Friday 19th February 2016
SONS head to the Paisley 2021 Stadium this weekend to play St Mirren in the Ladbrokes Championship.
With two wins against the Buddies this season already, Dumbarton boss Stevie Aitken has been hoping that it’s not third time lucky for Saints.
The gaffer was in typically positive mood when we caught up with him to discuss the upcoming challenge
Aitken started the conversation by reflecting on last week’s disappointing game at Cappielow.
He said: “We were disappointed to lose at Morton, but to be fair they deserved to win.
“We didn’t create enough scoring chances and this wasn’t helped when Christian Nade and Garry Fleming, who form our strike force, had to be replaced during the game
“That restricted us going forward. But we move on to concentrate fully on the game at St Mirren.
“I’m expecting another tough test and that said every game in the Championship is hard and St Mirren will be keen to get a win against us.
“Alex (Rae) has come in and made a few changes and results have been better.
“We will need to be at our best to compete and as ever we are all looking forward to the game.”
Sons are unbeaten in three of the last six SPFL matches with the Buddies, winning three and losing three in the same time period.
Both teams come into the game having played 23 matches in the Championship and St Mirren (24pts) lie in seventh position, one place ahead of Dumbarton (22pts).
The last meeting between the clubs was an engrossing and fiercely contested game in December 2015 ended with a 1-0 win for Dumbarton. Garry Fleming’s early second half goal was enough to give Sons all three points.
In team news, Jon Routledge faces a one-match suspension following tomorrow’s game after picking up a yellow-card against Morton last week. He’ll miss the Hibs game on 27th February.
Striker Christiam Nade, who was replaced early on during the Cappielow match with back spasms, is included in this weekend’s squad, as is Garry Fleming who suffered a hamstring pull last week.
Jamie Lindsay’s recovery from a recent foot operation is progressing well but he will be missing. However, he should be available for next Tuesday night’s Scottish Cup replay at Dens Park (23rd February).
Alan Findlay & Simon Barrow