Dumbarton 2-0 Raith Rovers

Chris McLaughlin (left) opened the scoring for Dumbarton

Dumbarton moved into the semi-finals of the Scottish Challenge Cup with a comfortable win over Raith Rovers.

Chris McLaughlin poked the ball in from six yards from a Tom Walsh corner for his first senior goal after 20 minutes.

On-loan Hearts striker Ally Roy dispossessed Iain Davidson to stroke in the second shortly after half-time.

Rovers' Greig Spence was sent off for hand ball to concede a penalty, but Walsh had his spot-kick turned away by visiting goalkeeper Graeme Smith.

The League One leaders still looked reasonably lively with 10 men - Lewis Vaughan dragging an effort wide when well placed.

Ally Roy scored the Sons' second goal

Championship outfit Dumbarton deserved their victory, though, and troubled Rovers with the balls they delivered into the box, particularly in the first half.

Calum Gallagher had a couple of chances to score from close range, while Ross Matthews and Vaughan fired over for the Kirkcaldy men.

McLaughlin nearly added to his goal with a spectacular strike.

Sons defender Craig Barr nearly scored against his old team with the header that led to Spence's hand ball - and went close again towards the end.

On a positive note for Rovers, three regulars in Craig Easton's under-20s side were given starts - Jamie Watson, James Berry and Yaw Osei.

Post-match reaction

Steve Aitken, Dumbarton manager: "Delighted for the players and the club especially. It's really good they're going to get a bit of the spotlight now. We deserved it, we were terrific from the word go. Raith Rovers have a lot of talent, you could see that with the amount of scouts who came to the game, but maybe they went away thinking Dumbarton have some good players as well.

"Chris [McLaughlin] has come in and adapted really well. He topped off his goal with a man-of-the-match performance. We started the game really strongly and managed to sustain that throughout.

"Disappointed [with Tom Walsh's missed penalty] because at 3-0 the game's dead and buried, but at 2-0 Raith Rovers came back into it and had a couple of half chances. Making it 2-1 would have made it nervy. Players do miss penalty kicks and I suppose at 2-0 that's not a bad time to miss one."

Barry Smith, Raith Rovers manager: "The boys showed good character when we went down to 10 men and we controlled the game for wee spells, but that was too little too late because we were 2-0 down at that point.

"We defended okay, but it was too deep and when we got the ball we didn't keep it. We like to pass the ball, so that was a worrying sign for me. I'm pleased the boys didn't buckle and they kept working hard in the second half, but you don't want to be out of the cup.

"The priority is the league but it was a chance for the boys to get into a semi-final. We play Ayr on Tuesday and the boys have to make sure they're ready for that."