Match Report

Early goals from Mark Durnan and Scott Honeyman made it back-to-back wins for the first time since August for Dumbarton.

Skipper Durnan powered home a header from Alexander Smith’s corner with just two minutes on the clock to get Sons off to a dream start, with Honeyman slamming home Smith’s cross 15 minutes later.

Dumbarton were then grateful to some heroics from Celtic loanee Aidan Rice, as they celebrated a third clean sheet in four matches – and stretched the gap over Edinburgh City at the foot of the League Two table to five points.

Boss Frank McKeown named an unchanged team from the side which had blown away title-challengers Spartans four days previous, but the early spring sunshine seemed a distant memory as the sides kicked off in swirling winds and relentless rain.

The weather may have worsened, but Sons continued from right where they had left off on Saturday.

Scott Tomlinson won a corner inside the opening 90 seconds, with Rangers loanee Alexander Smith’s in-swinging delivery pinpoint perfect for Mark Durnan to guide the ball beyond Blues keeper Max Currie and into the net.

Scott Honeyman came close to adding a quickfire second as he let rip from range, but saw his piledriver deflected wide – before Ali Omar found no takers for his glanced header across the face of goal from the resulting corner.

After being caught cold, Chris Aitken’s men then reminded the home fans about their threat.

Aaron Quigg took advantage of some hesitation in Sons’ backline and crossed for Dean Cleland, but the Hibernian loanee was denied from point-blank range by a superb Aidan Rice stop.

That proved a vital moment, as Sons doubled their lead soon after.

Gordon Walker nicked back possession and charged forward before freeing Adam Livingstone.

The full-back drove up the left and found Alexander Smith on the overlap, with the 17-year-old turning a defender inside out before firing a cross into the area that was parried by keeper Currie straight to Scott Honeyman – who duly lashed home his ninth of a breakthrough campaign.

Having lost just twice in William Hill League 2 in 2026, Stranraer were in no mood to lie down however – with Sons again grateful to keeper Rice for heroics to deny the visitors, as he clawed away a Quigg header at full stretch.

At the other end, Livingstone was only denied his first Dumbarton goal by keeper Currie after attacking a deep cross – whilst Scott Tomlinson flashed a low drive wide of the far post after bursting clear.

Rice would have the final say of the half however, this time pulling off a superb low stop to deny a skidding Quigg effort from the edge of the box.

With the conditions continuing to deteriorate, the second-half saw Rice remain a busy man.

He stayed big to deny Deryn Lang one-on-one after the forward had sprung Dumbarton’s offside trap, before pushing away a curling Dom Plank effort from the edge of the box.

And the 19-year-old, named Sonstrust Player of the Match, was in no mood to give up a second consecutive clean sheet.

First he produced another instinctive stop to deny Plank’s fellow sub James Dolan, before using every inch of his 6 ‘4 frame to touch a Lewis Reid header by the post – as Sons survived the onslaught and the elements to secure another priceless three points.

Dumbarton 2

2′ Mark Durnan, 17′ Scott Honeyman

Yellow cards: 67′ Scott Tomlinson, 74′ Kai Kirkpatrick

Stranraer 0

Yellow cards: 4′ Finn Ecrepont, 71′ Joseph McGrath

Referee: Greg Soutar

Attendance: 585

View all the results and table from William Hill League 2

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