Dumbarton 0 Stirling Albion 2

Last updated : 05 February 2005 By Footymad Previewer

Signed in August, transferred in January, it was always inevitable that the man-who-couldn't-score would return to haunt the Sons and so it proved as Robert Dunn's first half double sent a sad Dumbarton side closer to the drop zone.

Neither of these teams has been in form of late, but Dumbarton did show some promise early on with Binos' keeper Myles Hogarth having to get down sharply to hold a swerving free-kick by John Dillon from just outside the area.

But the Sons could not maintain their early work, and it was Albion who went ahead with their first attack. Paul Hay's free-kick from the left should not have presented problems for the home defence, but Dunn was left in space to steer the ball past Stephen Grindlay from 10 yards.

Stirling's second arrived just before the break and, again, it was a defensive blunder. Ian Dobbins – who had an afternoon to forget – gifted possession to the on-loan Paul Di Giacamo and the Kilmarnock man had the easiest of jobs to set up Dunn, who rolled the ball into the unguarded net.

If Dumbarton were looking for outside assistance during the second half, it almost came in the form of a fire alarm bell which saw the entire populace of the one stand evacuated on to the pitch for 10 minutes. Sadly for the home side, play was then resumed.

Binos' boss Allan Moore was full of praise for Di Giacamo afterwards: "His attitude is tremendous, and it's rubbed off on the other players. I think that we can see some light at the end of the dark tunnel we've being going through recently."

His opposite number, Paul Martin, offered no excuses, suggesting that his players lacked fight and spirit. "They (Albion) didn't need to play well to beat us."