Match Report

Dumbarton’s Stirlingshire Cup campaign kicked off with defeat against Championship side Stenhousemuir.

Despite a spirited performance from Frank McKeown’s men, the Warriors were clinical – with goals from Kinlay Bilham and a trialist enough to secure their spot in the final against Alloa Athletic.

Boss McKeown named the returning Scott Tomlinson in his starting lineup, joined by new signing Deryn Lang who made his first appearance in Dumbarton colours. Three trialists started the low-key encounter at Ochilview, with a further two on the bench.

A quick switch of play created an opening for a Sons trialist, who showed his man a clean pair of heels before driving a ball across the face of goal that was cut out by a sliding defender.

From the resulting corner, an Ali Omar bullet header was blocked by a white shirt – with Stenny scrambling the danger clear.

The Warriors then broke clear to open the scoring with a sharp counter attack.

Euan O’Reilly drove clear down the right and clipped a ball back for Kinlay Bilham to steer a header into the net via the far post.

Sons almost hit back immediately with a surging Scott Tomlinson run carving open the Warriors defence and creating a chance for the trialist left-winger, who neatly cut inside before drawing a full-length save from diving Stenny trialist keeper Robbie Hemfrey.

More chances followed, with Tomlinson turning on the afterburners but finding no takers for his ball across the face of goal, before Tony Wallace bounced a header from Tommy Robson’s booming cross wide of target.

Then, as they had with the opening goal, Stenny hit Sons with a sucker punch.

Dumbarton’s trialist goalkeeper got the ball caught under his feet and stumbled, presenting a Stenhousemuir trialist with the simplest of tasks to stab into the empty net.

With the game lasting just 60 minutes, half-time followed soon after – with boss McKeown making a double change early in the second-half, introducing Connor Campbell and Aedan Gilfedder for Tommy Robson and Deryn Lang.

The duo almost had an immediate impact with Campbell finding space down the left before digging out an excellent cross that was hacked clear with Gilfedder waiting to pounce.

Ali Omar then went close again, having another free header from a corner diverted wide – as the Warriors secured a hard-fought clean sheet.

Stenhousemuir 2

5′ Kinlay Bilham, 21′ Trialist

Dumbarton 0

Match photos