Falkirk6–0Dumbarton

DUMBARTON crashed to a grim defeat away at Falkirk Stadium on Saturday, as the Bairns asserted their status as League One favourites with a commanding victory.

Five of the six goals came in the opening 45 minutes, as Sons reeled under early pressure from the ambitious full-timers.

It was the worst possible start for an initially tentative looking Dumbarton side, who found themselves two goals down inside the first 11 minutes.

First, on seven minutes, Sons' Ryan McGeever was bundled to the ground by Connor Sammon but play continued and the striker finished high into the net for 1-0 to Falkirk.

Four minutes later Declan McManus nodded home from close range for 2-0. The same player slotted home a third and Charlie Tefler made it 4-0 before the half hour.

Things sank from bad to worse as Dumbarton missed a penalty when Cammy Bell saved from Joe McKee.

Shortly afterwards ex-Son Gregor Buchanan put in a fifth for the Bairns ahead of half time.

The match misery continued after the break when Sammon made it 6-0 on 52 minutes.

From then on Dumbarton managed to prevent further damage and neither side added to the score sheet.

Speaking after the game, manager Jim Duffy said: "At this moment in time we've got a lot of improvements to make in every position on the pitch, but the main concern for me just now is that when we make errors the confidence seems to go very quickly, and that's something that we have to find a solution to.

“We've all got to take our share of responsibility and the responsibility will ultimately fall on the manager, so I take full responsibility for that.

“I've put a whole team together and I expect them to be better, and we're not so we have to try and improve and improve quickly,” he concluded.