St Mirren 1 Dumbarton 2: Fleming penalty hands Sons win

DUMBARTON came back to haunt Ian Murray yesterday as they claimed a second successive major scalp to become the unlikely joint leaders of the Championship.

After beating Hibs last week, the Sons were at it again in Paisley as they clinched victory five minutes from time thanks to Gary Fleming’s penalty.

Murray, who swapped Dumbarton for St Mirren in the summer, had few complaints about the result but is demanding an immediate response.

He said: “It’s hugely disappointing. We conceded a soft goal, scored a cracking goal to get back in it then shot ourselves in the foot with the penalty.

“We started so sloppily so no real complaints. We take nothing against Dumbarton because they played exactly as they did against Hibs last week.

“We can’t dress it up any other way, we have lost to a part-time team and if we have any aspirations of winning the league we have to beat them.”

The Sons took the lead in 26 minutes. Willie Gibson’s free-kick hit one of the Saints defenders to completely wrong-foot Mark Ridgers and flew into the right side of the net.

Former Dumbarton midfielder Scott Agnew produced a terrific equaliser with a powerful drive from the edge of the box in 63 minutes.

However, the Sons won it five minutes from the end when Barry Cuddihy naively brought down Kevin Cawley and Fleming coolly converted the spot kick.

Manger Stevie Aitken said: “It could not have been a tougher start but the last two results have shown what we are capable of.

“We deserved to win both matches and I’m happy with six points. We know it will be difficult and everyone will tip us to go down but we like the underdogs tag.”