Tuesday 22nd September 2015
“DEAR Mr Blatter, would you and your colleagues at FIFA please consider making the goals slightly wider? Even just by a yard?”
It really would be hard to blame Garry Fleming if he was even considering writing the above letter.
And that’s after he’s added Rangers to his hit list which already contains Hearts, Hibernian and St Mirren.
The striker’s luck seemed to already be out when his injury time header hit the post away to Morton last week, meaning a goalless share of the spoils.
But confirmation of his lack of fortune came after 13 minutes on Saturday, when his header against the Gers had exactly the same outcome.
A deserved measure of consolation came in injury time when he converted a penalty which meant Sons narrowed the deficit to 2-1 against the Ladbrokes SPFL Championship leaders.
Having scored against the Edinburgh duo last season, and St Mirren in this campaign, it was another goal against a high-profile club.
More importantly, it could be the start of a run of goals, both for him personally and Dumbarton. He certainly hopes so.
He said: “We’ve been struggling to get a goal but I was lucky to get the penalty at the end. I was happy to step up and take it.
“It’s a big achievement for me in my career to score against a few big teams. We maybe deserved a point out of the game but we certainly didn’t disgrace ourselves.
“We had a game plan and stuck to it well, forcing a couple of chances, including mine which hit the post. It’s just the way it’s going for me at the moment.
“But Rangers have quality and can turn the game, and they got their goals, although with 10 men we kept fighting away.
“The gaffer said that if anyone deserved to take the penalty, it was me.
“Hopefully this can get me on the goal trail and if we play as well as we did today, we can kick on.”
Sons’ next assignment is this Saturday away to Raith Rovers, who Garry watched in televised action the night before the Rangers game.
The Kirkcaldy side won 2-1 away to St Mirren, matching Sons’ result in Paisley earlier this season.
And Garry is expecting that to be reflected in Saturday’s trip to Stark’s Park, although he is hopeful of a good result.
He added: “It was a good game on Friday. Raith had a game plan, which they stuck to, and got the winning goal late in the game.
“Going to Kirkcaldy will be tough for us, but we’ve won there before and have the squad to go there and get a result this year.”
Andrew Galloway