Dumbarton0–1Peterhead

WHEN Ben Armour came to Dumbarton in January 2019, it was hoped he would get goals.

And he certainly has done that in games involving Sons. The only thing is he's been playing for Peterhead.

For the third meeting of the sides in a row, he got the only goal of the game. A scrappy game.

It is now almost on a loop. Dumbarton put plenty effort into the game, but came away with no goals. Nat Wedderburn's goal against Cove Rangers is their only goal in the league since November 7.

Effort does not win games. Goals do. Six points conceded out of six at home, to teams in the same region of the table, was not how Sons envisaged returning to action, with or without the Huntly cup tie in the middle.

Dumbarton did go fairly close early doors when Nick McAllister's glancing header from Ross Forbes' corner couldn't make clean contact and the ball drifted wide.

However, the early stages of the game were scrappy, with neither side able to force any clear opportunities to trouble the opposite keeper.

A neat exchange of passes almost saw Forbes play Adam Frizzell in, but Scott Brown's challenge was just enough before the shot could go. Shortly afterwards, a low shot by Frizzell rolled wide.

Tomas Brindley also had a header at the back post which did not unduly trouble the visiting keeper. Peterhead were well in the game and were forcing free kicks in decent positions, but none were proving too troublesome for Sons at that point.

But four minutes from half time, it was the visitors who had by far the closest call to date when Hamish Ritchie met a delivery at the back post, but his header hit the woodwork and the ball was scrambled away.

Sons made a fairly promising start to the second half, but a needless concession of the ball in midfield had dire consequences.

Armour had a lot to do on the corner of the area, but spun to fire home and inflict even more pain on his former club.

Dumbarton were rattled. Just after the hour mark, Ritchie cut into the area from the right and only a close range save by Chris Smith denied him Peterhead's second.

The home keeper also did well to deny Andy McDonald and then Jordon Brown in quick succession with shots from the edge of the area.

Despite a raft of changes, Sons were continuing to toil and showing little sign of an equaliser. The closest they got was when Ryan McGeever just failed to meet Forbes' free kick into the box.

That was how it stayed until the end of the game. Seven failures to score in 11 league games all season tells its own sorry story.