Recap

ON the morning of this game a number of people, including members of the management team, put in a hard shift to ensure the pitch was playable.

As the minutes went by, they may have wished they had not bothered as Dumbarton were demolished by a rampant Albion Rovers side who looked anything but a side struggling at the bottom.

Gregor Buchanan was absent from the squad, recovering from illness. Questions on how much Sons would miss him at central defence were spectacularly answered in the opening 45 minutes.

A procession towards the goal guarded by Brett Long resulted in four unanswered efforts for Rovers before half time. Joe Bevan and Charlie Reilly each scored twice, one of Reilly’s goals coming in the final minute, with Callum Wilson also applying a great finish on his return to his former home ground.

In fact, all six goals on the day were scored by Rovers players, Ayrton Sonkur deflecting the ball into his own net for the only positive in an attacking sense for Sons.

The words ‘watch through the gaps in your fingers’ spring to mind for the first half. With just seven minutes gone, Bevan was sent clear without a defender near him and made no mistake with the finish.

Four minutes later it was time to think when Sons last won from 2-0 down. Bevan again did the damage, spinning in the area and scoring with a fine shot.

His team-mate Scott Roberts looked set to make it 3-0 just eight minutes later, but was denied by a fine save from Long.

Instead, the feat of scoring the visitors’ third went to Reilly, who scored with an emphatic finish from the edge of the box.

It had already gone from bad to worse, but went worse still six minutes from half time. After another fine save by Long to keep out Reilly, Wilson bent home an excellent shot from the edge of the box.

The second half at least saw the tide stemmed, but there was minimal sign of a goal being pulled back until late in the game.

After Ross MacLean got a shot on target only to see it saved by the keeper, a corner by Ally Love came back off the inside of the post.

However, there was then something to cheer, or at least grin about, with two minutes left, when Sonkur deflected past his own keeper to give Dumbarton a goal back.

The visitors, though, were not to be denied their four goal victory when they again cut through the defence and Reilly tapped into an empty net.

In summary, Sons have had better days than this.

Dumbarton: Long; Wylde (McNiff 46), Carswell (Vata 57), Orsi, Ross MacLean, Lynas, McKee (Lynch 46), Russell McLean (Love 46), Grant, Blair. Sub: Broun. Booked: Gray, Love, Lynas, Grant.

Albion Rovers: Leighfield; Fernie, Sonkur, Fagan (Graham 65), Fleming, Wilson, Leslie, Roberts (Mutale 83), Reilly, Bevan, McCall (McCulloch 76). Subs: Smith; Paton, Duncan, Dolan, Kidd. Booked: McCall.

Referee: Alex Shepherd.

A minute of applause for late Sons fan and former Sonstrust chairman John Duffy.