Arbroath were not good enough to make it three wins in a row for only the second time this season. At another windblown gayfield, Arbroath could not repeat the Montrose formula. Dumbarton are becoming a bogey side - we haven't beaten them for 7 successive games. Our play-off aspirations took a knock - but that was a decent crowd turnout for a breezy midweek, shame they went home frustrated
ARBROATH COULD not find the breakthrough to make it three home wins in a row as they continued their pursuit of a play-off place in the third division.
After an early scare, when Dumbarton's Fergus Tiernan shot just over the bar, Arbroath controlled the first half. Bryan Deasley, making his first start for the club, had just the keeper to beat after eight minutes, but David Crawford made a fine save. Bryan Scott came close on 29 minutes, but his spectacular overhead effort was tipped over by the Sons' keeper. Then, 10 minutes before half time, Barry Sellars headed on to the bar from a Scott McBride corner.
McBride hit the bar again for the Angus team eight minutes into the second half, but Dumbarton also came close to taking the lead from a Tiernan strike.The away team went down to 10 men five minutes before full time when Michael Stokes received a second yellow card for dissent.
Arbroath boss John McGlashan said, "I thought we were quite good in the first half, considering that we were playing against the wind. There were probably half a dozen good opportunities to score, and we didn't take them. In the second half the wind was against Dumbarton, but it probably suited them better.
We weren't patient enough. We tried to get the ball forward too quickly. It was a bit frenetic. It takes a bit of bravery for a player to say 'give me the ball, I'm going to make something happen. When the game got nearer to the end, doubts started creeping in and players started to think that maybe they were going to lose the match and didn't want to be the one to blame."