Jim Chapman's view: Dumbarton FC's title celebrations

May 15 2009 by Andy Galloway, Lennox Herald (main ed)

WE were overwhelmed at the number of fans at the Annan game, and a lot of people didn't realise the support that was there for us when we got home.

We have planning to do ahead of the new campaign, but we are always planning for the best and worst cases.

We will of course look to make additions, but some players will have to go, and how do you tell them that after they’ve just won the league?

I will discuss what players are to be retained with my assistant Alan Adamson this week and the decisions will be announced in due course.

On the Annan game itself, we were really pleased with how we played in atrocious conditions in the first half.

When we got the goals, we looked comfortable and it’s a testament to the players that they came out and applied themselves despite being in our position.

We could afford some disappointment at losing the goal having done so well at keeping clean sheets, but it is hard to criticise the players. Everybody was desperate for the final whistle to come.

We are likely to return to training on Saturday, June 20, as the season will start on Saturday, July 25.

But the players will have programmes to adhere to for three weeks before then, so they will have preparation to do before they return.

We have no friendly matches confirmed at this stage, but we do have tentative agreements with a few teams.

Overall, this has been a fantastic season with several highlights, and the one I will always treasure is the open-top bus ride seeing all the supporters.