Airdrie United 1 - 2 Dumbarton

By WILLIAM DICK
Published on 20/01/2013 00:00

DUMBARTON came from behind to claim their fourth win in five and pull level with Airdrie at the foot of the table.

SCORERS:

Airdrie United - Donnelly 11

Dumbarton - McCusker 24; Lister 33

The Diamonds looked on course for their first home win since the opening day of the season when Ryan Donnelly fired them in front. But Marc McCusker and Jim Lister scored in quick succession to give the Sons a crucial win.

Sons player-boss Ian Murray declared: “To come here and win is fantastic. Our short-term goal was to be in a position to catch Airdrie today. To be honest it’s the poorest we’ve been for a while, but this win gives us a real chance.”

Airdrie almost snatched the lead when Ross Davidson’s cross forced a finger-tip save from Jamie Ewings. However, the Sons defence failed to deal with the resulting corner from Willie McLaren and Donnelly drilled home the opener.

Dumbarton were level on 26 minutes when McCusker latched on to Lister’s flick and calmly slotted into the corner of the net. The visitors took the lead soon after when Mark Gilhaney’s cross gave Lister a simple tap-in.

Diamonds defender Gregor Buchanan led the response with a surging run from the back before firing narrowly over from 20 yards.

The home side went even closer on the restart when Jamie Ewings produced a fantastic point-blank save to deny Willie McLaren.

Airdrie also had penalty claims waved away after Ewings appeared to upend Donnelly.

Dejected Diamonds boss Jimmy Boyle admitted: “Ten minutes of madness cost us when we didn’t deal with things.

“It’s a sore one but we’ll deal with it.”