Reaction

Dumbarton took revenge for our opening day victory at the Strathclyde Homes Stadium back on 8th August, 2009, when “The Wasps” won 3-1, however Dumbarton deservedly won the opening game of the second quarter by the same scoreline. Situations can change very quickly in football and having started the season very possitively and going top of the league, injuries and suspensions hindered the club’s progress. However having not won any of our last five league games we need a possitive reaction from the players, errors can cost you dearly and The Wasps didn’t start yesterday’s game well, Dumbarton were more competitive and winning most of the possession. However having gone behind we got back into the game and Mark Gilhaney scored his first goal for the club four minutes before half time. Then a minute before half time we fell behind again losing a poor defensive goal. The players at present are letting themselves down, they are a lot better than recent results have shown. We need to raise our game and bounce back as soon as possible, starting next Saturday against Peterhead. Peterhead themselves proved it can be done, losing 5-0 against Cowdenbeath, before bouncing back with victories over Brechin City and Clyde. There are sure to be changes for next Saturday, but it is vital the players and supporters respond positively.

allan maitland after dumbarton defeat

We did so well last week against Brechin City we kept the team the same today and that was obviously a mistake, Dumbarton were better than us today from start to finish, they were sharper. At the opening goal it looked as though David Crawford had done well enough to prevent the goal, but none of our midfield players attacked the loose ball and Andy Geggan managed to scored from about 25 yards quite simply, so 1-0 down and by the way we played them on side because we played a ridiculously high line for their first goal. The second goal they don’t stop the ball going into the box and let it happen too easily, we didn’t defend the cross that doesn’t help, the third goal I thought was a bit unfortunate, I think it came off Scott Chaplain after our goalie had saved it. Regardless of that we didn’t do enough to win the game, they passed the ball better than us and having not won in our previous four games we looked like a team that doesn’t have the confidence to deal with that, so when we lost a goal I didn’t hear anyone organising round about and all the things that happened automatically in the first five or six weeks of the season are no longer happening, so I know where we are – we just need to get back to basics and that means we need to work harder in the games to try and get us back to where we should be. I think Dumbarton deserved their victory, obviously we are very disappointed and we need to do better. We have a lot of players at the moment playing well below par and we need to sort that out. I am glad to say that I’ve now got options and the guys on the bench will get their opportunities shortly. The players that I had faith in last week didn’t produce so we’ll make changes next week.