Friday 19th May 2017
DUMBARTON face a big weekend in terms of preparing for next season as the identity of three more league opponents is set to be revealed.
Sons already know they will face Morton, Dunfermline, Queen of the South, St Mirren and Livingston in the 2017/18 campaign.
And tonight, either Falkirk or Dundee United will join that list when they play the second leg of their play-off semi-final.
The first leg at Tannadice ended 2-2 on Tuesday night, meaning that with no away goals rule, it is all to play for at the Falkirk Stadium this evening.
The losers will definitely be in next season’s Championship, while the winners may yet be, pending the result of the play-off final.
The next team whose identity will be known is that of the bottom team in the Premiership, who will automatically be relegated for next season.
The final fixtures in the top flight’s bottom six take place tomorrow afternoon, with Inverness CT currently in last place.
If they lose at home to Motherwell tomorrow, they are down and will play Sons in the league for the first time ever next season. They will also be making their first ever visit to Dumbarton’s current stadium in the process.
However, if they beat the Steelmen, and Hamilton fail to win at home to Dundee, the Accies will be the ones demoted straight away. A draw will also be enough for Inverness if Hamilton lose by five goals or more.
Inverness and Hamilton will finish as the Premiership’s bottom two, with the team in 11th place going into the play-off final against the winners of the Dundee United v Falkirk clash.
The losers of that final, played over two legs next week, will complete next season’s Championship line-up.
Meanwhile, Alloa Athletic and Brechin City meet again at the Indodrill Stadium tomorrow to see who will be the other part-time side in next season’s Championship.
Brechin won the first leg 1-0 at Glebe Park on Wednesday night, but Alloa, featuring several ex-Sons players, will fancy their chances of turning it round.
They beat City 6-1 at home last month – and two years ago, they overturned a 3-1 first leg deficit to defeat Forfar in the play-off final.
That match kicks off at 5.15pm and is live on BBC Alba.
Andy Galloway