Stirling Albion F.C.

Infobox Football club
clubname = Stirling Albion


fullname = Stirling Albion Football Club
nickname = The Binos, The Beanos, The Yo-Yos
founded = 1945
ground = Forthbank Stadium, Stirling
capacity = 3,808
chairman =
manager =
league = Scottish Second Division
season = 2007-08
position = Scottish First Division, 10th (Relegated)
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Stirling Albion FC is a football club currently playing in the Scottish Football League. [ [http://www.scottishfootballleague.com/ Scottish Football League Website] ] 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

History

Origins

Stirling Albion was 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 (Forthbank) had been damaged during the war, having been hit by a German bomb 20 July, 1940. This was the only bomb to fall on the town during the Second World War.

The new club was the brainchild of local businessman Thomas Fergusson, 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 Binos until 1992.

The yo-yo years

Between the 1940 and 1960, 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 or Beanos.

Decline in the 1970s and 80s

A period of decline set in during the late 1960s and early 1970s as the Albion were consigned to the bottom league. League reconstruction in the mid 1970s brought about a new 3 tier system and The Binos 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 the team struggled 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 1980s 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 the grass pitch was considered not to be cost effective. The main stand which was also demolished 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 surface in cup matches and so for the next 5 years all of Stirling Albion's home cup games were played away. With the supposed advantage of the artificial pitch not working, St Johnstone defeated the binos by 6 goals on the artificial surface, 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 launch pad for the next 10 years. When Fleeting left to manage Kilmarnock. Bino's star striker John Brogan was promoted to manager and would finally lead the Binos 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 7 April, 1991.

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 and a new ground was built out with the Stirling town centre on the banks of the River Forth. After many years playing at Annfield in the centre of the town, the team now play at Forthbank Stadium.

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 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 Division 1 the Binos hosted Dumbarton, at Forthbank but Dumbarton secured the points and the Binos were resigned to another season in the second division. However, this proved to be a good thing as in the 1995-96 season the club went on an amazing run and had the league sewn up by Christmas, and were regularly scoring 6 goals in their games.

During 1996 and 1998 the club returned to the First Division. The 1996/97 season saw a respectable mid-table finish. The 1997/98 season began with good early cup form, but the club were 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 United and Scotland star Ray Stewart.

Between 1998 and 2000 the club were playing in the 2nd Division under the management of John Philliben. Philliben's time as manager was shroud in criticism after the signings he made throughout his reign. Philliben was sacked at the end of the 1999/2000 season and replaced by Ray Stewart, who was returning to manage the Binos for a second time.

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 and were subsequently relegated to the Third Division

The following season was equally dismal. The Binos 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. The Binos 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 2005/6. Major changes to the promotion/relegation issues had been put into place, with the advent of the play-off 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 place, 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 victory against Morton at Cappielow on October 25, 2005.

Stirling's hopes of reaching these playoffs were finally dashed after defeat at home by Partick Thistle on April 15, 2006.

eason 2006-07 - The return to the First Division

Stirling fans went into the new season with an air of expectancy [http://www.stirlingalbion.com/ Stirling Albion.Com, Stirling Albion's Unofficial Website] ] , much of the squad from last year had been retained and the league was generally perceived to be weaker with Gretna and Partick Thistle having been replaced by Brechin City and Stranraer . The season kicked off on 5 August, 2006 and saw Stirling at home to Ayr United, where Colin Cramb, Marek Tomana, Dene Shields, Ian Cashmore and Andy Gibson (for the third time) [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/stirling_albion/5218620.stm BBC Sport's Article] ] all made their debuts for the club. The game was even throughout but Ayr United did manage to score three goals due to some poor defensive play by the Bino's. Colin Cramb marked his debut by scoring The Binos only goal of the game.

Since then the Binos, went on an 18 game unbeaten run. This successful run has seen the Binos climb to 2nd place in the Second Division and leave them in with a great chance of promotion. The Binos remained unbeaten until the last game of 2006 when they travelled south to play Stranraer on 30 December, 2006 were defeated by Stranraer the Binos went on to draw with Alloa and suffer a defeat at home to Raith Rovers. This win for Raith Rovers was their first at Forthbank since The Binos moved from Annfield in 1993. [ [http://www.stirlingalbionfc.com/ Redweb, Stirling Albion's Unofficial Website for match reports and photos] ] in the first games of 2007. In the January transfer window the Bino's signed Robert Snodgrass on loan until the end of the season. The Binos finished 2nd in the Scottish Second Division and this guaranteed them a play-off place for promotion to the Scottish First Division.

Stirling Albion went in to the play-offs after a run of four defeats against Stranraer, Brechin City, Ayr United and Peterhead. The Binos played Raith Rovers in the semi finals of the playoffs. The first game was away from home at Starks Park, where the game finished with a goal less draw. In the second game of the tie the Binos defeated Raith Rovers at Forthbank with Chris Aitken scoring two goals and Colin Cramb scoring a third, to secure a play off final tie with Airdrie United. In the first game of the play off final the Bino’s had to come from 2 goals behind at half time, to go into the second game all square at 2 each. On Saturday 12 May, 2007 the Binos travelled to Airdrie to play the final game of the season and play for promotion to Scottish Division One. The game was played in front of a shared support of 3,465 people. Stirling Albion secured the win with Robert Snodgrass two goals and Stewart Devine scoring the third goal to gain the Binos promotion from the Scottish Second Division to the Scottish First Division.

It had taken the Binos nearly ten years to return to the Scottish First Division, after dropping down to ninth in the Scottish Third Division. Slowly over the past five seasons Binos boss Allan Moore took the Binos from this lowest ebb in the clubs recent history to gaining promotion to the Scottish First Division. However the team entered the First Division as the sole part-time team in that league and failed to sustain their position, finishing in the automatic relegation spot.

Honours

*Division II Winners: 1952-53, 1957-58, 1960-61, 1964-65
*Scottish Second Division Winners: 1976-77, 1990-91, 1995-96
*Scottish First Division Play-Off Winners: 2006-7

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 F.C., Scottish Cup 4th Round, February 15, 1996
*Record Attendance (at Annfield): 26,400 v Celtic, Scottish Cup, March 11, 1959

Players

Current squad

"As of 19 September 2008."

*Note: Squad numbers are not used by the Scottish Football League

Notable players

All Scottish (unless otherwise stated)

*Colin Cramb
*Alex Menzies
*Henry Hall
*Mickey Lawson
*John Colquhoun
*Iain Turner
*Derek Lilley
*Chris Aitken

References

External links

* [http://www.stirlingalbion.com/ Stirling Albion's website] The Unofficial Stirling Albion website
* [http://www.safcshop.co.uk/ Club Shop]
* [http://www.stirlingalbionfc.com/ RedWeb] - Match reports and photos from Stirling Albions Longest Running Unofficial Website
* [http://www.stirlingalbionfc.co.uk/ Stirling Albion Football Club Official Website] - www.stirlingalbionfc.co.uk