Recap

Dumbarton suffered their first home league defeat of the season, falling to a 1-0 loss against Peterhead.

Sons had a number of golden opportunities to take the lead in the first-half but their missed chances came back to haunt them once again for the third week in a row when Hamish Ritchie earned all three points for the Blue Toon five minutes from time.

Greig Young also suffered a nasty injury in the opening period which caused for a lengthy delay before he was stretchered off.

Boss Stevie Farrell made four changes to the side that were beaten 2-0 at Elgin the weekend previous with David Wilson, Kalvin Orsi, Declan Byrne and Michael Ruth all being called into the starting eleven.

The hosts started on the front foot with the game being played in Dumbarton’s final third as a cross from the right made its way to Young at the back post, however his drilled effort skidded just wide of the far corner.

The pick of the chances not just in the first-half but throughout the game fell to Sons on six minutes when a corner landed at the feet of Mark Durnan six yards from goal but he blazed his shot over the crossbar.

On 15 minutes, Young went down with a serious suspected knee injury and was treated by physios, doctors and first aiders before being stretchered off ten minutes later.

Sons were back on the front foot after the delay and Declan Byrne found himself in a good area as he looked to get on the end of Carlo Pignatiello’s cross but he didn’t get enough on his header to force the ball goalwards.

Another good chance for the home side followed a few minutes later with Matty Shiels, who had moved across to left-back following Young’s injury, coming in at the back post and whilst this effort did beat goalkeeper Stuart McKenzie, it was cleared off the line by the well placed Jason Brown.

Michael Ruth was still looking for his first league goal for Dumbarton and was close to finding it on the half-hour but he hit the side netting after cutting in from the left.

The visitors were still a threat down the wings despite Sons being in control of the game, and Connor O’Keefe nearly found the opening goal of the afternoon when his curling effort just missed the far corner.

Before the break there was another opportunity for Byrne after Shiels’ cross wasn’t fully dealt with by Peterhead but he volleyed over from a promising position.

After the interval Sons looked to pick up where they left off with a header from Shiels flying just wide of the top corner.

O’Keefe then got in behind the Dumbarton defence and was one on one with Brett Long but the stopper did well to stand up and got a big hand to block before Ruth threatened again for Sons, with the side netting leaving him frustrated once more.

Finlay Gray, Jinky Hilton, Ross MacLean and Tony Wallace were all introduced for Dumbarton in the final 25 minutes with the latter having the most positive impact with a quarter of an hour to go when, for the second time of the afternoon, a Peterhead defender prevented a certain goal with a goal line clearance.

There was a hat-trick of chances for Ritchie in the space of a few minutes as one was blazed off target, another comfortable for Long and then another clipped just over the bar as he capitalised on a mistake at the back.

He finally got it right on 84 minutes when Rory McAllister got in behind the Dumbarton defence and unselfishly put the ball across goal for his teammate who had the simplest of tasks of tapping into the net.

As if Dumbarton weren’t frustrated enough after creating a number of chances yet still being on the wrong end of the score line, their misery was compounded a couple of minutes from time when Gray was shown a second yellow and was sent off.

Sons are back at the Rock to face Stranraer in the penultimate game of the first quarter of the season as they look to get back on track after three defeats in a row.