Saturday 18th November 2017
AS Stuart Carswell talks to the club website, two of his team-mates walk past.
“He’s not telling you he scored that, is he?”
And his manager has also already said that it’s not his goal.
But when you’ve played over 160 games, having never scored, they have to fight hard to take the glory from you.
People can say what they like. As far as Stuart is concerned, he’s the man who put Dumbarton into round four of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
His free kick against Elgin City, the only goal of the game, may have taken a deflection, but it was on target.
And Stuart’s career-long wait for his first goal is now over.
Speaking to www.dumbartonfootballclub.com, Stuart said: “Of course I’m claiming it – and I should have had a second later in the game.
“I went close with a couple of chances at Brechin only two weeks ago, including one which hit the bar. My first goal has been a long time coming and I’m delighted I’ve got it.
“I expect I’ll get messages from former team-mates and friends asking if it’s definitely mine, and I’ll be telling them I scored it.
“We created chances against Elgin but couldn’t quite finish the game off. It only takes one lapse of concentration to cost you when it’s 1-0, but we saw it out.
“We defended well overall, but on another day we could have been punished.”
As well as claiming a third consecutive victory, Dumbarton have now gone 344 minutes of football without conceding.
And as a defensive midfielder, that stat also sits well with Stuart ahead of a demanding series of Championship games.
All of the next four outings are against teams currently in the top half, three of them coming within a week, starting with Saturday’s trip to Dunfermline.
Stuart added: “The defence and goalkeeper take credit for the run of clean sheets, and we’re not going to take our foot off the pedal.
“We know we need to play to our best in the coming games. We fancy our chances against anybody at home.
“Previous games against Dunfermline are in the past. We know it will be tough there, but we are looking forward to it.”
Andy Galloway