Match Report

Problems aplenty for the squad prior to this game due to the unavailability of Zanda Dougall, Bruce Tierney and Wullie Wilson on top of the long-term absentees. To add to this misery, Kevin Black took ill in the morning and couldn’t travel and a barely half-fit Chris Kerr had to go on the bench to make it up to three substitutes. Colin Sinclair answered the SOS call however and slotted straight back into central defence beside McInally. The pitch looked decent from afar but underfoot it was very heavy particularly down both wings and a hard battle undoubtedly lay ahead on a dreary afternoon in Dumbarton.

Unlike last week, Windlaw produced a more solid start and early on, Danny McKenna’s fine dinked cross from the left just evaded Benny Carey for what would have been a certain goal. St Pat’s central midfield trio were outnumbering McCaig and Fitzpatrick and at times, this was stretching Windlaw slightly before they readjusted their formation to match up.

St Pats were probably shading possession but weren’t getting too many shots in on Lunny. The big keeper had to look smart though when a St Pats player cut in from the right at the edge of the box before firing a shot which Lunny done well to smother low at his right hand post. Windlaw then thought they’d took the lead from a free-kick at the edge of St Pats box. Fitzpatrick took the kick quickly and drilled it home but ref McCool judged it was taken too quickly and the retake was fired over. Both team’s were overhitting passes as the ball tended to fly away off the sodden turf and there was parity at the break.         

Half Time: St Patrick’s FP AFC 0 Windlaw 0

Windlaw were kicking down a slight slope now with a breeze at their back however the game remained fairly tight. A tiring Thomas Taylor was replaced by young Stuart Lunny then Benny Carey made way for Duncan McGregor as Windlaw tried to see if younger fresher legs could help make the breakthrough. Within minutes,McGregor had a brilliant chance through on the keeper who seemed to commit too early, however his shot hit the grounded keeper and an unsighted McGinlay couldn’t force home the rebound.

Lunny had little to do but held a fizzed low cross well when any spillage would have resulted in a goal. McGregor was then involved in an incident with a St Pats defender who appeared to try and swing a punch. The defender seen only yellow though and things got a bit heated for a while.

Windlaw tried one final throw of the dice and with five minutes remaining threw on Chris Kerr up front to see if he could unsettle St Pats strong rearguard. The ploy almost worked immediately when he played in McGregor. He rounded the keeper but the angle of his run took him wide and as a defender tried to get back on the line to cover his front post, McGregor’s cross-cum shot flew across the goal missing the far post and going for a goal-kick. With that, Windlaw’s best chances were gone and the reality that we were destined for a scoreless game kicked in.                        

Full Time: St Patrick’s FP AFC 0 Windlaw 0

Summing-Up: A hard battle for two fairly evenly matched sides as the scoreline suggests. Defences were generally on top, however Windlaw will feel they should have taken the points considering the quality of the chances they spurned. The effort and application couldn’t be faulted though but the passing was not quite good enough at times to open St Pats up a bit more. Dumbarton will prove a tough place to collect victories however so perhaps not the worst point collected. Amazingly for the second week running, another word of praise for a referee! Peter McCool had a fine game and got most decisions correct.

Results & Fixtures