Binos

Stirling Albion  2  Forfar Athletic  0

Scottish Football League  – Second Division

Admission / Programme - £15 / £2.50

This Scottish malarkey is going far too smoothly for my liking.

It seems like every month the work related trip coincides with a plethora of choices when it comes to the football, yet, in previous years that wasn’t always the case.

A couple of times I’ve had to scrape the bottom of the barrel, to the extent that I’ve stood in a crowd of around 30 or so watching Queens Park Reserves playing at Lesser Hampden, although to be fair the nearby Clockwork Beer pub made the effort worthwhile.

But, especially in the colder and darker months, many a time I’ve not been able to get out at all, bearing in mind midweek football, especially in the lower levels, was not really a thing, probably due to quite recently the bulk of clubs not having floodlights, certainly outside of the so called professional ranks. Even in the professional leagues, midweek football is not a huge thing like it is in England, I mean, Elgin to Stranraer is a good poke on a Tuesday night for players who have full time jobs!

But, since we came back from the lockdown periods and travel was allowed again, it’s been really productive heading North of the border. Partick Thistle, Dumbarton, Albion Rovers, Sauchie Juniors and St Johnstone were all graced with my presence up until the start of the current campaign, while regular readers will be aware that this season I’ve already managed to get five new grounds under my belt.

For the March trip, I had choices, once again. Dundee were at home but that was a logistical challenge (getting back to Glasgow that is), while I could have headed over to Albion Rovers again, a ground and club that I really enjoyed visiting last time around. Had the weather been bad a short run down the Clyde would have taken me to the Clydebank v Kilwinning Rangers game, but, the one I really wanted to get to was the game around a 35 minute train ride North of Glasgow.

Stirling Albion v Forfar Athletic, I really can’t understand why the TV channels weren’t fighting over this one. The Second Division encounter pitted a home side that would go top of the league had they won, whereas for Forfar, the glory was a night out in Stirling and a chance to gain some ground on the play-off contenders.

The train from Queen Street was a straightforward affair, calling at Larbert on the way North, which it seems is only a short walk from the home of Stenhousemuir FC, now that’s one for the future I’m sure. Anyway, we soon pulled in to Stirling, and being aware that it was a historical and cultural hotbed with landmarks aplenty, I chose to do the obvious thing, I had a walk to the Wetherspoons.

I only had the one, the service was very slow, but the clientele was a very different one to the locals who frequent the two establishments close to Glasgow Central. You did feel like you could catch someone’s eye in Stirling and still have your own intact when you left the building!

To get to the Forthbank Stadium from the middle of Stirling you head back to the station, over the footbridge to the rear and then follow the road which runs alongside the river, before the ground appears on your left hand side, set in an area where out of town retail seems to be the name of the game.

The Forthbank Stadium is a new ground. Well, new-ish, the club moved to it in 1993 from their previous home of Annfield Stadium, which was located on the South side of the city, before it was replaced with housing.

Just beyond the Forthbank Stadium is a pub called the Springkerse View. It’s one of those pubs you find in areas that are retail dominated, catering for families and food, but to be fair, on a football night it seems to be the place where the locals gather for a pre-match Tennents.

With that tested, and the kick off less than fifteen minutes away, it was a short plod over the roundabout and into the queue which lead to the turnstiles that took you into the main stand, which in a typically Scottish fashion, was the only stand that was going to be opened for the game.

The away fans (Loons apparently), of which there were about 40 or so, occupied the North end of the stand, and feeling a bit sorry for them, I chose to sit amongst them to watch the game. The ground itself is made up of a large main stand, and opposite is another slightly smaller version of the same stand. Behind both goals are identical uncovered terraced areas, but the question for me remains, how many times a season do they open up more than one side of the ground?

The pitch was in excellent nick by the way, and talking of pitches, did you know that in 1987 Annfield Stadium had the first ever artificial surface in the Scottish professional game? No, neither did I until I looked on Wiki a couple of minutes ago…..

So what about Stirling Albion then?

Think of a stereotypical yo-yo club and that just about sums it up. In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s the club seemed to bounce between Division’s One and Two, and then as we got into the 2000’s and an extra tier was added, they bounced in and out of that one as well! In fact at one point a few decades ago, the phrase ‘Going up and down like Stirling Albion’ was used in a similar context to how the phrase ‘Going up and down like a tarts knickers’ may have been used by those of a less politically correct nature!

So, the ‘Bouncing Binos’, as I have named them, partly because the clubs actual nickname is the Bino’s, then lead me down a wormhole of discovery to try and find out where that name actually derived from. You see in Scotland clubs have unusual nicknames, like the aforementioned Loons (Forfar), the Red Lichties (Arbroath), the Bully Wee (Clyde) and the Doonhamers (Queen of the South), but it transpires that Binos is just a derivation of Albion (in the plural, but with a couple of letters missing).

810 rocked up to watch the game, which was slightly better than the clubs average attendance of around 750, and this is in a league where the best supported club is Bonnyrigg Rose who get around 850, while the worst supported is Stranraer with 350. But let’s be fair, Stirling is a big place, and the club is one with a history, so you would expect a decent number going through the turnstiles.

Forfar battled hard in the game, but it was the hosts who finally took the lead through Ross McGeachie who netted in the 70^th minute, while the game was finally made safe eight minutes later through Dale Carrick. The Binos in the crowd were delighted, with the locals youths in full voice at the end of the stand. Meanwhile, down in the section for the away fans, the Loons were less than happy, they had a sixty mile drive to contend with, because as we all know Forfar isn’t blessed with a railway station anywhere near……what do you mean you didn’t know that, I thought everyone knew that??

The trains from Stirling to Glasgow run well into the night, so I was under no pressure to get back to the station on a dark and damp evening. That got me thinking, just how many more Scottish League grounds can I get to on a Tuesday night? I reckon if the fixtures fall right, I’ve got another season and a half’s worth to go at.

But it doesn’t always work like that does it!