Hebburn Town 1-6 Dumbarton - Sons' final friendly ends with commanding victory

Dumbarton rounded off their pre-season with a rout against Northern Premier League Hebburn Town in Newcastle.

Carlo Pignatiello and trialist Michael Mullen netted in the first-half before Amar Purewal halved the deficit just before half-time.

A stunning David Wilson effort made it 3-1 on the hour, with Sons netting three more times in the final 20 minutes courtesy of Finlay Gray and a Michael Ruth brace.

But assistant manager Frank McKeown insisted that the result was irrelevant in Sons final outing before the League Cup kicks off.

He said: “I told the players before the game that I didn’t care about the result; I just wanted a good performance. I can’t stand here after saying that and say anything different.

“I’m happy with how we played. I was happy against Falkirk when we got beaten and happy against Glenafton and Caledonian Braves when we won. Regardless of the score the players are doing what we asked them to, and they are all buying into it.

“The new boys have all fitted in really well. We’ve tweaked the system a wee bit but we’ve had a great pre-season.

“Craig McGuffie was feeling his glute a wee bit so we took him off as a precaution. But, overall, pre-season has been great; we know the League Cup will be tough, but if we build on those performances we’ll give ourselves a good chance.”

McKeown made three changes to the side which had put four past Glenafton Athletic midweek, as Brett Long returned, with Aron Lynas and trialist attacker Robbie Foster - who netted 15 times for Highland League Huntly last season - starting.

In front of a healthy away support, Craig McGuffie had the first chance of the game but fired straight at Hebburn keeper Kieran Hunter.

It would be McGuffie’s only real action of the game, as he