Recovering From Relegation

What Are The Next Important Steps For Dunfermline Athletic? (Editor : Wining Games ! :o) )

The Scottish Championship is one of the lesser-known football competitions in the world with 10 Clubs, who battle for the length of a whole season to win the glory of being crowned “the Champions”.

The Scottish Championship is not comparable attendance-wise to the equivalent division in England, with the Pars – despite their difficult season under Peter Grant and John Hughes – having one of the larger averages during Season 2021-2022, with over 3,000 fans attending East End Park for every fixture.

Ticket Sales have been steady so far when it comes to Season Tickets sold for the West Fife Club`s SPFL League One campaign, which will begin in a few weeks time, with close to 1,000 already being purchased by loyal supporters.

Despite being Scotland`s third-tier, Season Ticket sales at other sides are generating a lot of revenue too; Athletic`s rivals Falkirk have already broken the 1k mark for example – and that says a lot about the quality of the game itself that fans expect to entertain them this upcoming season.

The English Premier League is home to some of the biggest and most iconic football stars in the World. The matches in the English Premier League are not some local football tournament. People from all over the World come to see England`s top-tier Clubs in action. The EPL has made it very accessible for fans to see their favourite team play, with online translations available everywhere and online ticket vendors providing fast and reliable bookings, for which one could, for example, click here to buy tickets for matches.

Rough Patch For Dunfermline Athletic

A brief look into the history books shows that footballers have always been hailed as heroes by their fans. In fact, there’s no other sport that has formed the same level of devotion and interest among the fan-base and it`s community, bringing people together and creating rivalry. Much like in other parts of the World, Scottish football fans love their Clubs dearly.

Even the Clubs who have not made it to this term`s Scottish Premiership have thousands of fans – such as Dundee, who have just dropped down from Scotland`s top-flight - and the worst fear for a football fan in England is to see his or her team get relegated. As the rules state, the last team on the points table are relegated to the division below, with other sides above potentially having to play in relegation play-off matches..

Keeping all this in mind, sadly, for Dunfermline Athletic supporters, this nightmare scenario became reality. Dunfermline Athletic were relegated to the third-tier following a 1-0 defeat on aggregate from Queen’s Park in the Play-Off Semi-Finals – a defeat that cost them their spot in the Championship for 2022-2023. Following the defeat, after a few days of considering his future as First-Team Manager of the Football Club, John Hughes resigned as manager of the Pars. Ever since Hughes took the job, he had been facing turmoil with only seven wins out of 23 league fixtures.

What Next?
Then, Dunfermline had a path to choose. The road to recovery is certainly not easy, but it is possible. We have seen prime examples of teams coming back stronger from relegation. A huge part of Leicester City`s unbelievable feat of 2016 was credited to their manager, Claudio Ranieri.

What Dunfermline lacked was a manager who can adequately motivate the team and lead the players to victory. The Club has signed more young talent in recent weeks and must also do what is necessary to keep the talent that they already have at East End Park too.

The Chairman and CEO, David Cook, made a quick statement following the resignation of Hughes, stating that their search for a manager was already underway and they have been interviewing the possible replacements. A few days later, James McPake was appointed manager.

Now, Pre-Season Training is underway with 4 friendly matches coming quickly round the corner. New signings will surely still be made while the youngsters integrate themselves into their new full-time environment. It will be a competitive league but the Pars will be hoping to be victorious come May 2023.