1954–55 Dumbarton F.C. season

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
	Home colours
	← 1953–54 1955–56 →

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.

Scottish League Division C (South-West)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Friendlies

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

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

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

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

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		C Division (SW)		Scottish Cup		Supplementary League Cup
No.	Pos	Nat	Player	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

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

[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.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]