Friendly challenges

First published in the pre-season friendly Sons View, 22 July 2009, Dumbarton -v- Middlesbrough

For most of the summer our minds have been on matters more important than football – namely the family and friends of our sadly missed captain, Guido. Everyone at the Club is committed to making the endeavours of the coming Second Division season a fitting tribute to Gordon Lennon, to Kelly and to Kai; and gaffer Jim Chapman and his squad (including new additions and a variety of trialists) are now hard at work. Sons fans will be a little disappointed that penalty shootouts robbed Dumbarton of a tangible reward for the players’ efforts in the Annan Tournament at the weekend. But a good time was had by all, the Galabankies were generous hosts, and DFC chief executive Gilbert Lawrie told Sons View that “the right lessons are being learned” from a tough pre-season schedule. Of course we’ve also welcomed First Division neighbours Partick Thistle and regular SPL opponents St Mirren to the Strathclyde Homes Stadium in the past ten days. And while both results went against Sons (2-0 and 3-0), there were some good individual performances, especially in the first half of both games. There are full match reports and pictures on the Club website.
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