Saturday, 24 August 2013

VENUE #41 STIRLING ALBION Forthbank Stadium

SCOTTISH LEAGUE TWO


Stirling Albion... 1
East Stirling... 3

Saturday 24th August 2013

@ The Forthbank Stadium
             Stirling



     Back in Scotland again already, just a week after visiting Stamford Bridge with a crowd of 41,000 plus I'm in Stirling to see the Binos take on the Shire in a local derby which will bring around 700 people in to watch it.
     The Forthbank Stadium is located in the Springkerse area of Stirling set in the backdrop of Stirling castle and the Wallace monument which is a tower situated on the summit of Abbey Craig and commemorates the Scottish legend of the 13th century Sir William Wallace.  It's also very close to the banks of the river Forth, hence the name.
   
   
View from the car park
 Last weekend Stirling Albion won comfortably here at the Forthbank 2-0 against Peterhead putting them third in the table and manager Greig McDonald makes just one forced change to the line up, skipper Jamie Bishop suspended for this game after being sent off last Saturday for fighting with Andrew Rodgers of Peterhead, he is replaced by Jamie Clark for this match.  East Stirling also played at home last week beating Elgin City 3-0 and are currently top of the table.  John Coughlin makes two changes to his team, Jordan McKechnie takes the place of Ross O'Donoghue and Paul Quinn replacing the ex Celtic youngster Jamie Glasgow.
     Seeing that the Shire have never won here and the fact that they lost 9-1 on their last visit in March I was expecting them to get a right pounding today but it seemed as though the table may have turned in their favour as they started the game the much brighter and hungrier of the two teams and took the lead after just five minutes when Max Wright forced a corner out of David Crawford the Albion keeper and took it himself floating the ball into the Binos six yard box for Michael Bolochoweckyj, (I hope I haven't dropped one of those in the spelling), to head home from close range.
Bino the Bear looks dejected and the game hasn't started yet.
     Soon after Wright was clean through on the Albion goal but his shot struck the post and rolled along the goal line before being retrieved by a relieved Crawford
     But in the 23rd minute it was 2-0, an attempted header back to the keeper by Ross Forsyth was intercepted by Wright and played across the centre of the Albion penalty area for Paul Quinn to fire home from about ten yards.
     The Binos looked poor and didn't offer much in the first half and continued their lacklustre ways in the second finding them selves three down after 53 minutes when a free kick just inside the Albion half taken by Iain Thompson was headed back from the by line by Paul Quinn into the path of the industrious Wright who's shot, once again, hit the post but this time the rebound was tucked away by Jordan McKechnie who was the quickest to read and judge the situation which leaves the question, where were the Albion defenders?
   
When the footballs bad just look at that scenery.
3-0 and the game was as good as won and so East Stirling took it easy a little letting Albion, for the first time in the match, go and do some goal hunting for them selves and their first clear cut chance came in the 78th minute when a ball played down the right for David Weatherton to chase and play across the Shire six yard box for Jordan White to tap in an easy consolation goal.

     The Forthbank Stadium is only 20 years old and Stirling moved here after playing the first 48 years of their existence at a ground called Annfield, (Nothing to do with a club from Liverpool).  Capacity of the ground is 3,800 of which 2,500 are seated.
     The ground has a most beautiful picturesque setting with the countryside and the Scottish hills in the background.  From outside, the Stadium has a strange metal structure around it that looks like scaffolding.  There is a little office building near the main turnstiles which houses the club shop that looks a bit of an afterthought stuck in a back room of the place, there are no directions to the shop, I would never have found it without asking the lady receptionist at the desk as you enter the main doors of the building.
Is that scaffolding?  Or is it framework holding up the stand
     Opposite this building are some five-a-side pitches where the players train/warm up and they can be used by members of the public, for a fee I should imagine.
     Inside the ground there are two stands running alongside each touchline, the West and the East stand.  The West is the slightly bigger of the two length ways, it is fully covered and used by home support.  The East stand is very similar to the West, it is also fully covered and is intended for away support use.
     The two ends behind the goals are the North and the South end and both are open terraces with some lovely views of the surrounding area as I mentioned earlier, something to look at and admire when the football is poor as it was today but that doesn't excuse the bad language that was repeatedly directed at the players from members of the home support especially as there was a lot of young children in the area.

                                                         Match Details
     

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