The club web-site has announced that Dumbarton FC has “parted company” with Alan Adamson as manager.

Well; that’s one way to put it.

I suspect ex-boss Jim Chapman (whom Adamson replaced and who is still at the club in charge of youth development) is laughing up his sleeve right now.

Assistant boss Jack Ross is temporarily taking over while the club solicits applications for the vacancy.

I suppose it was inevitable given the very poor start to the season after the euphoria at the end of the play-offs. The players are the same, though, so what improvement can be expected is moot.

Mind you Alan Adamson was possibly out of his depth at this level. He wasn’t too adept with tactical substitutions. The team rather lucked into that promotion but did get the results when they mattered.

The decision is still a bit harsh, though.

We must remember, however, the tailspin the club went into in our last disastrous foray into Div 1. The powers that be at the club clearly hope to avoid that happening again.

SFL Div 1, Stark’s Park, 6/10/12.

Football. Bloody Hell!

I was at this one. (Stark’s Park is only a couple of hundred yards from my house.)

I really don’t know where to start.

My son and I approached the ground with some trepidation; after all we’d managed to secure only one point from seven games so far and the Rovers had drawn with the league leaders last week.

We were terribly open in the first half, leaving acres of space for Rovers to exploit a lot down the left hand side. Those critics of James Creaney – who sat this one out on the bench – should maybe think on. Mostly we seemed to be playing 4-5-1 with midfielders coming through to attempt to support Jim Lister when we punted it up to him. On this point it is almost useless to aim at his head; it needs to be his chest, folks. Our play betrayed an unsurprising lack of confidence; overplayed passes, poor first touches, tentative tackles abounded. Rovers seemed able to run through us at will. The transition from our possesion to theirs always seemed to lead to a backs to the wall challenge which we mainly survived. In fact their goal when it came was out of almost nothing but Jamie Ewings – presumably put in to give Stephen Grindlay a rest from picking the ball out of the net so often – might have made a better fist of saving it. Nevertheless he commanded his box well.

We had a couple of efforts on goal. I think it was Phil Johnston that made their keeper make a save and one Scott Agnew effort was almost diverted into goal by Garry Fleming.

Still at half time I had resigned myself to a defeat.

Early in the second half Jamie Ewings made two very good saves to keep us in it. Then a Raith player overstretched in midfield and a good challenge in midfield broke to Jim Lister for him to move in on goal. This is the sort of one-on-one Dumbarton strikers don’t usually convert but “Blister” did. Cue much rejoicing in the Val McDermid Stand.

What a difference a goal makes. Suddenly we were getting the break of the ball, or forcing the break, and starting to take the game to the Rovers.

We didn’t dominate completely as they had a few efforts but weren’t composed enough to punish us. Their second when it arrived was against the run of play. Our defending of the corner was poor, though. Two uncontested headers in the box is shocking.

Kudos to Alan Adamson, though. He brought on striker Brian Prunty and took off central defender Martin McNiff.

Raith then made the mistake of letting us have the ball and we started to use it. We had several half chances and one that looked great when Phil Johnston’s pace and trickery at last had an end product but Blister’s header went wide.

We also had more penetration when Mark Gilhaney came on for Mark Lamont who is too easily brushed off the ball at this level.

There were a few hairy moments at our end as we were pushing up and leaving lots of space but we persevered and a great ball in to Brian Prunty saw him poke it past the keeper. Ecstasy in the Val McDermid Stand.

Still Raith could have won it as they had a one-on-one but Jamie Ewings stood tall and deflected the ball past the post with his foot.

Great mutual acclamation from the fans and players at the final whistle. We’ve doubled our points tally! (Mind you at this rate we’ll end the season on a total of 9 points.)

It says something (I’m not quite sure what) that the match sponsors gave the Man of the Match to their goalkeeper.

The lads should take confidence from this. Twice we came from behind.

We also looked more threatening when we only had three at the back. Something for the manager to ponder there, perhaps. I suspect he’ll go with five in midfield and one up front again next time though.

SFL Div 2, Forthbank Stadium, 28/4/12.

So for the second year in a row our post-season destiny is settled with a game to spare. And we’re in the play-offs!

This is an outstanding end to a campaign where I’m sure most Sons fans would have been happy with survival in the Division. Very well done to Manager Alan Adamson, the backroom staff and the players.

The game itself wasn’t a classic. There was perhaps too much riding on it with Stirling hoping to avoid relegation. We had the better of the first half with Pat Walker coming close twice early on, Brian Prunty almost converting a Scott Agnew cross-come-shot and Stirling only the one really threatening effort on goal.

Their goal was well taken if a little out of the blue. Stirling hadn’t really looked threatening with too many wrong decisions on the ball and misplaced passes or shots.

Arlan Mptata came on and looked skillful, if perhaps too inclined to elaborate a bit – at this level players sometimes get in the way by accident rather than design – but he glided past his defender with ease a couple of times.

Our equaliser was bizarre. It’s the sort of goal you lose when you’re bottom of the Division, nothing is going for you and you’re doomed to relegation. A cross was headed into the air by Stirling’s no 2, it looped up and the keeper grabbed it as it came down but it had carried over. The lino flagged straight away. The keeper was maybe hampered by the injury he’d sustained earlier in the half but both should have dealt with it better.

After that Stirling threw the kitchen sink at it, playing men up. They had a four on two at one point where the attacker still managed to let one of the two get in a tackle. They also had what looked a penalty from where I was sitting up the other end but the ref blew for a dive and booked the attacker. A let-off I thought, but seeing the footage on Sons Player the ref got it spot on.

Then in stoppage time, at a corner, sub Craig Dargo was left totally unmarked to head the winner. Third in the Division sewn up – our highest finish in the SFL since 2004.

So there’s a nothing game next week against Brechin but the boys need to keep focused.

Then the play-off with Arbroath. Not a team we have an especially good record against.

SFL Div 2, Station Park, 26/02/11

Ah well. Situation normal resumed. But if losing the first goal was a test I think we passed it.

Forfar are a big strong team. Ben Gordon and Jon McShane aside we are midgets in comparison.

They looked very good going forward in the first few minutes despite not carving us open the way East Fife did. When the goal came it looked a great strike. Stephen Grindlay had made a good save from an earlier effort but had knocked it back out, the guy just thumped it.

We barely registered until much later in the half then came into it. Jon McShane’s beautifully struck free-kick was finely placed but still should have been saved by the keeper who only turned it onto the post/bar and in. The ref looked as if he wasn’t sure it was a goal but eventually gave it. I briefly wondered if we had scored an equaliser in this season before yesterday then remembered we had – at Forfar, in the first game.

At half-time I thought we were lucky to be level.

Different story second half; we dominated and played some very good stuff. We had a fair few chances, Pat Walker desperately unlucky to have a curling shot go just wide, Mark Gilhaney electing to shoot first time twice when he had more time were the best of them.

We were pushing for the winner when Andy Geggan lost the ball three-quarters into their half and they broke upfield. Our cover had been sucked forward and the Forfar scorer had too much space available to him.

Alan Adamson withdrew two midfield players and threw on two more players in forward positions to go for it but the second equaliser wasn’t to be.

Had we won, and therefore equalled the 119 year old consecutive away wins record, I’d have felt obliged to go to Brechin on Tuesday night. As it is I’ll probably give it a miss.

It’s not over yet and those below us have games in hand, but we have enough in the team now to suggest we can beat the teams we have to, if not the ones pushing for the promotion play-offs.

Famous last words.

Could it be almost over?

Still three days to go, though; plenty of time for the weather to turn again.

The restart when it comes could go one of two ways.

Either the break has given Alan Adamson the time to instil more confidence in the boys and we’ll hit the ground running or our lack of matches will mean we’ll be absolutely gash and back to square -3.

At least as regards first team responsibilities.

It’s not too much of a surprise given the abysmal performance of the team this season. The players looked completely at sea and clueless on Saturday (as at other games earlier) and it seemed that Chappie had “lost the dressing room” as that piece of football-speak has it.

I suppose the sideways move means the board couldn’t sack him outright as it would cost too much.

I hope this isn’t a case of be careful what you wish for. But then we were on course for relegation anyway.

I don’t know anything at all about Alan Adamson who’s taking temporary charge but he could hardly do much worse. Let’s hope he plays players in their correct positions and can impart some confidence to them.