Cammy Russell made it two goals in two games to help Airdrie rescue a point against Dumbarton minutes after coming on as a substitute.  

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Three former Diamonds - Grant Adam, Kyle Hutton and Iain Russell returned to Airdrie in Dumbarton colours as Steve Aitken tries to lead his side back to the Championship after being relegated at the end of last season.

 

Grant Gallagher had moved to the Penny Cars stadium following the Sons' drop to League One at the same time.

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Both clubs went into the match looking to get closer to league leaders Arbroath.

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Steve Findlay’s side started sharply in the opening minutes. A Scott Robertson ball forward was headed for goal by Leighton McIntosh with Grant Adam comfortably collecting the ball, while Dale Carrick had a shot on target which was blocked for a corner.

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The remainder of the half was controlled by the visitors, who pressed Airdrie into their final third. They went close to going ahead on seven minutes when Ryan Thomson created some space for himself then fired a shot away from ten yards out only to see his effort deflected for a corner.

 

Ross Forbes curled a 25th minute free kick around the wall and keeper David Hutton saved then gathered the ball at the second attempt. 

 

Four minutes later Dumbarton opened the scoring. Bobby Barr, Forbes and on-loan Celtic forward Jack Aitchison combined with the latter passing to Brad Spencer who had time and space on the edge of the box to fire it into keeper David Hutton’s right hand side to open the scoring with some Airdrie players arguing that there had been a foul in the build-up.

 

The visitors were able to retain the ball well for the remainder of the half although with two minutes remaining, Kieran MacDonald and Joao Victoria linked to get upfield with the striker’s shot comfortably taken by Adam.  

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A powerful Scott Stewart run nine minutes after the restart gave him sight of goal inside the box, though he flashed his shot wide of Adam’s goal.

 

On 62 minutes a long ball forward into the Airdrie half broke for Aitchison, who raced forward into the penalty area but Hutton stood up and blocked his angled shot on target.

 

Three minutes later Barr’s 20-yard snapshot looked on target but was deflected for a corner.

 

A double substitution with a quarter of the match remaining saw Kyle Wilkie and Cammy Russell replace Gallagher and McIntosh and there was an almost instant effect. Robertson pinged a long ball forward into the box with 20 minutes left and Russell raced on to control the ball before firing it in off Adam’s left post with a slight deflection off the keeper.

 

Three minutes later Wilkie linked well with the goalscorer Russell and his controlled effort inside the box was on target but directly at Adam.

 

Carrick had an attempt well blocked by Scott Allardice in 79 minutes.

 

There was no further scoring in the closing stages and the sides had to settle for a point apiece.