It’s another home match this weekend as we welcome Dumbarton to Ochilview Park in cinch League 2 action. This will be the second meeting between the sides this season, with both taking place at Ochilview with the meeting in Dumbarton being postponed in December. That match is due to be played on the 28th of February with a 19:45 kick off.

This Saturday’s match sees the league leaders, with one defeat in their last 10 league matches, visit Ochilview Park looking to extend their gap at the top of the table. The previous meeting between the two sides ended 3-1 to the Sons all the way back in August.

The match will be the 160th competitive meeting between the sides, with Dumbarton winning 68 of the 159 matches, with the Warriors winning 61. The Warriors have a positive record at home though winning 37 out of 78 meetings and losing 24.

You’ll have to look back to the 1st of September 2018 for the last time the Warriors defeated Dumbarton at Ochilview. Goals from Seb Ross and Conor Duthie saw the hosts pick up a 2-1 win.

As always the website spoke with Gary Naysmith ahead of the game. He was asked how he was feeling and if he was looking forward to taking on the league leaders:

“I’m looking forward to it. I think it’ll be a good test for us to see where we are. You know, we’re playing the league leaders. We’ve still got to play them 3 times this season so we’ll seem them a few times in the coming weeks but we’re looking forward to Saturday’s game. The lads have done well performance wise and the 3 league games results wise, we’ve done well. 7 points out of 9. So they’ll be a bit of confidence amongst the players but you’ve got to treat Dumbarton with a bit of respect they deserve. They are top of the league and don’t give a way a lot. They’ve got a system that works for them. We know it’ll be a tough game but it’s a tough game we are looking forward to.”

He’s had a few days to reflect on the 2-0 win against Elgin City, which saw late goals in either half help us pick up our first clean sheet since the 30th of July 2022. How is he feeling a few days later?

“We looked back at the game and like the other games so far and the rest of the games going forward, there’s been some good things and some things that we can improve on. We had a bounce game against Falkirk on Tuesday night and the lads that haven’t played regularly like Michael Anderson, Ross Forbes, Kian Speirs and a few others got the full 90 minutes. So that got them some game time under their belts and we came out of that without any injuries, which is always a worry when you’re having friendlies. 

We’ll have a tactical session tonight (Thursday) and we’ll try and feed the players some information on Dumbarton, their strengths and maybe some weaknesses that we can see that we can exploit. We’ll go into the game on Saturday with a positive frame of mind.”

Obviously the January transfer window has closed but that doesn’t stop us from being able to bring in any additional players. Is Gary looking to add to Curtis Lyle, Kian Speirs and Jordan Lowdown in terms of incomings?

“We’re still looking, we’ve got some irons in the fire. We still want to add one or two to the squad. So that’s what we’re actively trying to do. Sometimes you’re waiting on a player making a decision, if they’ve got the choice of one or two clubs. Other times, you’ve got targets from Premiership clubs, so you’re waiting on the club to decide they can go out on loan or not. A lot of it is taken out of our hands so we’ll have to be patient. You can see that we haven’t got the biggest of squads, so we can do with another one or two bodies.”

MATCHDAY INFORMATION

Kick-off: 3pm

Match Entry: You can pay at the gate at Ochilview using cash. If you need to pay by card, you should purchase your ticket online here.

• Adults: £14.00
• Concessions: £9.00
• Child: £5.00

Getting Here: Click here for details of how to get to Ochilview by car or train.

Ochilview Guide: Click here for your one stop shop for all info that you’ll need for a trip to Ochilview

Referee:Jordan Curran

Assistants: Calum Doyle & Keiran Trayner

LEAGUE INFORMATION

Bonnyrigg Rose vs Annan Athletic

East Fife vs Stirling Albion

Elgin City vs Albion Rovers

Forfar Athletic vs Stranraer

Stenhousemuir vs Dumbarton