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 |
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. |
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. |
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 |
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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