery linked up well
with young Danny's speed causing problems for the tiring East Fife
defence and it was McKelvie who unorthodoxly set up Sons
clinched. Sprinting through one-on-one with the Fifers keeper
McKelvie rounded him but the ball seemed to go to near the touch-line
as he tried to either shoot or lay it back he seemed to mis-hit it
however the ball fell straight to the on-rushing Mark Crilly who
side-footed it home.
Dumbarton 2 East Fife 0
McKelvie wasn't finished yet and a
great cross from Flannery was met by a diving header from the
youngster which was well saved by Godfrey in the East Fife goal.
Sons fans celebrated a vital victory
as the final whistle went and we took all three points.
Full-Time: Dumbarton
2 East Fife
0
When the news that Albion Rovers had
beaten Peterhead came through this meant that our nearest challengers
(until Tuesday anyway) are the Coatbridge side. However it also
means that we can draw with Peterhead and stay ahead of them now
rather than having to beat them at The Rock. With our superior
goal-difference (although there ain't much in it) to Albion Rovers two
good wins against Brechin and Queens Park and that draw with Peterhead
would be enough to seal promotion so the Rovers win was definitely the
best result from Balmoor Stadium.
|
