Stevie Aitken says that Dumbarton’s Championship survival is all down to his players, after they all-but secured their place in the division with the draw at Dundee United last weekend.

Barring a catastrophic home reverse to Falkirk coupled with a thumping win for Raith Rovers over Ayr United that results in a nine-goal; swing in goal difference, the Sons will be in the second tier again next season.

Aitken is rightly proud that he has led his part-timers to the brink of safety, and he admits that proving their doubters wrong has been a huge motivation for both him and his squad.

“It’s a fantastic achievement and I can’t give the players enough credit,” Aitken said.

“Almost everyone was writing us off at the start of the season, as they do every season, for relegation. “Listen, I get it, we are a part-time club and we have the smallest resources of anyone in the division, but it is still a great feeling to prove people wrong.

“Obviously, we aren’t taking anything for granted, so we’ll be fully focused on the task at hand against Falkirk. But to be in the position we are in with a game to go is a great place to be.

“From a personal point of view, it is obviously something that I take a great deal of pride in, but it is the players who have really stepped up to the plate and worked so hard to get us to where we are. I’m immensely proud of all of them.”

The commitment to the cause shown by the Dumbarton players is all the more remarkable when you consider that every one of them is out of contract in the summer.

“There are obviously issues to be resolved in terms of contracts for next season, but we’ve told the players that we will get to the end of the season and then talk things through,” said Aitken.

“They all know that just because we aren’t talking about it at the moment that it doesn’t mean we don’t want to keep them, but we obviously had to wait to see what division we would be in so that we knew where we stood financially.

“Once we get the Falkirk game out of the way then we’ll sit down and see where we are.

“I am still talking to the club about my own situation as well, but that will be resolved in due course after this game is out of the way.”

With Saturday’s opponents aiming to seal runners-up spot in the table to smooth their potential path through the promotion play-offs, Aitken knows that it will be far from easy to end the campaign on a high.

“We want to put on a real show for our supporters in the last game,” he said.

“It is a bit of a strange situation to be in, given that we know we are safe barring an absolute disaster. “We don’t have the pressure of having to get something to stay up, but at the same time, you just never know in football.

“The safest thing to do is to prepare for the match like any other game and make sure that we are right at it, as we were against Dundee United.

“That performance was massive, and we might even have got the three points. We played well, and the team really showed what they were all about.

“It will take something similar to get anything from Falkirk, but we've done quite well against them this season.

“They are going all out for second place, so we know that we will have to be at our best. Hopefully though we can give the fans a reward for their backing throughout the campaign.

“We also have the player of the year dinner on Saturday night, so it would be nice to go into that with a win and celebrate another successful season with our fans.”