Damage in the Box!: DALBEATTIE STAR (Islecroft Stadium)

Hello everybody. Hope you had a good summer, all two days of it!

Welcome back to my humble little blog as another season of my inane ramblings gets underway.

After a summer taking in a few games at the Euro's and a couple of friendly re-visits (to Burscough & Vauxhall Motors if you are interested) the competitive action got underway where last season's hopping ended, ie north of the border.

The South of Scotland league began with it's first round of games today and what better place to start than in Galloway, at the home of defending champions Dalbeattie Star.

Last season's haul of silverware

Re-formed in 1976, The Star clinched their first title since 1989, going the entire season undefeated in the league, and also bagging four cups (the Challenge Cup, the League Cup, the Potts Cup and the Haig Gordon Cup) for good measure.

The visitors to the quite splendid Islecroft Stadium for today's clash were Newton Stewart, who coincidentally were also the opponents in Dalbeattie's last league game, when The Star ran out 5-0 winners.

The game was a lot more closer today as Dalbeattie edged out the visitors by the odd goal in five.

It was a scrappy first half but John MacBeth gave The Star the lead after 31 minutes before Stewart Taylor levelled for The Creesiders 6 minutes later. Dalbeattie restored their lead with the very last kick of the first half when Scott Milligan scored from the penalty spot (pictured left).

The second half was a better spectacle and the game could have gone either way. When Milligan bagged his second on 74 minutes, running onto a defence splitting pass, it looked like game over. However with 10 minutes remaining a great header from Michael Sutherland once again reduced the deficit.

The Star were not to be denied and they managed to hold on to claim the three points.

There was no GBG entry for Dalbeattie so it was a case of seeking out a local boozer for a pre-match pint. The fantastically monikered Cum-ye-Inn was our choice and once again we got a now usual reaction to our hobby from the barmaid.

When she asked what we were doing in Dalbeattie she assumed we were on holiday. When we told her the reason was we had come up was to watch the game she looked bemused and replied "No seriously, why are you in up in Dalbeattie? "

Here we go again.....