Dumbarton v Queens

Let's get the excuses out of the way first. The wet pitch and the atrocious weather conditions were not conducive to playing attractive football: and it is not easy to play against a team that is content with a 0 - 0 draw (although Dumbarton came close to snatching a win right at the end). There the excuses end.
I thought we started reasonably well but I suspect few of us thought that Kidd's woeful attempt on goal after about eight minutes was a portent of things to come. Our failure to score had nothing to do with our having only one recognised striker available: it was more down to finishing that, quite frankly, should make professional footballers hang their heads in shame. More than once, particularly in the second half, we got the break of the ball yet still contrived pathetically not to score. Even the introduction of Iain Russell, with his pace, made little difference. Nobody played particularly badly but, there again, nobody played particularly well. We simply did not have the

Dominated from start to finish but as I and many others have said repeatedly playing Lyle up front on his own is a mistake. We wasted 60 minutes of this match by deploying this tactic supported by Danny and Paton - reality is that danny has scored one goal in two years and Paton only slightly better.

If Lyle failed to score the big question was who was going to score?

Russell is a consistent scorer and from a purely statistical point view it would have made more sense to have Russell up there from the start - he made a difference when he came on but by that time we were starting to panic and snatching at chances.

Played well enough but the players who lost their discipline should have a good look in the mirror as there was hardly a bad tackle or flashpoint in the entire match.

Dumbarton fans view on the game - view external link