News

THE woodwork, poor finishing and slack defending at a free-kick denied us the opportunity to look back on our first ever meeting with Dumbarton with any sense of satisfaction.

Polish keeper Kevin Dabrowski – on loan to the Sons from Hibs – pushed a net-bound header from Leighton McIntosh on to the upright in the 83rd minute in a hard fought League One encounter at the C & G Systems Stadium.

The big keeper also made two cracking saves in the first half, which not surprisingly helped earn him the home sponsors’ man-of-the-match award.

To compound our pain the man who helped to develop Dabrowski during his own time at Easter Road is our goalkeeping coach, Alan Combe.

By the time McIntosh had his stroke of bad luck in front of goal we were chasing the game.

Dumbarton midfielder Nat Wedderburn was given far too much freedom to score what proved to be the only goal, with a close range header, early in the second half.

When Harry Milne failed to connect properly with another header, when the goal was at his mercy two minutes from time,  you just knew our chances of avoiding defeat had gone.

A catalogue of other scorned opportunities in and around the Dumbarton goal highlighted how much injured strikers Mitch Megginson and Rory McAllister, who missed out through injury and both been left at home, were missed.

There was a low key start to the game as the players adjusted to attempting to play passes on an uneven pitch rendered even more tricky because of the heavy rain that had soaked into it over the previous 24 hours.

It was the 10th minute before we created the first chance, when Milne found Broque Watson with a cross from the left, but he could only direct his header from the edge of the six yard box off target.

The Sons responded with Ross Forbes trying his luck from a 30-yard free-kick, but Stuart McKenzie was well positioned and dived to his left to make a comfortable save.

McIntosh and Watson combined well to slice through the home defence in the 21st minute.

The moved ended with striker McIntosh seeing his shot deflected over to Jamie Masson, on the left, and his low drive from a tight angle was pushed wide by Dabrowski.

Despite the difficult conditions, we were setting the pace and went close again a minute later when Fraser Fyvie’s shot from distance was blocked into the path of Milne.

The left-back’s low effort from the edge of the area rolled agonisingly wide of Dabrowski’s right post.

Blair Yule also saw his 22-yard shot deflected wide for a corner, it really was one-way traffic.

Masson took the corner and picked out Daniel Higgins at the back post and his powerful six yard header was going in until Dabrowski dived to beat the ball to safety.

Dabrowski bettered that save in the 29th minute, after McIntosh had cleverly flicked the ball on to Fyvie, who had made a great run into the Dumbarton area on the right.

McIntosh then darted forward to get on the end of Fyvie’s cross and met the ball flush with a diving header inside the six yard box that was kept out by a top class save from the home keeper.

The best save of the first half came at the other end, in the 39th minute, after Rico Quitongo had fired a cross over from the left.

Jaime Wilson caught the ball on the full volley from about eight yards but McKenzie not only stopped the effort, he held the ball, it was excellent goalkeeping.

We almost broke the deadlock two minutes after the restart.

Masson curled in a free-kick from 25-yards that Dabrowski appeared to tip wide of his right post, although referee Greg Aitken awarded a goal-kick, much to the annoyance of some of our players.

Despite all our efforts so far, it was Dumbarton who took the lead, in the 51st minute.

Forbes fired a free-kick over from wide on the left, about 25-yards out, and WEDDERBURN was unhindered as he rose to power his header home from the edge of the six yard box.

Dumbarton retreated into defence from that point on and we just couldn’t find a way through them, particularly during the hectic finale.

Masson tried again from a 20-yard free-kick, with 10 minutes to go, but shot wide of the target.

Dabrowski showed his class again three minutes later when he appeared to get the slightest of touches on a well directed header from McIntosh, that was going in.

The ball then rebounded off the inside of the keeper’s left post and it seemed as if things were moving in slow motion as it rolled along the goal-line before it was hastily booted clear.

Milne had his glorious chance to score the equaliser with two minutes to go.

He was totally unmarked when Fyvie’s cross from the left reached him at the edge of the six yard box but his header lacked power and was gratefully gathered by Dabrowski.

Higgins blasted a 35-yard shot well off target in the first minute of injury-time.

In the final seconds, Fyvie found McIntosh with another cross but Dabrowski was in the right place to save his eighth yard header too, there was no doubting the big Pole had earned that man-of-the-match award.

DUMBARTON: Dabrowski, Wardrop, Carswell, Neill, Quitongo, Forbes, Wedderburn, Hamilton Jones 88), Church (Crossan 72), Frizzell (McCluskey 82),  Wilson (Johnstone 72).

Subs: Trialist (GK), Langan,  Morrison.

COVE RANGERS: McKenzie, Milne, Scully (Seb Ross 72), Scott Ross, Strachan, Watson (Semple 72), Yule, Masson, McIntosh, Higgins, Fyvie.

Subs: Livingstone, Brown, Graham, Demus.

Referee: Greg Aitken.

Article Copyright © 2020. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to www.coverangersfc.com

MATCHDAY 8 GALLERY | DUMBARTON »