DUMBARTON boss Steve Aitken praised his players for digging in to earn a vital point away to Championship contenders Falkirk. Loan signing Ally Roy gave the Sons a dream start with his first goal for the club before Miles Hippolyte equalised midway through the first half.

Falkirk are one of the favourites to win promotion out of the second tier this season and Aitken was thrilled with his part-timers for matching Peter Houston’s men on their own patch.

He said: “I’m proud of my players. Their work-rate, attitude and endeavour were outstanding. We knew from our experience of coming here last year that this is a top side you’re playing against. And top sides have a lot of the ball so you have to do the ugly side of the game right. A lot of people don’t like that doing that but the players bought into it and worked their socks off for each other. We rode our luck at times but you have to ride your luck in any game of football.

“At the same time I thought we created some good chances on the break and scored a terrific goal. Overall I’m delighted with the point. Towards the end of the game the players were throwing themselves in front of everything. And that’s great to see.

“That’s basically a whole new team out there. We lost that many in the summer. I think maybe Christian Nade is the only one who played for us last season so to put them together in such a short period of time and with only two nights’ training a week is terrific. They defended brilliantly and we’re going to need that for the rest of the season.”

Roy has recently arrived on loan from Hearts and Aitken praised the 20 year-old’s contribution. He added: “Ally has been a real threat since he came in. He’s a young kid learning the game and it’s good that Hearts have put him out, and the same with Sam Wardrop from Celtic. It’s great that clubs are doing that for us. Ally was a thorn in Falkirk’s side and scored a terrific goal.”