Dumbarton FC Look To The Future

Season 2012/13 is a significant one for Dumbarton Football Club. Playing in the Irn Bru Scottish Football League First Division for the first time in 16 years, Dumbarton’s first return to the top division of the SFL since season 1995/96, is a testament to the hard work and dedication of all concerned with this historic football club.

Formed in 1872, Dumbarton were Scotland’s first ever national champions, sharing the first ever league title with Rangers in season 1890/91 (though Dumbarton were ahead on goal difference, this wasn’t taken into consideration in those days) and being crowned outright champions of Scotland the following season. It is said that the club’s reluctance to embrace professionalism in those early years of organised football are the reason that they never went on to fully exploit their position as one of Scotland’s big guns in domestic football at that time. Over the years Dumbarton have seen their fair share of ups and downs, with various promotions, relegations, financial crises and cup near misses, in particular the 4-3 extra time defeat against Celtic in the semi-final of the League Cup in October 1970 and the 3-0 replay defeat to Heart of Midlothian in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup in 1976.

Since the dawn of the modern game and the advent of all-seated stadia, Dumbarton have mostly occupied the lower tiers of the Scottish Football League, spending time variously in the Second and Third Divisions for the most part. However, the unlikely play-off success of last season has seen the club rise to Division One for the first time in 16 years and with that comes a new set of challenges.

Dumbarton are a part-time club in that their manager and players have day jobs and train only two evenings per week. This is a common position amongst football clubs in Scotland outwith the top two tiers of the professional game, however, it is somewhat unusual at the level which Dumbarton now find themselves operating at. The Scottish First Division is typically occupied by all or mostly full-time football clubs and this season is no exception as all but two of this season’s Division 1 teams are full-time or, in the cases of Raith Rovers and Cowdenbeath, a mixture of full-time and part-time playing staff. Only Dumbarton and Airdrie United are truly part-time in their operation, Airdrie only having dropped to part-time after being relegated from Division One 2 years ago.

Dumbarton’s play-off success and promotion had given the club, the town and the groundswell support a welcome boost and season ticket sales had increased accordingly, topping 450 prior to the beginning of the season. Matchday hospitality packages were similarly commercially successful, both of which bode well in these times of financial austerity and coming immediately after a summer when many pundits had predicted doom for provincial clubs in Scotland following the demise of Glasgow Rangers.

It is to this backdrop that Dumbarton began their season, having retained the majority of the players who had achieved an unlikely play-off promotion last season and adding a number of new faces to their squad in order to help them compete against their full-time rivals. The season’s league business did not begin with a bang however, as Dumbarton were humbled 0 – 3 at Airdrie United on matchday one, oddly enough an identical scoreline and venue to the first game of the previous season, and a defeat which was felt all the more as it had come at the hands of the league’s only other fully part-time club, a club which Dumbarton had overcome with ease in their play-off final success only 2 months earlier.

From there, results continued to follow a similar pattern and, though the Sons had achieved two draws in their two most recent fixtures prior to the international break (a 3-3 at home to Hamilton Academical and a 2-2 away to Raith Rovers), the club were beaten by 2 goals to nil at home to Falkirk when the league action resumed and the Board took the decision to cancel the manager’s contract.

The decision to replace a manager is one that is taken with increasing frequency in modern football and has become so commonplace that fans can now place bets with major bookmakers on which managers will be first to lose their jobs during the football season. However, it is the decision to replace Dumbarton manager Alan Adamson after only 9 league games which has raised eyebrows.

Dumbarton’s unbeaten run in the early months of 2012 saw the club competing with eventual Second Division title winners Cowdenbeath and big spending title hopefuls Arbroath in the top 3 of the Second Division, when in the first third of season 2011/12 Dumbarton had looked likely candidates for relegation to the bottom tier. It was that run of exceptional form which eventually saw Dumbarton win the Second Division play-offs and take their place amongst the elite clubs of the Scottish Football League. But yet, for all of Adamson’s success as both manager and assistant manager of Dumbarton, his tenure as manager of the club has been brought to an abrupt end after relatively few matches at Division One level.

Adamson was originally brought to the club as assistant manager to Jim Chapman in December 2007, having worked with Chapman previously at Albion Rovers, and the pair were tasked with firstly ensuring Dumbarton avoided finishing last in Scottish Division Three that season (a feat they achieved with an 8^th placed finish) and then taking the club out of the bottom tier, which the pair achieved in season 2008/09 when they won the Third Division title. Ironically, Adamson’s opportunity to become manager of the club came in October 2010 when Chapman was moved upstairs to become director of football and head of community development as the club sat last in Division Two. Adamson kept the team in the Second Division that season and won promotion to Division One via the following season’s play-offs after a third placed finish. Adamson has therefore been involved in keeping Dumbarton off of the foot of Division Three, winning the Third Division title, avoiding relegation from Division Two and achieving an unlikely promotion to Division One, not to mention the two Stirlingshire Cup successes in that time, all within 5 seasons at the club as coach and manager. For a part-time club with home gates regularly under 1,000 it would appear to be nothing short of miraculous that such a glut of achievements have been secured in this short time, and yet for all of his success with the club, the loss of 7 league matches has cost him his job. Adamson’s assistant, former Falkirk, St Mirren and Dunfermline defender Jack Ross, has been given temporary control of first team affairs whilst a permanent replacement is sought, however, the question must now surely be, who can Dumbarton possibly hire to replace Adamson?

Having achieved so much in so little time, it may be that those in charge at Dumbarton have become spoiled by success. Only time will tell if this is a decision which the club, and its fans, will come to regret. 

This is the original draft of this article. The version which was published in Ultimate Scottish Football magazine issue one can be viewed here:   http://issuu.com/ultimatescottishfootball/docs/usfissueone?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222
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