Corcoran 17; Barron 38; Mehmet 70
DUMBARTON 0IMPRESSIVE St Mirren cruised into the draw for the Fifth Round with a routine dispatch of Third Division Dumbarton. The SPL men had too much in every area for their rivals from ac
ross the Erskine Bridge as they easily set up a meeting with Clyde or Dundee United.
Saints were at Dumbarton right from the opening whistle with Billy Mehmet shooting wide and Craig Dargo warming the palms of David Crawford with a thumping drive from just inside the area. Even in the earliest stage there was more of a hint of desperation to the Sons' defending with Mark Corcoran rampaging down the left flank with impunity and whipping over cross after cross.
Eventually the pressure told after 17 minutes, Corcoran stepping onto a loose ball at the edge of the box and sending a thunderous left foot strike high into the top corner. It was a goal of genuine quality and it should have been added to soon after when Dargo twice in quick succession failed to make the most of clear sights of goal.
With Dargo still looking a little ring rusty it was left to young full back David Barron to put a more realistic complexion on the scoreline. The youngster left Crawford groping at air with a precision drive from way out to all but put the Paisley men's name in the hat whilst grabbing his first ever senior goal.
As the game continued the huge difference is class become more and more evident with Dumbarton failing to trouble Saints to the point where home keeper Chris Smith had virtually nothing else to do than field a few pass backs and deal with the odd over hit pass. New boss Jim Chapman certainly has his work cut out for him if he is to pull his new charges away from the lower reaches of the Scottish game.
Gus MacPherson has no such worries at present with kids such as Barron and Stephen McGinn making their marks, Craig Dargo eventually finding fitness and former New England Revolution man Andy Dorman looking as impressive as the massive hype would suggest. Indeed, the Love Street manager even had the rare luxury of seeing some luck go his way as a gaff by the by now injured Crawford gifted Mehmet a third goal.
This was it as far as the scoring was concerned, although not through a want of trying. New Dumbarton keeper Anton Nugent was kept on his toes right to the end as the home team finished off where they started.
The Scottish Cup always has fans searching for omens. Well, the Paisley fans are already pointing to the last time they won their opening game 3-0 with three different scorers being in 1987 and we all know what happened then. Getting ahead of themselves certainly, but isn't this what the cup is all about?
The full article contains 502 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
