THANKFULLY, by the time the hour mark arrived, this match had already taken its last twist.
All in attendance had been put cranked through the wringer for long enough by then.
Though both sets of fans were still urging their sides fervently towards a winning goal as countless chances were squandered, many voices in the stands had long since become hoarse, some even seeming to have lost the power of cognition, squawking out instead wails of garbled nothings.
In a match which went back and forth more times than the Chuckle Brothers trying to shift a set of ladders up some poor client's stairs - and with more calamity - it was Dumbarton's Scott Agnew who made the last contribution, with a wonderful strike.
Jordan Kirkpatrick swung a deep cross into the hustle, which was cleared to the edge of the box. Agnew chested it down, before volleying it into the top-left corner. "Nine times out of 10, I'd have missed it," he grinned. Was it the best he had scored? "Nah, I've scored a couple free-kicks better."
Agnew had also set up his side's second goal - this had been to take the lead again after Colin Nish had done so earlier - with a long swirling ball, hung up in the wind, which dropped perfectly into the path of Chris Kane, who duly finished.
Two of Raith Rovers' goals came from Gordon Smith, the other from his strike partner, John Baird. Smith's first came after a slip by Scott Linton; Baird was quick to dash towards goal and slipped the ball through for Smith to score. The second was a simple header, though he had been unmarked in the box.
For all that, though, the striker still should have had a hat trick. Ross Callachan had earlier driven into the box, drilling the ball across the face of the goal and past Stephen Grindlay. Smith was open at the far post, but only got the faintest of touches on it, diverting it towards the net. It missed by inches. The striker accepted it had been a sitter.
"Aye, in the first half?" he admitted. "I've seen it late. I thought it went over my foot but the boys say it hit my heel. But you cannae begrudge me it with two goals."
Both managers were unhappy with the draw. "When you go 3-2 down, with the weather the way it is, you probably say 'right, we'd take a point'," said Dumbarton's Ian Murray, with his team still unbeaten in 2014. "But when you get the goal and you're pushing for that winner then you want more."
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