Wednesday 8th February 2017
ANDY STIRLING is, very slowly, developing a taste for whisky.
And he’s happy to keep collecting the bottles – as every one means another man of the match performance for Dumbarton.
The midfielder was named top player for the second consecutive home game against St Mirren on Saturday.
He’s now been named as man of the match in both this season’s home games against the club with whom he started his career.
As if that wasn’t enough to try to prove the Buddies wrong, he also scored against them in the first meeting in September.
He couldn’t get on target in Saturday’s 2-2 draw, but came away with another bottle of whisky – and feeling pleased with other spirits as well.
Andy said: “We did OK. We tried to play football and showed the character we have in the side when we equalised twice.
“We didn’t gain anything on the bottom two but we haven’t lost any ground either. We’re still 11 points clear of St Mirren and four ahead of Ayr United, so that’s a good cushion to have.
“We just need to keep playing our own game and keep playing as we have been doing. The spirit we’ve had in the last few weeks has been great and we’ve put ourselves in a really good position.
“When we went 2-1 down, it’s in the back of your mind that it could be the Queen of the South game all over again, but we were delighted with how we responded.
“But the next game is massive, at home to Ayr. We know how important that is.”
A win in that fixture, at home to Ayr, would put Sons seven points clear of the Honest Men, whose following two games are at home to fellow strugglers St Mirren and Raith Rovers.
And for Andy, there may be more at stake than three points. He feels he has something to prove after being sent off when the sides last met on Christmas Eve.
He added: “It’s better having points on the board than games in hand and we have an opportunity to move further clear.
“I thought the new rule had been brought in at the start of the season that accidental contact in the penalty area wasn’t a sending off.
“But from another point of view, we were behind three times in that game and still fought back to take a point.
“A week off to prepare for that game isn’t going to hurt us. The players will have some time with their families and that will give us time to build up to the game.”
Andy Galloway