Match Report

MATCH REPORT
Stenhousemuir v Dumbarton at Ochilview Park, Stenhousemuir on 29.12.18
SPFL Ladbrokes League One Att 536
Stenhousemuir 2 [Paton 8, McGuigan 54] Dumbarton 2 [Forbes 45]

Stenhousemuir – G.Smith, Reid [b27], Donaldson, Neill, Ferry, McGuigan [O’Hara 85], Cook, Ross, Vaughan [Duthie 60], McBrearty [b56][so90] and H.Paton. Subs not used – McMinn, Tena, Halleran and McMenamin.

Dumbarton – C.Smith, Ballantyne, Dyer [Spencer 86], Dowie, Carswell, Hutton, Gallagher [M.Paton 85], Forbes, B.Barr, Allardice [Thomson 67] and Thomas. Sub not used – McGowan

Referee – Mike Roncone Assistants – Stuart Hodge and Alan Grainger

The last game of 2018 saw the Warriors draw a league game for the first time this season though it felt more like a defeat after Ross Forbes equalised for Dumbarton in stoppage time.

It was not the greatest performance by the Warriors and not the greatest of games but it was one that had a number of talking points. The first conversation arose before kick off as there was deemed to be a clash of colours between the Stenhousemuir home top of maroon and Dumbarton’s away strip of red. In the first meeting between the clubs at Ochilview the Sons had worn their white home kit. The rules are that it is the away team who has to change so they came out wearing Stenhousemuir’s old blue and white striped tops.

The Dumbarton supporters must have thought things were not going to go their way when Stenhousemuir took the lead through Harry Paton in the eighth minute with Chris Smith looking at fault but he was caught out by a slight deflection off Cammy Ballantyne. Bobby Vaughan then had a shot saved in the 13th minute but the only other threat for the home side in the first half came in the 37th minute when Mark McGuigan failed to connect properly with a Vaughan header into his path and as a consequence the shot went wide.

Neither keeper had been tested going into the last minute of the first half when Paton committed a foul jon Dominic Thomas and Ross Forbes stepped up to fire the free-kick into the net. Some questions were asked about Graeme Smith but although he almost got to the shot it was always moving away from him.

The 54th minute saw the Warriors take the lead once again following a lovely interchange of passes between Seb Ross and Harry Paton that ended with Ross picking out McGuigan who stroked the ball into the net for his 10th league goal of the season.

A minute later Connor McBreaty was booked following a foul though at the time it was unclear whether he or Mark Ferry who had shown frustration at the foul being awarded had been cautioned. For a while after they had went into arrears Dumbarton threatened to get the equaliser with Ross Forbes in particular causing problems at corner kicks with one hitting the crossbar and Graeme Smith not looking too confident in his punching.

The visitors really should have equalised in the 67th minute when Kyle Hutton fired over the bar from eight yards of the box with just the keeper to beat and there was another scare when Graeme Smith failed to gather a Barr effort but luckily there were no takers for the rebound. It looked as if Stenhousemuir had weathered the storm but in stoppage time Dumbarton were awarded another free kick in a dangerous position and McBrearty was cautioned. After pleading from Barr who stated that he had already been booked McBrearty was dismissed. In fact McBrearty had not even committed the foul [it was Alan Cook] and there was no obvious show of dissent to account for it.

To make matters worse Forbes once more stepped up and this time from the edge of the ‘d’ he fired the free off the post and into the net to level the game, a result that kept Stenhousemuir bottom.