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
ManagerPeter McGown
StadiumBoghead Park, Dumbarton
Scottish League C Division (South West)4th
Scottish CupThird Round
Scottish Supplementary League CupPrelims
Top goalscorerLeague: Hughie Gallacher (27)
All: Hughie Gallacher (32)

Scottish League Division C (South-West)

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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.

6 November 1954 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 3-0 Motherwell 'A' Boghead Park
Johnston   18' (pen)
Gallacher,H  
Heaney  
Referee: J Aitken
13 November 1954 Division C (SW) Airdrie 'A' 3-3 Dumbarton Broomfield Park
 
 
 
Gallacher,H   14'   Referee: R Rodger
20 November 1954 Division C (SW) Ayr United 'A' 1-5 Dumbarton Somerset Park
  Gallacher,H   
Johnston  Heaney  
Auld  
Referee: J Bonamy
27 November 1954 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 4-1 Clyde 'A' Boghead Park
Gallacher,H   40'
Johnston  
Anderson  
Auld  
  Referee: H Baird
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
18 December 1954 Division C (SW) Motherwell 'A' 1-2 Dumbarton Fir Park
McSeveney   Gallacher,H   40'  Referee: A Dick
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
1 January 1955 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 1-1 Rangers 'A' Boghead Park
Gallacher,H    
3 January 1955 Division C (SW) Stranraer 3-3 Dumbarton Stair Park
 
 
 
Heaney   
Anderson  
8 January 1955 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 1-3 Stranraer Boghead Park
Gallacher,H   7' Robertson   15'
McIntyre  
McCutcheon  
Referee: R Baird
29 January 1955 Division C (SW) Queen of the South 'A' 1-3 Dumbarton Palmerston Park
  Liddell   4', 24', 28' Referee: D McTaggart
12 February 1955 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 2-1 Kilmarnock 'A' Boghead Park
McKay  
Heaney  
Murray   Referee: J Aitken
19 February 1955 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 2-1 Queen's Park Strollers Boghead Park
McKay  
Heaney  
Church   Referee: R Baird
5 March 1955 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 7-1 Airdrie 'A' Boghead Park
Gallacher,H    
Liddell    
Johnston  
 
19 March 1955 Division C (SW) Clyde 'A' 4-1 Dumbarton Shawfield Stadium
McHarg   42'
 
 
 
Gallacher,H   1' Referee: W Syme
26 March 1955 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 1-1 St Mirren 'A' Boghead Park
Gallacher,H     Referee: P Rodgers
9 April 1955 Division C (SW) Partick Thistle 'A' 1-4 Dumbarton Firhill Stadium
  Gallacher,H   14'  40' 
McDonald  
Referee: A Dick
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
18 April 1955 Division C (SW) Third Lanark 'A' 1-2 Dumbarton Cathkin Park
Mitchell   Gallacher,H   2' 
23 April 1955 Division C (SW) Kilmarnock 'A' 4-0 Dumbarton Rugby Park
Newman   23'
Toner   36'
 
 
27 April 1955 Division C (SW) Rangers 'A' 3-0 Dumbarton Ibrox Park
Paton  
Pryde  
Woods  
30 April 1955 Division C (SW) Dumbarton 2-8 Partick Thistle 'A' Boghead Park
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gallacher,H  
  (OG)

League table

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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

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

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

Scottish Supplementary League Cup

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

14 August 1954 Section Third Lanark 'A' 1-0 Dumbarton Cathkin Park
  Referee: J Ferguson
18 August 1954 Section Dumbarton 2-3 Rangers 'A' Boghead Park
Clements  
Hepburn  
Carron   (pen)
McKenzie,G  
Paton  
21 August 1954 Section St Mirren 'A' 3-0 Dumbarton Love Street (stadium)
Cross   33' 
Liddell  
Referee: W Linton
28 August 1954 Section Dumbarton 1-0 Third Lanark 'A' Boghead Park
Gallacher,H   57' Referee: T Edwards
1 September 1954 Section Clyde 'A' 2-2 Dumbarton Shawfield Stadium
Newman    McCall  
Gallacher,H  
13 September 1954 Section Dumbarton 2-4 St Mirren 'A' Boghead Park
McCall  
Walsh  
 
 
 
 
18 September 1954 Section Dumbarton 0-2 Clyde 'A' Boghead Park
McKenna   20'
Currie   26'
Referee: H Rodger
2 October 1954 Section Dumbarton 2-0 Partick Thistle 'A' Boghead Park
Gallacher,H    Referee: W Syme
25 April 1955 Section Partick Thistle 'A' 1-1 Dumbarton Firhill Stadium
McInnes   Gallacher,H  
2 May 1955 Section Rangers 'A' 2-0 Dumbarton Ibrox Park
Carmichael  
Simpson,A  

Section Table

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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

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

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

Friendlies

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11 September 1954 Friendly Dundee 'A' 0-1 Dumbarton Dens Park
Gallacher,H   Attendance: 3,000
25 September 1954 Friendly Dumbarton 4-2 Kilmarnock 'A' Boghead Park
Gallacher,H   
 
 
 
 
11 December 1954 Friendly Dumbarton 2-3 Hearts 'A' Boghead Park
Gallacher,H  
Welsh  
 
 
 
Attendance: 2,000
26 February 1955 Friendly Dumbarton 0-8 Motherwell 'A' Boghead Park
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Player statistics

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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

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

Source:[12]

Reserve Team

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

References

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  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. ^ "Wallace Murdoch - Player Statistics". The Sons Archive. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  4. ^ "Joe Gallacher - Player Statistics". 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. ^ "Jimmy Finnie - Player Statistics". 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. ^ "Gerry McCaffrey - Player Statistics". 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.