Stonelaw AFC’s Division Two title was built over months of consistency, goals, and finding ways to keep results moving in the right direction during the key stages of the season.
Following confirmation of the championship, manager Marc Bain joined Frank Sideline for the GDSFC Inside Verdict (League Winners Edition) to reflect on the title-winning campaign, standout moments, and the squad behind the success.
Name: Marc Bain
Role: Manager
Team: Stonelaw AFC
We’ve had a strong run of results all season, since going top our focus was always on the next game. I think the win away at Steins in April, a good result against a good team set us up well for the run in.
The numbers this season have been strong right across the board. What do you feel separated Stonelaw from the rest over the full campaign?
We got ahead early in a lot of games, we very rarely conceded the first goal and I think our ability to grind out results made us a hard team to beat at times.
Looking back now, was there a particular game, result or period in the season that felt massive in the title race?
I think the end of January was big for us, we’d lost to Chandlers and Motherwell Villa quite close together. These results probably give us a kick at a good time, we then went on to win every league game after that, making sure those results meant nothing.
John Dempster’s 58 league goals will rightly grab attention, but what else inside the squad deserves recognition from this title-winning season?
Our defending was solid all season, this was our most improved area of the season, Callum Scott and Connor Jamieson in particular were huge improvements on last year and were key in the title race.
What does becoming Division Two champions mean to this group and the club heading into next season
It means a lot to us, we started the team up as mates from school who just wanted to enjoy playing football again. So to win a league title in our 2nd season is huge and it’s created a great memory for the boys. As for next season, we’ll worry about that after we’ve finished celebrating.
Footy Focus season 25/26 
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