This is usually our first game of the summer, but was usurped by last week's game against Ayr. However, with it being just a short hop against the Erskine Bridge, there's usually a decent turnout of football-starved Buddies for this one. Chances are it won't be much of a game as our players will go through training tomorrow and maybe even play a full match ahead of the game.
Last week's game saw us field two teams of 11 and it's likely Danny Lennon will take that approach again as he bids to give everyone some game time ahead of the new season. However, we have another friendly in just a few days so he could choose to start with two completely different teams in each fixture. It's likely tomorrow will see trialist Sean Lynch, Stephen Glass and Niko Gkionis will get another chance to impress as they bid to win contracts. The game at Somerset last week also saw a German trialist none of us knew about and, while he's away home, there could be a few other mystery faces on show. Most Saints fans will go to the Rock hoping to catch a glimpse of our new players such as Craig Samson, Darren McGregor, Peter Bradley, Paul McQuade and Jure Travner, as well as the returning David van Zanten and Marc McAusland.
Dumbarton did pretty well in the second division last season, having won the third division in 2008/09. It'll be interesting to see if they go for promotion this year or are quite happy to try to consolidate in division two. They have some good players, including former Saints youngster Ben Gordon. The experience of Allan McManus should help, while former Rangers striker Derek Carcary is a decent goal-getter. I'll admit, apart from that I don't know much about them!