mike rankine

A good home win but should have been a much more convincing scoreline. Aron Lynas was outstanding. Unbelievable the number of headers he wins against much taller opponents.

Winning ugly is the sign of league winners. We invited Bonnyrigg onto us after taking the lead but no complaints overall. Div Wilson was man of the match for me - he barely put a foot wrong all afternoon and linked up well with Kalvin Orsi down the right.

There's a bit of history as to why teacher contracts were re-written like this. Previously, the contracts specified the 195 days (including 5 Inservice days) and was silent on the payment of overall holidays. That led to expensive situations, often subject to abuse, whereby a teacher could be off sick for (say) 6 months on full pay and then claim they were entitled to the holidays they had missed out on during their absence. Local authorities then had to either give them further time off or pay them in lieu. It also impacted those on maternity leave. Contracts were rewritten to specify a portion as paid holidays and the remainder as "school closure" days. However, it is disingenuous to use the revised contractual terms to suggest teachers are on 10 month contracts, and that their salaries need to be annualised by a factor of 12/10 to arrive at their "true" salary. The salary is the salary, currently £42,336 which is only paid if the teacher is employed for the full 365 days. Those who think teachers have too many holidays should honestly try the job for a year or two. The burn out rate is incredible and more students and NQTs are leaving the profession than ever. P.S. I say this as someone who spent 20 years in the business world before entering teaching. I spent yesterday's strike day preparing an application form for a job outwith teaching. The workload and behavioural issues have become too much and I know many other colleagues with 15-20 years experience who are also looking elsewhere.

OK, I get it that you're involved in refereeing, and rightly stick up for the officials. I rarely criticise the refs on here but there was just something about his performance today that really grated with me. Were you there today? Given your background I'd genuinely like to hear your opinion on some of the decisions and bookings: * Bonnyrigg put it out for a throw in to allow treatment for a Dumbarton player. Dumbarton go to take the throw and he insists it's a Bonnyrigg throw in. * David Wilson is clearly injured, he was hobbling about for a few minutes before being substituted. The referee books him for time wasting as he limps off the park. * The Bonnyrigg full back throws his armband away in frustration. Booking. P.S. You'll see that I posted soon after my initial post about the ref, delighted about the result.

A workmanlike, professional performance. I feared we may rue the missed chances as Bonnyrigg piled on the pressure in the final 10 minutes. However, other than an easy collect from a free kick, I can't remember Brett Long having a save of note. Delighted with the seventh win in a row and great to see a half decent crowd.

One of the most obvious signs of wee man syndrome ever witnessed from a referee.

Fair play to both sets of players for showing the referee how incompetent he was - Bonnyrigg throwing the ball to a Dumbarton player to return the ball to the Bonnyrigg goalkeeper. He's clearly one of these referees who couldn't admit he'd made a mistake despite both sets of players telling him.

Walked into that one![emoji1787]

I went to work today but was sent home once clarification came through that the changes are NOT retrospective. Our union has confirmed this is the case. It's absolutely crazy, what's the difference between a close contact identified yesterday and one identified today?![emoji849]

I visited Auschwitz around the same time. There was a large group of young people laughing and joking at the start, taking selfies etc. By the end of the tour, especially after the rooms with the suitcases, clothes and shoes, you could hear a pin drop.

I have two different experiences of German contacts and their attitude to WW2: A work colleague who became a good friend (affectionately known as Herman the German) talked quite openly about the war and the atrocities. He was born in Hamburg towards the end of the war and was immensely proud that his father had been part of the resistance movement and had helped Jews to escape. When I visited him he would show me around significant WW2 sites and had kept his father's records. The other was a German girl in her early 20s who came to live with us for a few months (she was a family friend of Herman). She was puzzled and somewhat amused by the constant war references on the news and wall to wall documentaries about the Nazis on the TV - I think it was around a significant anniversary (possibly 2015). She told us they barely covered the period in her recent schooling. When we asked her whether the TV programmes bothered her she said, "Why should it? It wasn't my generation who did it?!"

That penalty sums up our recent form. Conceding stupid goals through basic mistakes from experienced players.

Just rewatched it on the stream. Definitely onside.

I thought he slipped. He got straight back up and didn't claim for a penalty. [emoji848]

Very frustrating...felt like a defeat at the final whistle. Dumbarton had enough chances to win that game comfortably and dropped points like that may haunt us at the end of the season. Chuckie MacLean is definitely one of those players you love on your side but detest if he's playing for the opposition! Not enough pantomime villains in football so I hope he never changes!

That's what I was referring to with my halftime post suggesting a red card could happen. The referee was letting lots ot niggly fouls go unpunished and the Dumbarton players would have been simmering given no bookings were given to any of the Alloa players.

Yep, Buchanan should have headed out for a corner rather than stretching for a tame clearance inside the penalty box. Can see a red card coming given how niggly the game is and the way it's being refereed.

100% agree with this. Buchanan was strolling through the game even before he scored. MacLean must be an absolute nightmare to play against and Wilson has bags of skill and energy. The substitutes all added something too and it was impressive how the team kept going until the very end. Can't remember leaving the stadium with such a spring in my step for many a year.[emoji846]

If there was indeed contact there (and the photo suggests so) then it should have been a red card for Erskine rather than yellow. I had the absolute fear until Barry Cook produced the yellow because the trialist goalkeeper did not look capable at all based on the warm up and halftime practice shots. No harm to the guy as he was doing us a huge favour but it could have resulted in a cricket score if we'd gone down to ten men. It'll be interesting to watch it back.

Buster, I was always lead to believe that greenkeepers didn't water the grass when the sun was shining; that it would result in the grass being burned. Instead they'd water early morning and in the evening. Have I picked that up wrong all these years?[emoji848]

Hopefully, he is becoming sloppy (sloppier [emoji848]) in his old age, doesn't think his blog needs to be as accurate as a newspaper article, and someone sues him. Or perhaps that's what you are suggesting/hoping too?!

Bill Heaney is an attention seeking a$$hole. As others have stated, his football allegiances reside elsewhere and he does not have Dumbarton FC's interests at heart.

Are you not supposed to wait until after the game finishes to exchange shirts?!

The only positive we can give is that several strikers have had a poor spell at Dumbarton but then gone on a prolific scoring run elsewhere, e.g. Kevin Nisbet, Eamonn Brophy. I suspect there's a player in there somewhere and he could be successful with the right team. Whether Falkirk is that team though...[emoji848]

Definitely a talent but inconsistent. Capable of moments of magic (per the YouTube clip above) but often there's no end product. Murray may give him more freedom than Duffy's defensive system.