Dumbarton didn’t give themselves a chance, trailing 3-0 after half-an-hour, with only a number of impressive saves from goalkeeper Brett Long keeping his side from staring at a heavy defeat.

David Wilson did curl a free-kick into the net for the visitors in the second-half but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation.

Boss Stevie Farrell went into the game with two more injuries to his already depleted squad with Edin Lynch and Ross MacLean both picking up injuries against Stenhousemuir last weekend.

There was, however, the welcome return of the aforementioned Wilson alongside Kalvin Orsi and Declan Byrne to the substitutes bench after injury had kept the trio out of action for a number of weeks.

The contest was only a couple of minutes old when former Dumbarton man Willie Gibson ghosted in behind the Sons defence and stroked the ball past Long.

Tommy Muir found himself in a similar position for Annan just a couple of minutes later but Long stood up to block him – and it wasn’t the last time the visitors would have their goalkeeper to thank.

At the other end, Ryan Wallace bounced a header wide before Aidan Smith came close on two occasions for the Galabankies.

He should have squared the ball to Tony Wallace for an easy tap-in but opted to shoot and blazed his effort over, and whilst he did find the target a minute later that man Long was in the way to beat his shot away from goal.

If a moment could sum up the way things have been going for Dumbarton in recent weeks, it was perhaps the second goal of the afternoon midway through the first-half on Saturday.

Under little pressure, Martin McNiff looked to deal with a long ball over the Sons defence by heading back to his goalkeeper.

Unfortunately for him, Long had come to deal with the same ball and the two helplessly watched on as the defender’s header went past his goalkeeper and rolled into the net.

Annan found themselves in again a few minutes later and whilst Long did deal with the first effort by making another big save, another ex-Son in the shape of Tony Wallace helped the ball over the line.

Wallace hobbled off for Dumbarton shortly after to compound Dumbarton’s misery, though it did give Byrne the opportunity to get an hour of action under his belt after injury.

He had the opportunity to pull one back when he found himself through on goal less than ten minutes after coming on but missed the target and Ally Love also got in behind the Annan defence but lobbed over the bar.

There was still time for Long to be called into action before the interval as Muir and Smith were denied again before the former East Fife shotstopper made an outstanding double save when it looked for all the world that the hosts would make it four.

The second-half largely petered out with a free-kick from Wilson that found the net on 75 minutes the only thing for either side to shout about, though Sons would have been encouraged by the return of Wilson, Orsi and Byrne.