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STRIKER Leighton McIntosh was convinced his late header against Dumbarton was going to ensure we avoided losing 1-0 in our League One clash at the C & G Systems Stadium.

The Sons were leading through Nat Wedderburn’s goal when Leighton managed to get his head to a cross in the 83rd minute.

The effort looked certain to find the net until home keeper Kevin Dabrowski made the latest of several saves over the course of the 90 minutes to deflect the ball off the inside of his left post.

Leighton said: “I was sure it was going in.

“When I got my head to the ball I don’t think I could have directed it any further into the bottom corner.

“The keeper has somehow managed to almost scoop it back on to the post, it certainly looked like he got a touch, and it was then scrambled clear.

“After that happened, and after the way we were denied by him earlier in the game, you couldn’t help thinking ‘it’s just not going to be our day.’

“It was annoying because I feel we deserved something for the effort we put into the 90 minutes.”

We have now gone four league games without a victory but manager Paul Hartley has faith in the players getting back on track quickly.

He said: “We are going through a mini-blip and have to just work our way through it and get ourselves back up there.

“We’re not playing badly, we are still creating plenty of chances.

“But we have to be more ruthless and clinical – and keep the back door shut.

“There are also times when you have to find different ways to win games.

“You can’t always be playing nice, pretty football.

“When you come to a tricky venue against a team who are well organised, on a difficult pitch, there are occasions when you would be better to play the ball forward a little bit earlier.

“You also need to make sure you take your chances when you get them.

“The first half was a little bit patchy, although we still created chances and their keeper made some good saves.

 “We then got done by a free-kick, something we had spoken about before the game.

“We showed them (the players) what sort of balls they would send into the box and spoke of the need to pick up opponents, but we didn’t do that.

“We put Dumbarton under a lot of pressure after that but it’s a disappointing result, even though we were away from home.

“It was one of those days when, if we had taken a point, I would have thought ‘that’s fine’ and been happy to move on to the next match.”

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