Frank Quitely

We must hope that our county cousins don't overdo the rough stuff, given the amount of slinking, jinking, one-touch players we now have as befits a Division One club. Still, nice to visit Holm Park if only to marvel at the thistles growing on the terracing.

I don't think we will actually, we are hardly talking Hughie 'Away' Stevenson or Kenny 'Wildman' Meechan here. Grindlay is still poor in the cross ball situation whilst Ewing's main weakness seems to be his judgement and timing on charging from his goal. However, overall it was the guys in front of the 'keepers and not Shay or Jamie who contributed most to the goals against total. If the midfield competes as a midfield should and the back four remains focused and in a shape then we should improve this time round.

And who can blame him with Sevco, Dunforever and East Fife International in the mix ? Never mind two trips to Stranraer.

Well, a couple of well placed sources are suggesting it will be Tony Rougier.

Rumour is that Murray and Lithgow had a bit of an attitude thing when he was put on the subs bench for a couple of games. If Murray gets himself stripped for a centre-back role this season then with Graham he would form a balanced right/left central defence, so the loss of Lithgow need not be acute. Having said that he's been a decent player for us so I'd not be fazed either way. As for the flam.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Apparently Big Lithgae is a doubt to re-sign. A possible factor is that neither he nor Murray were particularly happy with each other when he was relegated to the bench for a couple of games towards the end of last season.

Halfway to two thirds thro last season I would probably have agreed with you that there was a preponderance of fart-arsers in there. However, as has already been stated, there was much more appetite for the sleeves-up stuff about most of these guys from Xmas onwards. And allow us to bask in the observation that a Dumbarton team may have too much football about it - quality !!

Rumour that Scott Barrowman may be returning the Rock.

Yep, agree with that, but you have to bear in mind that there were quite a number of defensive comings and goings thro last season - eg Forsyth, Devlin, Creaney, Urquhart, etc., I can't help feel though that a decent centre-back and 'keeper should be high on the list, in addition to another midfielder and striker. The goals against weren't all down to the one cause, and I think we need to have options in a few areas, difficult in a small squad I know. If last season taught us anything, it was that the cover has to be reasonable.

Good if true.... There will be lots of ducking a diving in the next wee while; a reliable source tells me that some players are looking for more poppy, whilst another is apparently on the radar of four 1st Division clubs. Scott Smith is one I'd like to see signing on, and as for the lad Horne, the Murray man has maybe seen something he can work with.

Thomas Mueller has always impressed me....

It could well be, but it's probably got (much) more to do with the fact that his folks live in Dumbarton.

The latter is a bampot. An interminable bore of a man who for 90 minutes suffers from Tourefs Syndrome.

Agreed, and I like the fact that Murray is trading upwards in an effort to build on what he has - this boy could be the next Ian Chisholm. I would though like to also see a Neil Scally, Bobby McConville type ballwinner in midfield; Chris Turner has been a wee bit too anonymous for my liking in recent games. Still, it's all moving in the right direction.