Dumbarton v Forfar Athletic – Match Preview
The ‘Loons’ head to Dumbarton on Saturday not surprisingly full of confidence following their impressive 4-0 away win at Forthbank last weekend. That success was in fact the ‘Loons’ biggest away win in a competitive fixture since they recorded a similar score line against Edinburgh City at Ainslie Park in December of 2021.
Stuart Morrison and his colleagues having got one monkey of their back last Saturday with their first away league win of the campaign will now try and get a second by recording their first back to back successes in the William Hill League2 this season.
They will also head to the Marbill Coaches Stadium keen to avenge their 3-2 defeat by the ‘Sons’ back in September in an extraordinary game at the Alpha Projects Stadium @ Station Park. The home side were 2-0 up within the opening twelve minutes thanks to goals from Martin Rennie and Jake Dolzanski, only for the visitors on the day to stage a remarkable fightback. Scott Honeyman reduced the leeway in the 39th minute, before a brace from Leighton McIntosh, the second in the dying minutes of the contest saw Stevie Farrell’s side head home with the three points in the locker.
Dumbarton currently sit three points behind the Athies in the league table, but to be fair they started the campaign with a five point penalty. They lost 2-0 up at Elgin last Saturday, this result following on from a 2-1 home victory over Annan Athletic the previous weekend, while they suffered a 2-0 defeat with a few changes in their ranks in a re-arranged KDM tie against Stenhousemuir in midweek.
Jim Weir is under no illusions about the task in hand on Saturday, having watched a fair degree of footage from recent ‘Sons’ matches and as ever there could be a slight tinkering to the match day game plan for the clash. The ‘Loons’ management team will however be looking for continuity and a repeat of the complete team performance that evolved against Albion. Jim and Gavin were particularly impressed with the overall display and energy levels of some of the younger members of the side last Saturday, as they settle in hopefully to the week by week regime of league football at this new level for some of them.
Jim admits that the end result in September against the ‘Sons’ was a sore one to take and it took him personally the whole of the following week to get over it!
On the injury front, Kieran Inglis, Craig Slater remain sidelined and they have been joined on the treatment table by Cormac Christie. An update on Marc McCallum. The keeper has had surgery on his horrific nose injury and hopefully will be able to resume training in a couple of weeks.
Hopefully the feel good factor amongst the ‘Loons’ faithful that emanated from last Saturday’s showing and continued with the incredible performance by the national side in midweek will continue this weekend.
Temperatures are forecast to rise considerably overnight in the west, so hopefully there will be no doubts about the fixture going ahead.
Daniel Graves who took charge of our fixture at East Kilbride earlier in the season is again the man in the middle.
C’mon the ‘Loons’
Admission prices for Saturday’s contest are as follows;-
Adults (16-65) £15
Concessions (Over 65 & Full time Students – id required) £10
Under 16’s £5
Tickets are available in advance through the Fanbase website, see the Dumbarton FC Official Facebook page for further detail. A payment facility at the Stadium on match day is also provided.
The fixture has the usual 3pm. kick-off.
Saturday’s other William Hill League2 fixtures;- Clyde v Annan Athletic, East Kilbride v Edinburgh City, Stirling Albion v Elgin City, The Spartans v Stranraer
