Bonnyrigg Rose0–2Dumbarton

Dumbarton picked up their first win in five games with victory at Bonnyrigg Rose on Saturday.

Second-half goals from Declan Byrne and Russell McLean ensured Sons left Dundas Park with all three points against ten-man Rose.

Boss Stevie Farrell named the same side that was due to take on Stirling Albion on Tuesday evening, though Stuart Carswell and goal scorer McLean did return to the substitutes bench.

Sons found themselves in behind the Bonnyrigg defence after a matter of seconds when Byrne latched on to David Wilson’s pass, but his bouncing strike flew over the crossbar.

Dumbarton had an even better chance to take the lead when Wilson went down inside the penalty area as he looked to get on the end of Byrne’s pass and referee Colin Whyte pointed to the spot.

He picked himself up and stepped up to take the spot-kick but failed to celebrate his recent two-year contract extension with a goal as goalkeeper Paddy Martin, diving to his right to push away the midfielder’s effort.

The chances kept coming for Sons as Finlay Gray was the latest to have a go but he slipped when shooting from the edge of the box and the ball was dragged wide.

For Bonnyrigg, their best opportunity fell to Andy Rodden when the ball dropped to him inside the penalty area but he failed to test Brett Long after shooting through a busy penalty area.

After the break, Gregor Buchanan shot wide from the edge of the box and Kalvin Orsi got himself in a promising position behind the Bonnyrigg defence but he couldn’t pick out a teammate with his cross.

Dumbarton finally got the breakthrough they deserved just after the 70-minute mark when Orsi’s delivery was glanced on by a home defender into the path of Byrne who headed past the goalkeeper for his first goal since September.

The hosts looked for an equaliser but failed to seriously test Long in the remaining stages, which allowed Sons to seal the points deep into added time.

Peter Grant’s defensive header was brought down well by McLean and the big striker shrugged off a challenge as he advanced on goal and curled the ball past Martin at his near post.

Straight from the resulting kick-off, Bonnyrigg went long with Alieu Faye contesting for a header with Grant and the striker inexplicably elbowed the Sons defender which resulted in a red card.