Can the Sons make the play-off pay off? Gary Black hopes so.

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4:05pm, Sunday the 20th May 2012

The Scottish Cup has ended with half of Edinburgh in abject misery, The Champions League final has been played out to its obvious conclusion (John Terry crying in the stand) yet Scottish football’s crown jewel is just kicking off at The Excelsior Stadium.

Yes, it’s time for the Irn-Bru Scottish Football League First Division Play-Off Final Second Leg, broadcast live to the nation in glorious Gaelic on BBC Alba. Dumbarton, The Sons of The Rock, The Black & Gold’s, Patch Walker’s Apache Army, Scotland’s Original Champions will travel all the way to North Lanarkshire to face Airdrie United, The Diamonds, Clydebank in Disguise.

You may have spotted a slight leaning there. I admit it, my name is Gary and I am a supporter of Dumbarton Football Club. It started in primary school, they gave us our first few hits for free to get us hooked, now, two decades on, I’ll travel to the farthest flung villages to get my fix; Stranraer, Peterhead, Elgin, Fraserburgh, Berwick, nowhere is too far, infact, the further away the better.

Don’t mistake me for an optimist, it was a short 10 months ago I stood in Dumbarton Football Stadium, before the first game of the season, and proclaimed that we would be lucky to avoid relegation and if someone offered me 8th place I would snatch it there and then. Yet here we are, a third place finish and an outstanding performance to dump favourites Arbroath out at the semi-finals and 180 minutes away from a place in the First Division, shows what I know about football!

I have no idea how I’ll cope with the pressure of the final, I was a nervous wreck watching us in the Semi Final, I’m simply not used to success! The last time we played in the Premier Division I was 1, when we last won promotion to the First Division I was in primary school. On the last game at Boghead that season I asked my dad if we could get season tickets when we, obviously, went up again to the Premier Division the following season, he laughed at me. That season we earned 11 points, 6 of which came in the first two games we were relegated twice in a row and ended up in the Third Division, serves me right for being positive.

In 2009 when we won the Third Division it all came a bit out of the blue. Cowdenbeath had a 10 point lead going into the last month of the season, they then just stopped winning games; we closed the gap much to the surprise of everyone. Through a mix of Tuesday night games and goal difference we never had an “if we win this the league is ours” game, it just all sort of happened out with us and, of course, our celebrations were muted by the tragic untimely death of our captain Gordon Lennon. The fact is I have never stood before a game and felt like it would be anything other than a mild disappointment for an hour or two if we lose.

Two games, one home, one away, against Airdrie United, a team we have already beaten at both stadia this year, the team that killed off our rivals (a note of caution to Celtic fans, I’m as much for fairness as anyone but a football team with no rival to play against leaves an empty hole that’s difficult to fill) — our first ever games broadcast live on the telly; even if it’s only BBC Alba! That’s all that stands between Dumbarton and First Division football. It’s all very exciting and strange… and what’s weirder, I actually feel pretty confident we can do it!

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Gary, from Loch Lomond, is more commonly seen on stage as A. Panda, the bear with the attitude problem and, for absolutely no reason, a thick American accent. He’s been performing since 2009; after, what he describes as, 3 “financially crippling” years visiting the Edinburgh Fringe he realised he could maybe get into gigs free if he was a comedian too!

A life long Dumbarton fan, Gary actually films & edits the matches for the club website and is a board member of their Supporters Trust too. He is also fond of Arsenal (his “wee” team!) and boring everyone to tears with lengthy diatribes about how every league should be run like The Bundesliga and the SFL should be in charge of Scottish football.

You can follow Gary on Twitter @itsgaryblack

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