Lowland League champions Spartans made a spirited start to their first appearance in the Betfred Cup with a battling goalless draw against League One side Dumbarton at Ainslie Park on Saturday afternoon.
Spartans were rewarded for their title win last season with a place in this season’s Betfred Cup but have been placed in a difficult group along with Premiership sides Kilmarnock and St Mirren, Dumbarton from League One and Queens Park from League Two. Few people give them any chance of progressing to the knock-out stages but their performance and result against a side who were in the Championship last season was encouraging.
The Sons dominated much of the game as one might expect but it was the home side who created the better chances with the lively Jack Smith causing the visitors defence problems. The home side’s Scott Maxwell also impressed. Dumbarton did have the ball in the net in the first half but this was ruled out for offside.
While the visitors had territorial advantage for most of the 90 minutes, Spartans were always dangerous on the counter-attack and with a little more belief may have scored the goal that would have given them all three points.
The game ended goalless after 90 minutes meaning an unexpected point for Spartans. However, they missed the opportunity to gain a bonus point – Betfred Cup’s innovative rules see a penalty shoot-out when a game is drawn with the victors earning another point – when they lost the penalty shoot-out 4-3.
Spartans: Carswell; Herd; Brown; Cennerazzo; Corbett; Greenhill; Dishington; McFarland; Smith; Maxwell; Stevenson
Dumbarton: Adam; Dyer; Dowie; Perry; Carswell; Hutton; Forbes; R Barr; Russell; Thomson; C Barr
Referee: Stephen Brown
Att: 255
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