Stirling Albion F.C.
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| Stirling Albion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Stirling Albion Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | The Binos, The Beanos, The Yo-Yos | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Founded | 1945 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Forthbank Stadium, Stirling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Capacity | 3,808 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman |  Peter Mackenzie |
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| Manager | Allan Moore |
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| League | Scottish Second Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005-06 | Scottish Second Division, 5th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Stirling Albion FC are a football club currently playing in the Scottish Football League. The club are nicknamed The Binos (Beanos), or The Yo-Yos (given to them by fans lamenting their habit of being promoted to a higher division one year, and immediately relegated the following one). They play at Forthbank Stadium in Stirling, on the outskirts of the city near the River Forth. The club's badge depicts the Wallace Monument and the Ochil Hills.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origins
Albion were founded in 1945 after the town's previous football team King's Park F.C. had failed to survive the Second World War. King's Park's ground had been damaged during the war, having been hit by the only bomb to fall on the town.
The new club was the brainchild of local businessman Thomas Ferguson, a local coal magnate, and he purchased the Annfield estate to build a new stadium. Annfield was situated within a quarter of a mile from the town centre and would be the home of The Yo-Yos until 1992.
[edit] The yo-yo years
Between the '40s and '60s the club gained a reputation as a club that was too good for the lower league but never quite good enough to establish themselves in the Top flight, hence the club's nickname of The Yo-Yos. For a time it was a saying in Scotland that something or somebody was "going up and down like Stirling Albion". Over years as younger fans have come along the club has sadly neglected the original nickname and now most fans think the club's nickname is The Binos.
[edit] Decline in the 1970s and 80s
A period of decline set in during the late '60s and early '70s as the Albion were consigned to the bottom league. League reconstruction in the mid '70s brought about a new 3 tier system and The Yo-Yos found themselves in the lowest division until 1977. A 4 year spell in the 1st Division ended in humiliation in 1981 when the team failed to score a league goal for 8 months. Surprisingly they still finished 2nd bottom of the league, even missing penalties and open goals.
Relegation to Division 2 in 1981 almost killed the club as an uninspiring team under manager Alex Smith and dwindling gates led the club to the brink of bankruptcy. The clubs only way of escape was to sell Annfield to the local council and then rent it back from the people who had got a prime city centre location at a knock down price.
During this period, the team were responsible for the 20th Century's record Scottish Cup score, inflicting a 20-0 defeat on Selkirk in 1984.
As the '80s progressed the club continued to struggle, surprisingly still under the management of Alex Smith, until 1986 when Smith moved to St Mirren. George Peebles took charge of the team and would be the first Scottish manager to manage a team who played on Astroturf. The council had decided to make as much money as possible from Annfield and grass was a goner (as well as the main stand which was knocked down after being declared an unsafe building). An extra large crowd turned up in September 1987 to see Stirling play Ayr United on the first ever game on artificial turf in Scotland.
One of the requirements of the turf was that clubs could decide not to play on the turf in cup matches and so for the next 5 years all Albion home cup games were played away. With the supposed advantage of the artificial pitch not working, St Johnstone won 6-0 on the carpet, Peebles was relieved of his duties and Jim Fleeting was appointed.
Fleeting would be manager for 6 months but would shake the club up and serve as a launchpad for the next 10 years. When Fleeting left to manage Kilmarnock star striker John Brogan was promoted to manager and would finally lead the Yo-Yos out of Division 2 in 1991. The club went unbeaten away from home for a whole Calendar year and easily saw of the challenge of Montrose to clinch the title at Links Park on 7th April 1991. Yo-Yo's fans had a massive party as 10 years of bottom league football were finally put behind them.
[edit] The 1990s: between Divisions 1 and 2
The next 3 years would prove to be eventful in Division 1. The club stayed up but Annfield was no more as a new ground was built at Forthbank. After many years playing at Annfield in the centre of the town, the team now play at Forthbank stadium in Stirling, near the shores of the River Forth.
Eventually the club would be relegated to Division 2 when the structure of Scottish Football was changed again to create a 4 Division setup. Brogan was sacked and replaced by Kevin Drinkell. Drinkell would have a terrible first season in charge, by February the club were 3rd bottom and following a particularly inept defeat at Brechin the fans revolted against Drinkell. Sensing he was in the last chance saloon he quickly brought in Paul Deas and Garry Paterson who shored up the team and would take them on a 10 game unbeaten run. This run lifted the club into 2nd on the last day of the season when a point would see them make an immediate return to Div 1. Alas 2 schoolboy errors by Ronnie McQuilter saw the Yo-Yos lose. However this proved to be a good thing as in 1995-96 the club went on an amazing run and had the league sewn up by Christmas, and gave regular thrashings of 6 and 7 to the other teams in the leagues.
1996-98 saw the club back in the 1st Division. 1996-1997 saw a respectable mid-table finish. 1997-98 began with good early cup form, but saw the club relegated after the introduction of foreign players failed to compensate for the loss of several key players. With one game remaining, Drinkell was replaced by his assistant, former West Ham and Scotland star Ray Stewart.
1998-2000 saw the club in the 2nd Division under John Philliben. A lot of money was wasted on past-it players and friends of the manager and the club struggled, it was no surprise that Philliben was sacked in 2000 to be replaced by the return of Ray Stewart.
[edit] The depths then stabilisation
The 2000-1 season marked Stirling Albion's lowest ebb. The expensive squad that Stewart had assembled proved unable to mesh properly as a team. The team went 17 games without a win, and finished at the bottom of the Second Division.
The following season was equally dismal. The team finished second bottom of the Third Division, avoiding the bottom place by the narrowest of margins (a single missed penalty). Their Scottish Cup campaign was similarly weak, with the team being knocked out by East of Scotland League team Gala Fairydean. Ray Stewart was sacked at the end of the season.
Allan Moore was appointed manager at the beginning of the 2002-3 season, and the club saw immediate improvement in its fortunes. Stirling Albion were promoted to the Second Division at the end of the 2003-4 season, and the following season came a respectable 4th place in the league.
This improvement continued into season 2005-06. Major changes to the promotion/relegation issues have been put into place, with the advent of the playoff system. The team finishing 9th in the First Division, and the teams finishing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the Second Division will compete in end of season 'play-offs' to either determine a second promotion spot, or survival in the higher league by the 9th placed team. With Gretna having had already clinched the Championship, there was still a lot to play for by the teams below. The fact that Stirling were even in a position to challenge is a remarkable one considering they picked up a mere three points from their opening eleven fixtures. The season turned round after an unexpected 2-1 victory at Morton in a midweek match in October.
Much of this improvement has been down to a change in system, and the incredible form of 36-year old veteran striker, Paddy Connolly. Credit is also due to manager Allan Moore for turning things around when his job was on the line.
Stirling's hopes of reaching these playoffs were finally dashed after a 2-1 home defeat by Partick Thistle on Saturday 15th April.
[edit] Season 2006-07
Stirling fans went into the new season with an air of expectancy, much of the squad from last year had been retained and the league was generally perceived to be weaker (Gretna and Partick Thistle having been replaced by Brechin City and Stranraer).
The season kicked off on August 5th 2006 and saw Stirling at home to Ayr United. Colin Cramb, Marek Tomana, Dene Shields, Ian Cashmore and Andy Gibson (for the third time!) all made their debuts for the club. The game was even and neither side can honestly say they deserved to win but some poor defensive play allowed Ayr to win 3-1. Colin Cramb marked his debut by scoring the reply for The Yo-Yo's.
Since then the Yo-Yo's have gone on an unbeaten run, 13 games as at 23rd November, in the league that has seen them climb to 2nd place and leave them in with a great chance of automatic promotion.
[edit] Honours
- Division II Winners: 1952-53, 1957-58, 1960-61, 1964-65
- Scottish Second Division Winners: 1976-77, 1990-91, 1995-96
[edit] Club Records
- Record Victory: 20-0 v Selkirk Scottish Cup 1st Round December 8 1984
- Record Defeat: 0-9 v Dundee United, Division I, December 30 1967
- Record Attendance (at Forthbank): 3,808 v Aberdeen, Scottish Cup 4th Round, February 15 1996
[edit] Current Squad
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[edit] External links
- Stirling Albion's website
- Club Shop
- RedWeb - Match reports and photos from Stirling Albions Longest Running Unofficial Website
- A Stirlng Albion Fan Site
