Danny’s knee woe a puzzler for Stevie

DUMBARTON boss Stevie Aitken has vowed to get to the bottom of Danny Handling’s knee problems - after his recent signing was forced to leave the fray early during the Sons’ 4-0 defeat to tabletoppers Dumbarton.

The former Hibs frontman was withdrawn after just 18 minutes as the Sons went two goals down within half an hour courtesy of Joe Cardle and Kallum Higginbotham, with Nicky Clark and Andy Ryan completing the rout against a home side which finished with ten men after Andy Dowie was dismissed.

While it is hoped that the problem does not prove as serious as feared, Aitken knows he may have to bolster his attacking options ahead of the transfer window closing on Thursday.

“Danny Handling has come in and has a problem with his knee we weren’t aware of,” said Aitken. “We don’t know what’s wrong with it, but we can’t go into a game having to take a player off after 10 minutes because of a knee injury – so we’ll have to get it looked at.”

“We gave Dunfermline a two-goal start and you can’t do that with a team of that quality,” he added. “There was indecision by the goalkeeper for the first, then we gave the ball away cheaply for the second.

“To give away goals like that gave us a mountain to climb. We gave it plenty of effort without getting anything - one off the bar and one the goalkeeper got.

“The sending-off and going down to ten men made it even more difficult.”

Morton boss Jim Duffy said he was “baffled” by some of his players’ decision-making as they lost against Livingston for the second time this season to surrender early ground in the play-off race.

The game’s only goal came from Danny Mullen as Livi gaffer David Hopkin came back to haunt his former team again. “I was baffled at times by the way we lobbed balls forward instead of passing,” Duffy said. “We were poor.”