at Ochilview Park, Stenhousemuir

Bonar ⁷⁸
Flannery ⁹⁰

Report by Sonny Rock

Most Sons fans were surprised to see the clubs top goalscorer, Paddy Flannery, start the season on the bench with the new look strikeforce of the Brown brothers (!) up front - perhaps Flannery had a niggling injury.

David Winnie also selected what looked like a make-shift midfield (Bonar, Dillon, McCann and Robertson) - as Mark Crilly, Craig Brittain and Martin O'Neil were injured.

At the back Sons had what looked like the strongest defence they have fielded for some time and it was the only major plus point in a performance that must have had the new boss tearing his hair out and looking for a strip for himself.

To be honest Sons were poor today.  The midfield appeared to have a nightmare which meant our only attacking options were long balls to Bomber and Tom Brown.

Stenny were also pretty poor but were still miles ahead of Sons. In an extremely dull first half the only real chance fell to Stenhousemuir as they rattled the post from a corner - nothing much else happened apart from a few bookings.

Half-Time: Stenhousemuir 0 Dumbarton 0

The second half started with Dumbarton enjoying their best spell of the match and what happened?  The Warriors went up the park and took the lead.

Sloppy marking allowed a free header at the back post which seemed to hit off Mark Booth and into John Wight's net.

As fans called for David Winnie to change things (in particular the midfield) - a shock decision saw Bomber being taken off and replaced by Flannery - with no service for big Andy  he had no real chances to capitalise on - neither would Flannery with this line-up.

Just over ten minutes later it was 2-0 as Sons conceded a penalty which was dispatched by Booth into the top right corner giving Wighty no chance.

Craig Lynes then came on to replace Tom Brown as Sons still continued to struggle in the middle of the park.

With the game going nowhere Sons were handed a huge slice of luck.  A hopeful punt into the box saw THREE Stenny defenders and the keeper leave it for each other while Stevie Bonar nicked in and glanced a header past the stranded Warriors.

With the time running out John McVeigh applied his usual  spoiling tactics of sending men into corners and having ballboys ignore the ball (I think it's call gamesmanship - but in the first game of the season...)

Fortunatelty for Sons this fired them up and with the introduction of John McKeown as a third target man (yes John McKeown our 6'4'' central defender) Sons went for the equaliser.

In the 90th minute we were rewarded as after a stramash in the box the ball fell for you know who... Paddy Flannery who slipped it into the net to send the large travelling support wild.

Flannery proceeded to celebrate with a Klinsman dive then spotting the Sons support behind the goal jumped on top of a couple of Sons fans - followed by half the team.  Unfortunately I was on the bottom of the pile of the Sons supporters and was almost crushed - I'll let you off Paddy as you weren't to blame - it was that bugger Craig Lynes flying in on top of the lot of us who knocked me all over the place.

Well a good comeback and a good laugh - but unfortunately not a good overall performance - David Winnie had a hard time today with team selections especially in the middle of the park but one or two of those players will certainly have given the new boss something to think about.

A points a point though - I'm away to put some more ice on my almost broken nose - and Paddy I'll send you the bill for the contact lens you knocked out of my eye in your celebrations.

Full-Time: Stenhousemuir 2 Dumbarton 2

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