The penultimate game of the first quarter is already upon us, as we travel to Dumbarton on Saturday.
The Opposition
Dumbarton manager Stephen Aitken is in his second full season at the club, having left Stranraer in May 2015, after two and a half years with the Clayholers. The Sons finished 8th under his management last season and currently sit 9th after 7 games – although things are very tight in the bottom half of the table, with just 4 points separating the bottom five clubs.
This season has seen a significant turn-over on the pitch with 15 players leaving the club, including 4 who were on loan. Of those 15, three joined high-flying Alloa, including forwards Kevin Cawley and Jordan Kirkpatrick.
Sons fans will be looking to the likes of Ryan Stevenson, who joined from Ayr, and David Smith, from Falkirk, to provide the missing creative spark along with loanee, Sam Stanton from Hibs.
In defence, Dumbarton will be without Gregor Buchanan and, ex-Stranraer centre half, Frazer Wright for this game, as both are suspended.
There are no Queens connections in the Dumbarton squad but most Doonhamers will be interested to see how Josh Todd fares at this level. Josh was a stand-out for our neighbours Annan, particularly last season, but chose to leave Galabank to sign for Dumbarton, as an amateur, in the summer.
The Game
This Ladbrokes Championship match kicks off at 3pm on Saturday 1st October at the Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium, Dumbarton. Live updates will be available on the website and on twitter and Facebook. We will also publish pictures through the day on our new Instagram Channel
The Fans
Away fans at the Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium are housed in the west section of the stand. Dumbarton operate two categories of matches, this game will be Category B.
Prices for the match are :
Adults £18
Concessions £9
Parent & Child - £24 (Child Under-12)
Directions to Dumbartons stadium, along with full pricing info, can be found on their website – Directions
The Dressing Room
We've just come off a testing run of games and go straight into another testing run of fixtures which emphasis the strength of this division.
The way the players bounced back last week showed the character they have. It was extremely difficult conditions to play in against a tough Hibs side, but they dug deep and they gave everything to get a result and deserve a lot of credit. Our aim before the game was to still be at the top of the table and we achieved that. It also maintained our unbeaten run in the league which is pleasing. But that game has gone and our attention quickly turns to the next game.
We've had another good week at training and are fully focused on our game at Dumbarton.
Although they are part-time, I don't look at them as such,as they are a good strong hard working side. They have a management team that I admire and meet often when we are all doing our homework at other games and players within their squad that we looked at, but ones that choose to go part time as it suited their personal lives.
I know from going there last season that it's not an easy place to go and how difficult they will make it, but we will concentrate on our own game and hopefully have enough to get a positive result.
The Team
Jordan Marshall is getting better and should hopefully be available for selection. Callum Tapping has had a scan on his knee and we're just awaiting the results, but hopefully it's nothing too bad.
The Officials
Referee : Mat Northcroft
Assistant 1 : Graham McNellie
Assistant 2 : Derek Crothers
Mr Northcroft has refereed 5 of our games previously, 4 of those away from Palmerston. Our record in those games is a reasonable 3 wins and 2 defeats. He has shown a red card to one Queens player and awarded one penalty, both in the same game last season in a 3-1 win over Livingston at Palmerston.
The Stats
The historical head to heads at Dumbartons ground come out in favour of the home side, with 20 wins to 15 for the away team and 11 draws. However, our more recent record there is much better.
Prior to the 4-2 defeat in April we were unbeaten, in the league, at Dumbarton in 9 games going back to 1992. We also had an impressive run in all league games, recording 10 unbeaten home and away, the last defeat in 2013.
However, 2016 hasn’t been a good year for visits to the rock. As well, as the afore mentioned 4-2 defeat, where Christian Nade – now at Stranraer – dominated the defence, we also lost 2-1 in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup in January.
This match will see Stephen Dobbie face his 3rd former club in a row in the space of 11 days, having scored 11 goals in 18 games for Dumbarton in the first half of the 2006/7 season, while on loan from St Johnstone. He made the move to us, for his first spell, in the January of the same season. Dumbartons loss was very much our gain!
We've already made our best start to a season at this level, with 17 points from a possible 21.