Saturday 13th June 2020
TODAY we continue to gradually work through the 100 greatest games at Dumbarton’s current stadium, which now enters the top 60.
Working on the countdown have been supporters Andy Galloway, Graeme Robertson, Jack Crawford and Fraser Clarke, who are all members of the club’s media team.
The final rankings were worked out by average positions from each ‘pundit’s individual countdown.
Today, we feature games against Raith Rovers, Stenhousemuir, Ayr United, Cowdenbeath and Alloa Athletic.
Numbers 55 to 51 will be published tomorrow at 10am.
60. Dumbarton 2-0 Raith Rovers – Saturday, November 11 2017
We just had to include at least one game from the cup run.
And this is a decent one, as victory over Raith Rovers saw us through to the semi-final, where we would travel to face The New Saints.
Dumbarton were on top from the start and were ahead after 18 minutes. A corner fell to Chris McLaughlin on his weaker right foot, but that couldn’t stop him putting away his first goal for the club.
Chances came and went before the lead was doubled only three minutes after the restart. Ally Roy dispossessed a visiting defender and ran in to apply a composed finish.
Another opportunity came on 57 minutes when Craig Barr’s header was blocked on the line by Greig Spence with his hand.
He was dismissed, but Tom Walsh’s penalty was saved. It mattered not, though, and Oswestry here we came.
Copyright Fullarton Photos 2017
59. Dumbarton 4-0 Stenhousemuir – Saturday, September 16, 2006
This was arguably the game where Stephen Dobbie really came to the boil as a Dumbarton player, on loan from St Johnstone.
He had scored twice in a Sons shirt already, but unless you travelled to either Inverness or Elgin you had yet to witness him finding the net. In this fixture, designated as a fan day which attracted a crowd of almost 1,000, he really turned it on.
It wasn’t him who opened the scoring though – that was done by Craig Winter with a close range finish midway through the first half.
Dobbie got his first of the afternoon 13 minutes later, and three minutes into the second half he drilled home his second and Sons’ third.
Winter then finished the job with five minutes remaining as newly-relegated Sons made arguably their first case for a promotion challenge.
That didn’t happen of course, but it was afternoons like this that got Dobbie’s career on track as a Dumbarton player.
58. Dumbarton 1-0 Ayr United – Saturday, August 7, 2004
Ayr United were newly-relegated into the Second Division. Within 90 minutes of their opening league fixture they were shown what a challenge it would be to get back to the First.
Dumbarton, on the other hand, were aiming to kick on from a positive ending to the previous season which we won’t go into the full details of just yet.
With over 1,000 fans in the stadium, the only goal of the game came after 18 minutes, with John Dillon firing home an angled finish.
On a gloriously sunny day, the action was competitive, and after three players were booked in the opening 13 minutes, along came another twist 11 minutes from half time.
Dillon was felled by a wild challenge by Barry McLaughlin on the halfway line, and out came the first red card of the season.
The game was closely contested, but Dumbarton held on to start on a winning note.
57. Dumbarton 2-1 Cowdenbeath – Saturday, January 23, 2010
Did history repeat itself? There might be more about that later.
Having lost all six points to Cowdenbeath so far during the season, Dumbarton had some making up to do against their long-time rivals.
They had to do it the hard way, as on 29 minutes Mark Baxter gave the Blue Brazil the lead in what had been a closely contested game.
Dumbarton were always well in the game and got the equaliser their fight had merited on 65 minutes, with Roddy Hunter finishing at close range.
It was a very watchable contest, but it looked like Sons would have to settle for a draw, only for one player to have other ideas.
Ross Clark finished at close range in the 89th minute and we had the points from our first game back from the big freeze.
56. Dumbarton 4-1 Alloa Athletic – Tuesday, January 18, 2011
This was our second game back from another big freeze. We’ll just call the 1-0 defeat at home to Stenhousemuir three days earlier a false start.
Alloa were beaten by some quality goals for Dumbarton, starting in the 14th minutes with Martin McNiff’s stinging drive from the edge of the area.
Number two came four minutes from half time. Pat Walker had come to the club in November but this was only his third league game due to the big freeze, and he drilled home the second goal.
Eight minutes after the restart it was 3-0, Derek Carcary running in to score what proved to be his last goal in a Dumbarton jersey.
Just after that Billy Gibson got one back for Alloa, but the evening’s highlight came with 10 minutes left.
On the halfway line, Andy Geggan noticed that the visiting keeper was a bit far out of his goal, and lobbed home. That warmed up a freezing evening.