1954–55 Dumbarton F.C. season

The 1954–55 season was the 71st Scottish football season in which Dumbarton competed at national level, entering the Scottish Football League, the Scottish Cup and the Supplementary League Cup. In addition Dumbarton competed in the Stirlingshire Cup.

Dumbarton

1954–1955 season
Manager	Peter McGown
Stadium	Boghead Park, Dumbarton
Scottish League C Division (South West)	4th
Scottish Cup	Third Round
Scottish Supplementary League Cup	Prelims
Top goalscorer	League: Hughie Gallacher (27) All: Hughie Gallacher (32)
Home colours
← 1953–54 1955–56 →

Scottish League Division C (South-West)

Main article: 1954–55 in Scottish football

With club finances re-structured, a new manager (Peter McGown having taken over from Willie Irvine) and a new youthful team in place, the season was approached with some confidence, in the knowledge that only winning the league would guarantee a return to the top 'tiers' of Scottish football.

However, things were not going to be easy, since apart from Stranraer, their league opponents would be the reserve (or 'A') sides of the bigger clubs from the top two divisions - and so it was to prove, for despite challenging strongly throughout the season, and topping the league in early March, in the end only 4th place out of 13 was achieved,

Nevertheless, league re-construction at the end of the season meant that the Divisions C were brought to an end, with Dumbarton, Stranraer, Montrose, East Stirling and Berwick Rangers all joining a revamped 19 team Second Division for season 1955-56.

Dumbarton v Motherwell 'A'

6 November 1954 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	3-0	Motherwell 'A'	Boghead Park
	Johnston   18' (pen) Gallacher,H   Heaney			Referee: J Aitken

Airdrie 'A' v Dumbarton

13 November 1954 Division C (SW)	Airdrie 'A'	3-3	Dumbarton	Broomfield Park
			Gallacher,H   14'	Referee: R Rodger

Ayr United 'A' v Dumbarton

20 November 1954 Division C (SW)	Ayr United 'A'	1-5	Dumbarton	Somerset Park
			Gallacher,H    Johnston  Heaney   Auld	Referee: J Bonamy

Dumbarton v Clyde 'A'

27 November 1954 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	4-1	Clyde 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H   40' Johnston   Anderson   Auld			Referee: H Baird

St Mirren 'A' v Dumbarton

4 December 1954 Division C (SW)	St Mirren 'A'	2-2	Dumbarton	Love Street (stadium)
	Hendry   12' McDonald   33'		Heaney   15' Gallacher,H   30'	Referee: W Syme

Motherwell 'A' v Dumbarton

18 December 1954 Division C (SW)	Motherwell 'A'	1-2	Dumbarton	Fir Park
	McSeveney		Gallacher,H   40'	Referee: A Dick

Queen's Park Strollers v Dumbarton

25 December 1954 Division C (SW)	Queen's Park Strollers	4-3	Dumbarton	Hampden Park
	McKinven   15' Martin   19' Callan   38'		Gallacher,H   Heaney     (OG)	Referee: A Crossman

Dumbarton v Rangers 'A'

1 January 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	1-1	Rangers 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H

Stranraer v Dumbarton

3 January 1955 Division C (SW)	Stranraer	3-3	Dumbarton	Stair Park
			Heaney    Anderson

Dumbarton v Stranraer

8 January 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	1-3	Stranraer	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H   7'		Robertson   15' McIntyre   McCutcheon	Referee: R Baird

Queen of the South 'A' v Dumbarton

29 January 1955 Division C (SW)	Queen of the South 'A'	1-3	Dumbarton	Palmerston Park
			Liddell   4', 24', 28'	Referee: D McTaggart

Dumbarton v Third Lanark 'A'

5 February 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	2-0	Third Lanark 'A'	Boghead Park
	Johnston   Heaney

Dumbarton v Kilmarnock 'A'

12 February 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	2-1	Kilmarnock 'A'	Boghead Park
	McKay   Heaney		Murray	Referee: J Aitken

Dumbarton v Queen's Park Strollers

19 February 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	2-1	Queen's Park Strollers	Boghead Park
	McKay   Heaney		Church	Referee: R Baird

Dumbarton v Airdrie 'A'

5 March 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	7-1	Airdrie 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H     Liddell     Johnston

Dumbarton v Ayr United 'A'

12 March 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	1-1	Ayr United 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H

Clyde 'A' v Dumbarton

19 March 1955 Division C (SW)	Clyde 'A'	4-1	Dumbarton	Shawfield Stadium
	McHarg   42'		Gallacher,H   1'	Referee: W Syme

Dumbarton v St Mirren 'A'

26 March 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	1-1	St Mirren 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H			Referee: P Rodgers

Partick Thistle 'A' v Dumbarton

9 April 1955 Division C (SW)	Partick Thistle 'A'	1-4	Dumbarton	Firhill Stadium
			Gallacher,H   14'  40'  McDonald	Referee: A Dick

Dumbarton v Queen of the South 'A'

16 April 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	4-1	Queen of the South 'A'	Boghead Park
	Vine   10' Gallacher,H   21'  Auld		Robertson	Referee: C Turnbull

Third Lanark 'A' v Dumbarton

18 April 1955 Division C (SW)	Third Lanark 'A'	1-2	Dumbarton	Cathkin Park
	Mitchell		Gallacher,H   2'

Kilmarnock 'A' v Dumbarton

23 April 1955 Division C (SW)	Kilmarnock 'A'	4-0	Dumbarton	Rugby Park
	Newman   23' Toner   36'

Rangers 'A' v Dumbarton

27 April 1955 Division C (SW)	Rangers 'A'	3-0	Dumbarton	Ibrox Park
	Paton   Pryde   Woods

Dumbarton v Partick Thistle 'A'

30 April 1955 Division C (SW)	Dumbarton	2-8	Partick Thistle 'A'	Boghead Park
			Gallacher,H     (OG)

League table

Top Four

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Partick Thistle 'A'	24	18	4	2	89	36	53	40
2	Rangers 'A'	24	16	4	4	53	26	27	36
3	St Mirren 'A'	24	14	6	4	57	39	18	34
4	Dumbarton	24	12	6	6	58	46	12	30

Scottish Cup

Main article: 1954–55 Scottish Cup

There was an early exit in the Cup with Dumbarton losing to Montrose in the third round.

Montrose v Dumbarton

9 October 1954 Round 3	Montrose	3–1^[1]^[2]	Dumbarton	Links Park
			Anderson	Attendance: 2,000

Scottish Supplementary League Cup

No progress was made from the sectional games in the Supplementary League Cup, finishing 5th of 7.

Third Lanark 'A' v Dumbarton

14 August 1954 Section	Third Lanark 'A'	1-0	Dumbarton	Cathkin Park
				Referee: J Ferguson

Dumbarton v Rangers 'A'

18 August 1954 Section	Dumbarton	2-3	Rangers 'A'	Boghead Park
	Clements   Hepburn		Carron   (pen) McKenzie,G   Paton

St Mirren 'A' v Dumbarton

21 August 1954 Section	St Mirren 'A'	3-0	Dumbarton	Love Street (stadium)
	Cross   33'  Liddell			Referee: W Linton

Dumbarton v Queen's Park Strollers

25 August 1954 Section	Dumbarton	2-1	Queen's Park Strollers	Boghead Park
	Duff

Dumbarton v Third Lanark 'A'

28 August 1954 Section	Dumbarton	1-0	Third Lanark 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H   57'			Referee: T Edwards

Clyde 'A' v Dumbarton

1 September 1954 Section	Clyde 'A'	2-2	Dumbarton	Shawfield Stadium
	Newman		McCall   Gallacher,H

Queen's Park Strollers v Dumbarton

8 September 1954 Section	Queen's Park Strollers	0-1	Dumbarton	Hampden Park
			McCall

Dumbarton v St Mirren 'A'

13 September 1954 Section	Dumbarton	2-4	St Mirren 'A'	Boghead Park
	McCall   Walsh

Dumbarton v Clyde 'A'

18 September 1954 Section	Dumbarton	0-2	Clyde 'A'	Boghead Park
			McKenna   20' Currie   26'	Referee: H Rodger

Dumbarton v Partick Thistle 'A'

2 October 1954 Section	Dumbarton	2-0	Partick Thistle 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H			Referee: W Syme

Partick Thistle 'A' v Dumbarton

25 April 1955 Section	Partick Thistle 'A'	1-1	Dumbarton	Firhill Stadium
	McInnes		Gallacher,H

Rangers 'A' v Dumbarton

2 May 1955 Section	Rangers 'A'	2-0	Dumbarton	Ibrox Park
	Carmichael   Simpson,A

Section Table

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Rangers 'A'	12	10	1	1	33	17	15	21
2	St Mirren 'A'	12	6	3	3	30	18	12	15
3	Partick Thistle 'A'	12	7	1	4	32	22	10	15
4	Clyde 'A'	12	4	3	5	23	28	–5	11
5	Dumbarton	12	4	2	6	13	19	–6	10
6	Queens Park Strollers	12	2	2	8	16	28	–12	6
7	Third Lanark 'A'	12	3	0	9	20	35	–15	6

Stirlingshire Cup

There was also a first round defeat in the county cup, to East Stirling.

Dumbarton v East Stirling

23 October 1954 First Round	Dumbarton	2-4	East Stirling	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H   Vine

Friendlies

Third Lanark 'A' v Dumbarton

5 August 1954 Friendly	Third Lanark 'A'	2-1	Dumbarton	Cathkin Park

Dundee 'A' v Dumbarton

11 September 1954 Friendly	Dundee 'A'	0-1	Dumbarton	Dens Park
			Gallacher,H	Attendance: 3,000

Dumbarton v Kilmarnock 'A'

25 September 1954 Friendly	Dumbarton	4-2	Kilmarnock 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H

Dumbarton v Hibernian 'A'

16 October 1954 Friendly	Dumbarton	0-3	Hibernian 'A'	Boghead Park

Dumbarton v Hearts 'A'

11 December 1954 Friendly	Dumbarton	2-3	Hearts 'A'	Boghead Park
	Gallacher,H   Welsh			Attendance: 2,000

Dumbarton v Motherwell 'A'

26 February 1955 Friendly	Dumbarton	0-8	Motherwell 'A'	Boghead Park

Player statistics

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		C Division (SW)		Scottish Cup		Supplementary League Cup
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
	GK	SCO	Lawrence Leslie	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
	GK	SCO	Wallace Murdoch^[3]	21	0	10	0	1	0	10	0
	GK	SCO	Jimmy Ritchie	15	0	13	0	0	0	2	0
	DF	SCO	Jim Gray	33	0	23	0	0	0	10	0
	DF	SCO	John McKay	37	0	24	0	1	0	12	0
	MF	SCO	Joe Cadden	7	0	0	0	1	0	6	0
	MF	SCO	Don Cornock	30	0	22	0	0	0	8	0
	MF	SCO	Tommy Craig	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
	MF	SCO	Jim Davie	5	0	0	0	1	0	4	0
	MF	SCO	Joe Gallacher^[4]	25	0	19	0	1	0	5	0
	MF	SCO	Gilhooly	8	0	2	0	0	0	6	0
	MF	SCO	Tommy Irwin	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
	MF	SCO	John McCall	32	3	21	0	1	0	10	3
	MF	SCO	Moran	4	0	4	0	0	0	0	0
	FW	SCO	Anderson^[5]	17	3	13	2	1	1	3	0
	FW	SCO	Bertie Auld	19	3	16	3	1	0	2	0
	FW	SCO	Les Brown	5	0	4	0	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	Clements	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1
	FW	SCO	Docherty	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
	FW	SCO	Duff	2	2	0	0	0	0	2	2
	FW	SCO	Jackie Fearn	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	Jimmy Finnie^[6]	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	Fraser	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	Hugh Gallacher	34	32	24	27	1	0	9	5
	FW	SCO	Willie Gibson^[7]	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	John Heaney	26	9	24	9	0	0	2	0
	FW	SCO	Tony Hepburn	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	1
	FW	SCO	Joe Johnston	22	5	21	5	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	George Liddell	10	6	9	6	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	Jim Maguire	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
	FW	SCO	Alex Mayberry	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	Gerry McCaffrey^[8]	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
	FW	SCO	McCloy	4	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
	FW	SCO	Jimmy McDonald	2	1	2	1	0	0	0	0
	FW	SCO	Sandford	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
	FW	SCO	Jimmy Timmins^[9]	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	Jim Vine	11	1	4	1	0	0	7	0
	FW	SCO	Walsh^[10]	15	1	5	0	1	0	9	1

Source:^[11]

Transfers

Amongst those players joining and leaving the club were the following:

Players in Player From Date   Joe Gallacher   Clydebank Juniors 2 May 1954   Les Brown   Kirkintilloch RR 9 Jul 1954   John McKay   Maryhill 12 Jul 1954   Tommy Craig   Kirkintilloch RR 9 Aug 1954   Jim Gray   Yoker Ath 9 Aug 1954   John McCall   Gloucester City 10 Aug 1954   Hugh Gallacher   Arbroath 25 Aug 1954   John Heaney   Bury 11 Nov 1954   George Liddell   St Mirren 22 Jan 1955   Jimmy Ritchie   Hamilton 27 Jan 1955

Players out Player To Date   Jack Cameron   Hartlepools 22 May 1954   Danny Bell   Dundee United 19 Jun 1954   Willie Gibson   Stenhousemuir 20 Jul 1954   Tom McGairy   Walsall 1 Aug 1954   Walter Scott   Halifax Town 1 Aug 1954   Tom Donegan   Arbroath 14 Aug 1954   Jock Weir   Portadown 20 Nov 1954   Hugh Shaw   Rhyl   Jimmy Whyte   Dunfermline Ath

Source:^[12]

Reserve Team

Dumbarton only played one official 'reserve' match in the Second XI Cup, losing in the first round to Clyde, after a replay.

References

1. "Montrose 3 - 1 Dumbarton, Scottish Cup (09/10/1954)". Fitbastats.com. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
2. "Montrose 3 - 1 Dumbarton, Saturday, October 9th 1954". The Sons Archive. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
3. . The Sons Archive. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
4. . The Sons Archive. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
5. "Anderson - Player Statistics". The Sons Archive. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
6. . The Sons Archive. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
7. "Willie Gibson - Player Statistics". The Sons Archive. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
8. . The Sons Archive. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
9. "Jimmy Timmins - Player Statistics". The Sons Archive. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
10. "Walsh - Player Statistics". The Sons Archive. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
11. McAllister, Jim (2002). The Sons of the Rock - The Official History of Dumbarton Football Club. Dumbarton: J&J Robertson Printers.
12. Litster, John. Record of Post-War Scottish League Players. Norwich: PM Publications.