That’s the spirit! Son Andy has got bottle

ANDY STIRLING is toasting a rich vein of form as he bid to keep Dumbarton in the Championship.

The midfielder has bagged two bottles of whisky after being named the Sons man of the match in his last two games.

Stirling played his part as Dumbarton ground out a 2-2 with bottom markers St Mirren last weekend.

And he reckons team spirit down at the Rock will help Stevie Aitken’s men avoid the trapdoor down to League One.

He said: “We did okay against St Mirren. We tried to play football and showed the character we have in the side when we equalised twice.

“We didn’t gain anything on the bottom two but we haven’t lost any ground either. We’re still 11 points clear of St Mirren and four ahead of Ayr United, so that’s a good cushion to have.

“We just need to keep playing our own game and keep playing as we have been doing. The spirit we’ve had in the last few weeks has been great and we’ve put ourselves in a really good position.

“When we went 2-1 down, it’s in the back of your mind that it could be the Queen of the South game all over again, but we were delighted with how we responded.

“But the next game is massive, at home to Ayr. We know how important that is.”

A win in that fixture, at home to Ayr, would put Sons seven points clear of the Honest Men, whose following two games are at home to fellow strugglers St Mirren and Raith Rovers.

And for Andy, there may be more at stake than three points. He feels he has something to prove after being sent off when the told the club website: “It’s better having points on the board than games in hand and we have an opportunity to move further clear.

“I thought the new rule had been brought in at the start of the season that accidental contact in the penalty area wasn’t a sending off.

“But we were behind three times in that game and still fought back to take a point.”