Dumfries and District Amateur Football League

2010-11 Season Preview

This promises to be one of the tightest seasons in many a long year with at least seven of the eight remaining teams feeling they have improved their squads this season. The exception being Terregles who have decided to re-build and start with the youngest squad by some distance. Although Uppers won the league last year it was Lochmaben who were the form team from December onwards and played the second half of the season with plenty of confidence. If the Burgh team can get a better start this season they may be the team to beat, although Uppers will be working hard to stop them.

Upper Annandale, league champions for the past four seasons are looking to make history by being the first team to win the championship five times in a row. They have most of their key players from last season resigned and have added one or two decent players to their squad. Their home form continues to be the platform they build their challenge on and if they can maintain it this year they will be one of the favourites. Defensively they are very strong and if former league player of the year Ross Dawson stays fit and available Uppers defence will rarely concede.

Lochmaben, the other Annandale team in the league will provide the biggest challenge to Uppers dominance and had it not been for the fact that they had some ropey results at the start of last season they might have won the championship. They tasted success in three cups as well as finishing runners-up, putting together a long unbeaten record in the process and will start off with plenty of confidence. At the time of writing they have not signed last season’s 50 goal striker Charles Common which is a big loss to any team although they have picked up James Rogerson from Lochar.

Lochar Thistle have made a lot of changes to their squad over the close season and have certainly strengthened in the process. Most of last season’s better players have re-signed and they have also picked up several top performers from the other teams as well as adding youth with several of last season’s Queens U19 squad now in their ranks. Always a strong cup team this could be Lochar’s year for the title. Key signings are Gary Cochrane and Darren Milligan who will beef up the midfield area where they have been a bit lightweight at times over the last couple of years.

Dynamo Star have a long established squad who have all re-signed again this year. They have added several players from other teams and overall will be slightly stronger. They improved their league position last season after a difficult first season. An improvement on fourth place will be their target as well as some cup success. Any win against Star this season will be hard earned. New signing James Smith will add even more quality to an already decent midfield. Several of their squad are based in Glasgow and as long as they travel week in week out they will put in a stronger challenge.

Maxwelltown Thistle were the main losers last season dropping off the pace after a bright start. The club did have a horrendous sequence of injuries which started on the first day of the season when they lost Sean Kearney for the season and actually got worse as time went on, culminating in the career ending injury to star defender Tommy Jardine. Thistle have responded by putting together a bigger squad and have picked up quite a few players from other clubs whilst losing only one or two from last year. They will certainly miss centre forward Graeme Carling who is out till at least December with a knee injury but have signed strikers Joe Jardine, Steven Campbell and Mike McGhie and will be hoping they can match the goal a game record that they have lost with the unavailability of Carling.

Morton Thistle have had a very good pre-season wwith good wins against top South League opposition and will be confident that they will be capable of winning regardless of the opposition. Morton put together a young squad a couple of years ago and these players have had time to gel in the interim and on their day the Thornhill side are a match for anyone and are the team most likely to spring a surprise or two over the coming months. They have added a few new signings to last season’s squad, their only problem will be finding a consistent goalscorer.

The YMCA have been struggling of late despite bringing lots of talented youngsters into the league. They have lost a lot of last year’s squad and have had to rebuild yet again. Manager Tam Gourlay has a new assistant this season in Peter Meechan. Peter did a great job at Terregles a couple of years ago and will be a big asset to the club. On the playing front they have added some experienced players and do have a stronger group than they had last term. Only time will tell if they can turn that promise into wins in what will be a hard year for everyone.

Last season started well for Terregles Athletic but sadly petered out midway through and in the end the club were glad to see the end of the season.  They have recruited a lot of young players from the Dalbeattie and Lockerbie areas, many of whom are just out of the youth league. This therefore will be a rebuilding year and it may be a season or two before they can put a in a stronger challenge.