Thursday 3rd August 2017
DOUGIE HILL has wide experience of victories for Dumbarton at the Your Radio 103FM Stadium.
He played in the 3-1 and 5-0 wins over Alloa two seasons ago, and the 2-1 victory over Raith Rovers in the campaign before that.
He was also involved in the 4-2 win against Raith in March 2013, when Sons came back from 2-0 down.
There’s just one problem. He was in the opposing team for all of them.
So the defender is glad to have made the switch to become a Sons player this season, having arrived from newly-promoted Brechin City.
And he hasn’t been short of familiar faces to help him settle after a successful pre-season where he played in all the friendlies as a trialist.
He told www.dumbartonfootballclub.com: “I used to hate coming here when I was an opposition player! I’ve had a couple of right bad results.
“But it’s helped me settle into a new club, coming into a team that has a few of my former team-mates.
“As well as the players signed from Raith, David Smith and Christian Nade were with me there.
“So there are quite a few of the boys I’m familiar with, and I’m looking forward to working with them again.”
Like Sons, Dougie has been a mainstay of the Championship in recent years, bar last season when he was part of Brechin’s successful League One promotion challenge.
He has experienced games against some of Scotland’s best-known clubs, and although these outfits are now in the Premiership, he feels that the division offers Sons a real challenge this season.
He added: “My goal is to get into the team and play as much as I can, while for the team the ambition is to finish as high up the table as possible.
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t aim to do more than survive in the league. It’s probably not as tough as it’s been in the last four or five years.
“Dundee United are still there, and there are some right good teams. Every game will be hard for us.
“But we reckon we can give a good account of ourselves this season and we’ll give it our best shot.”
Andy Galloway