Tuesday 16th June 2020
WE hope you’ve enjoyed the countdown of our 100 greatest games at what is currently the C&G Systems Stadium. If you have, then good news – there’s another half of it to come!
The rankings have been worked out by average placings given to them by supporters Jack Crawford, Fraser Clarke, Andy Galloway and Graeme Robertson, who are all part of our media team.
Today we feature games against Stirling Albion, Falkirk, Arbroath, Queen of the South and Hamilton Accies.
Numbers 45 to 41 will be published on Thursday at 10am.
50. Dumbarton 4-1 Stirling Albion – Saturday, November 24, 2001
Dumbarton started November with their last win having been the 5-4 game at Stirling Albion in the middle of September.
This, against the same opposition, was their third league win on the bounce, and this time the Binos could not respond sufficiently to a fast start by Sons.
Martin O’Neill opened the scoring in 10 minutes with what proved to be the last of his three goals for the club. Nine minutes from half time it was 2-0 through a Paddy Flannery goal, which was far from his last for DFC.
Alex Williams, who scored a hat-trick in the Forthbank encounter, got one back for Stirling 10 minutes into the second half.
However, Mark Crilly, matchwinner last time out, scored a more conventional goal this time with 20 minutes to play.
And with four minutes remaining, Craig Brittain sealed an emphatic victory to continue the winning sequence, which lasted nearly a further two months.
49. Dumbarton 2-1 Falkirk – Saturday, December 17, 2016
This was Dumbarton’s first home game after the Scottish Cup replay with Bonnyrigg Rose which, you’ll be surprised to know, hasn’t made this countdown.
To put it mildly, a response was looked for and after a first half of few chances, Sons headed down the tunnel in the lead against Falkirk.
It was a visiting player who put them there, as a minute from half time, Aaron Muirhead put the ball past his own keeper.
The Bairns were all square 20 minutes into the second half, as Myles Hippolyte’s throw-in landed at the feet of Craig Sibbald, who got away from the Sons defence and finished.
But two minutes later, Sam Stanton’s outstanding through ball sent Garry Fleming clear, and he made no mistake with the finish.
It was a long 23 minutes which followed through to the final whistle – and there was a glaring miss by Falkirk right at the end. But Dumbarton had the points.
Copyright Fullarton Photos 2016
48. Dumbarton 3-0 Arbroath – Saturday, April 30, 2005
This season had failed to hit the heights of the last one – indeed, Dumbarton went into the season’s penultimate matchday needing to beat Arbroath to secure survival in the Second Division.
They took their time to find their full stride against a Red Lichties side who had to win themselves to stand any chance of staying up, but it was worth the wait.
It all started after 69 minutes when top scorer Iain Russell was replaced by Chris Boyle. Any dissent to that decision was immediately silenced when Boyle struck the opening goal from the edge of the area.
With 12 minutes left came the piercing blow for the visitors when John Dillon made it 2-0, getting one of Dumbarton’s feet in next season’s Second Division.
The other foot went in with eight minutes remaining, John Gemmell finishing a fine move to register his first goal for the club.
It had been a frustrating season at times, but Sons were over the line.
47. Dumbarton 4-2 Queen of the South – Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Not quite the end of the season, but another vital game won in a bid to secure survival.
Twenty four days before this fixture Dumbarton had lost 6-0 to Queen of the South. It took them only five minutes to start avenging that, when Christian Nade intercepted a slack kick by the keeper and ran in to finish.
The visitors, though, were ahead by the interval. On 27 minutes Iain Russell thrashed in the equaliser from the edge of the area.
Then, right on half time, Alex Harris saw off the challenge of the Sons defence in an almost identical position to where Russell scored from, and finished.
A response was needed and was delivered only two minutes after half time. Tom Walsh intercepted a clearance and bent home an outrageous finish.
And just three minutes after that, Mark Docherty’s corner found Nade who, with a couple of deflections, secured his second goal of the evening.
Victory was sealed with five minutes left, when a foul on Gregor Buchanan in the area was penalised and Garry Fleming stepped up to put away the fourth. Our first league win at home to Queens since 1992.
Copyright Fullarton Photos 2016
46. Dumbarton 4-1 East Fife – Saturday, October 30, 2010
When East Fife went down to nine men midway through the second half of this match, what could possibly have gone wrong? Quite a bit nearly did.
This was Alan Adamson’s first game as caretaker manager and within 90 minutes, his CV in overall charge of Dumbarton was boosted.
Jon McShane opened the scoring on 31 minutes, but Kurtis Byrne’s equaliser for East Fife eight minutes later sent the sides in level.
Two minutes after the restart, an own goal restored Sons’ lead, and they then had a two-man advantage. Visiting goalkeeper Stewart Baillie was sent off for handling outside his area, and Stewart Murdoch followed him for a second booking.
To some, victory may have seemed a formality from there, but it wasn’t until a minute from full time that Mark Gilhaney scored the goal that made it 3-1.
And a minute later, he did it again for a four-goal haul.