Football Season Guide

Dumbarton’s 2018-19 campaign was catastrophic. After relegation from the Championship, they were expected to be strong candidates to bounce back automatically, but despite assembling a strong squad on paper they were consigned to fighting against relegation for the duration of the season. Reality has seriously bitten the club over the summer, with a complete overhaul of the team. They have lost the big earners that they would have wished to cut from their squad, but equally they have lost out on some of their better players to teams they would not expect. A perfect example of this is Cammy Ballantyne, one of their most consistent performers last season, going to Montrose, while Ross Forbes, their star attacker, went to Forfar. Reconstructing the side has proven to be difficult, with the League Cup producing three comprehensive defeats and a narrow victory over an Annan outfit that is in League Two and has been seriously weakened over the summer. Manager Jim Duffy has his back on players who have previously performed at this level. Indeed, only Ryan McGeever and Morgyn Neill can have constituted a success in League One or higher last year. PJ Crossan turned out for Stranraer but was on the bench for the duration of the campaign, while the talented Stefan McCluskey returns after a stint in the juniors. He has the potential to be one of their best pick ups. Instead, the Sons are hoping that their left-field additions can prove successful. Jordan McMillan, Lewis Crawford and Mati Zata have all joined either from lower league or reserve sides, while a trio of free agents have been picked up. Of these players, only Isaac Layne has played at this level before and he spent much of last season laid up injured. He was not successful before that, so the odds on the striker proving a success are long. Dumbarton go into the season a club in a dishevelled state.