Before Dumbarton’s Premier Sports Cup meeting with Championship side Dunfermline at East End Park on Tuesday past (July 14) the Sons had a lift with news that last season’s Celtic loanee Aidan Rice had returned to the club and would make it into the starting eleven.

This completed a hectic 24 hours for the young goalkeeper after being flown home early from Celtic’s training camp in Lisbon to sign and he was certainly kept busy on his return.

Aidan said: “It’s been a wild 24 hours; found out I was flying home early from pre-season sometime last week.

“I spoke to (Celtic coaches) Michael McGovern and Woodsy (Stevie Woods) and said this was where I wanted to come and play my football this season.

“They were straight on it and now it has come about I’m happy to be here.”

Despite the current warm weather trend, this game kicked off at a time when the temperature had dropped, providing perfect playing conditions for the players.

Both teams were looking to avenge results from matchday one, where Dumbarton were beaten by St. Mirren (0-4) in Coatbridge and Dunfermline went down in East Kilbride (0-3).

The visitors were first to show any attacking intent, pressing their opponents in midfield and winning two corners in the first ten minutes.

After that, a long kick from Aidan Rice was retrieved by Kai Kirkpatrick down the left, but his dangerous cross was turned away by the Pars defence.

The Championship team then settled into the match and a slick passing game, keeping possession while looking to find any cracks in the Dumbarton defence.

It wasn’t long before Rice was called into action, making two remarkable close range saves in as many minutes to prevent Zak Rudden from opening the scoring.

There was nothing he could do in 26 minutes when, after robbing Josh Todd, Rudden squared to Andy Tod in the box, and he swept a low shot into the keeper’s right-hand corner.

Minutes later Rudden completely missed the ball at the back post, when it looked like any connection would have made it 2-0.

The ball did hit the net again for Dunfermline six minutes from the break, when Oli Shaw was on hand in the box to control a long ball and finish low past Rice, with the Sons’ defence posted missing.

After a few minutes in the second period, Dumbarton to their credit started pressing again, pushing the Pars further back into their own half.

Leighton McIntosh was involved in a couple of incidents in the home box, firstly being booked for diving as he went past a defender, then moments later seeing his diving header fly just wide, although it wouldn’t have counted as the linesman had his flag up for offside.

Dumbarton got themselves back into the game on the hour mark, when Scott Honeyman’s run and pinpoint delivery from the right was crashed into the net at the back post by Kai Kirkpatrick, who did brilliantly to keep it down as the ball dropped to him.

Despite some more positive play by the League Two team, the home side snatched a third in 69 minutes, Andy Tod cutting in from the left to whip a cross-cum-shot across the box, this seemed to take the Dumbarton defence by surprise, and the ball found its way into the far corner.

Sub Josh Cooper looked lively for Dunfermline after coming on and Rice had to race from his goal to block from him as he went through looking to get his name on the scoresheet.

Cooper wasn’t to be denied for long though, and after 84 minutes showed good control in the box before smashing a right footed drive across Rice and into the postage stamp corner.

Sons sub Ryan Blair spectacularly sliced an attempted clearance just past his own goal as the Pars chased a fifth.

There was just time for more heroics from that man Rice before the final whistle, making an epic double save to deny any further scoring.

Aidan added post-match: “These are the games I want to play in; this is the next step. If I can perform here, then that kind of takes me on.”

Report by Paul Cooper