Dumbarton 3-2 Banks o'Dee - Ruth at the double in dramatic comeback victory

Stevie Farrell hailed his side’s character, as they came from 2-0 down to avoid a cup shock against Highland League Banks o’Dee.

Hamish Macleod’s early opener and Garry Wood’s second-half strike had the visitors cruising, before a bizarre last 20 minutes saw Sons turn things around - after a lengthy delay as match referee Ross Clark hobbled off.

But boss Farrell was delighted with his Sons’ resilience, as they avoided a cup upset - on a day where three of their League Two rivals suffered giant killings.

He said: “It was a proper cup tie. At half-time we said we’d make it a cup tie, we’d put balls down their throat and look to pick up the second balls around the area.

“As soon as it went to 2-1 I was confident that there was only one team going to win it.

“Teams from our division are out. These are not easy games and we’ve shown a massive amount of character to come through the game.

“If we’re going to be successful this season then we need to show what we did in the second-half.

“These players won’t chuck it when they are losing. They are a fantastic group.”

Missing skipper Mark Durnan through injury, the Sons got off to the worst possible start - as they fell behind inside five minutes.

Max Alexander’s pass sent Hamish Macleod free, and he twisted beyond Aron Lynas before finding the far corner - via the post - from a tight angle.

That was a rare moment of excitement in a first-half that was low on quality for the most part.

Carlo Pignatiello almost changed that after going on a mazy run, but saw his path to goal eventually blocked by a crowd of blue shirts.

Michael Ruth then had an effort from Ryan Blair’s corner blocked on the line, before Aron Lynas could only find the gloves of away keeper Daniel Hoban with a volley