Pridecanlift Sonsforthe toughesttrip
STEVIE AITKEN wants his Dumbarton players to use the pride from their Irn-Bru Cup Final experience to lift them for tonight’s trip to runaway leaders St Mirren.
Aitken’s Sons were gutted to lose to an injury-time Inverness goal. But the boss has told them to move on.
He said: “The players gave the club everything and should be proud of their performance in what was a terrific occasion for the people of Dumbarton.
“Of course it was emotional afterwards as we felt we’d done enough to give ourselves the chance of winning in extra time. But we switched off for a second and were punished.
“We’ll look to move on quickly and going away to the team that will win the league is as tough a game we could ask for. But we know we need to get points on board to overtake Inverness in the league and that is the priority now.”
Tom Walsh will miss out after being injured in the Final. But Liam Dick, Andy Stirling and Kevin Nisbet are available again.
Saints will be at full strength and assistant boss James Fowler is convinced his players won’t face a side licking its wounds.
He said: “We know they’ll be disappointed at not winning a cup as we felt exactly the same a year ago.
“We recovered and secured the results to survive. Dumbarton will come here with the same focus. They also have a good record at our place.”