Thursday 3rd November 2016
JOE THOMSON trains through the week with a team that has failed to win only once domestically all season.
Now he wants to experience the same feeling with Dumbarton as his Celtic team-mates – by beating St Mirren on Saturday in a game he described as a must-win.
The on-loan midfielder has impressed with Sons since arriving at the start of the league season, scoring his first goal for the club in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Dunfermline.
But to him, the operative word in that last paragraph is ‘draw’. Despite a dominant first half performance, it wasn’t a victory.
And he insists that’s something Dumbarton want to pick up at Paisley on Saturday. If they want to extend their cushion over the bottom of the table club, they need to.
Joe said: “It’s definitely a must-win game. We can’t just go there and be beaten. We are a point further clear of them after last week and we have to look to extend that.
“I’m enjoying playing for Dumbarton. Some of the boys at Celtic ask me how I’m getting on here and I tell them it’s great.
“Some of the other players are out on loan too, but aren’t playing. I’ve been lucky enough to play every league game since I arrived and I can’t speak highly enough of the opportunity.
“It is of course my goal to get into the Celtic first team, but I’m here just now until January and my focus is playing well here.
“We’ve put in two good performances in the last couple of games. Now we need to push for results.”
Despite not getting the results they have wanted or merited, Joe feels Sons’ performances are offering hope that a victory is just around the corner – or just across the Erskine Bridge.
With his first goal in a Sons shirt now scored, he is hopeful that he and his team-mates can push on from there.
He added: “It was good to get my first goal. Obviously it put us 1-0 up but we failed to get the three points, and that was disappointing.
“I think we were definitely the better team in the first half. Dunfermline came into it more after the restart but I felt we did deserve to win it.
“We did well at Dundee United despite losing and we knew we were disappointing the week before against Ayr United, so we knew we had to work hard and try to bounce back.
“If we play like that every week then the wins will start to come.”
Andy Galloway