Dumbarton FC: Assistant boss wants to be involved in another promotion battle

Jul 10 2009 by Andy Galloway, Lennox Herald (main ed)

ASSISTANT manager Alan Adamson hopes Dumbarton could be involved in another promotion battle this season.

Jim Chapman’s right-hand man has a play-off place on the agenda, with the new league campaign now less than a month away.

Alan has been impressed by how hard the players have worked in pre-season training so far, with the management rewarding them with a day off on Sunday.

He said: “The play-offs are what we are aiming for, but we will only worry about what we are doing, as opposed to other teams.

“We were the same last year, even when Stenhousemuir and Cowdenbeath were well ahead at the top. We just focused on ourselves and it paid off.

“Airdrie and Brechin will be among the favourites, but there is a lot of middle ground in the league and it should be interesting.

“The players have worked hard, although we did not need to start training as early as we did last pre-season.

“Last year was practically an all-new squad, but this time we know most of the players, along with a few new signings.

“Gordon Lennon’s death has also forced our hand, but we have come back and the players have done really well, so much so that we gave them Sunday off.”

Alan is looking forward to the match action getting under way with a friendly against Partick Thistle on Tuesday night.

And there could be more new faces involved against the Jags, with some trialists currently taking part in training.

He added: “It doesn’t seem like two months since we were lifting the league trophy, but we are really looking forward to returning to match action.

“It will be good to see the new players getting involved, and the competition for first team places will be fantastic.

“The squad is such that we will be able to play one starting XI against Partick Thistle and an entirely different one against St Mirren.

“We have had a few players in training who we have been looking at, but our budget is pretty stretched, so we need to have a long, hard look at them before signing them.”