Game One

Match: Stirling Albion Vs Queen’s Park
Staduim: Forthbank Stadium
Attendance: 701
Competition: Ladbrokes League Two
Date: 3rd August 2019

As per my previous post, I was finding it difficult to come up with a schedule that I was truly happy with, then I came to the conclusion this match would be the perfect start. Why? For two reasons

I] this season sees the start of Stirling’s 75th anniversary season as part of the Scottish Football League

II] Queen’s Park are the oldest club in the Scottish Football League

The journey from Edinburgh was nice and quick, just 45 minutes via train. Once in Stirling, a 20 minute walk gets you to Forthbank. A word of warning for anyone who wishes to visit the ground, hold your breath or breathe through your mouth during the walk as a foul stench comes wafting across you from the local water sewage works.
So after the aforementioned 20 minute walk we were standing outside the local swimming pool and looking across the car park at what we presumed was the Main stand, but no obvious sign that this was where the main entrance/player’s entrance was etc [turns out the building which resembles a leisure centre is in fact it, the Binos Bar is located upstairs, but I resisted the temptation of a pint as at my age I now prefer a coffee and toastie from Costa, which we had earlier in The Thistle Shopping Centre which is situated close to the railway station.
Quickly spotting a programme seller, I purchased 2 copies, I think the seller was a bit surprised I was buying 2!! We then began looking for the club shop, a little walk the entire length of the Stand produced no shop. We then asked one of the friendly stewards who informed us it was inside the stand beyond the turnstiles we currently stood beside.
Talking of stewards, it was good to observe their friendliness with the supporters. On one occasion an elderly fan approached the turnstiles on crutches and as he struggled to negiotiate them, the Supervisory steward suggested he’d find it easier if they opened the nearby exit for him to enter. The gentleman explaining he had just had an operation for a new knee, the steward jokingly said he hoped he wouldn’t run on the pitch lol.
While we soaked up the “atmosphere” outside in the unusually hot Scottish weather, it was great to see so many families with their sons and daughters dressed in replica strips, just hope they grow up still supporting them and not either half of the Old Firm.

We eventually paid the £14 each to enter, the wife eager to see the club shop. How disappointed we were….all I can say is the club shop is more of an alcove set into the wall opposite the turnstiles than a shop, a couple of shirts and things hanging on the wall and one solitary till.
With that disappointment behind us, we decided to go a find a seat, not realising how hard it would be to find 2 together. The stand consists of just a dozen rows or it may be even less, I didn’t count, and the area we were in seemed to house mainly season ticket holders, with “reserved” stickers on their seats. We eventually found 2 seats together at the back of the stand and just to the side of a roped off area, which was in fact the Director’s “Box” .

The Match

100% commitment from both sides made up for the lack of technical quality. As the first half didn’t serve up to much excitement, I went looking for the toilets and some refreshments. The toilets are by far not the worse I’ve ever been in while the refreshment area is basically a large room with a table in the centre, an urn providing hot water for coffee and tea, a little oven behind producing the lovely Scotch and Steak pies, however maybe I turned up too early as my pie wasn’t exactly hot, but tasty nevertheless.
The second half was mostly the same as the first half, although I swear the referee was becoming more and more incompetent as the game progressed, nice to see the west coast bias extends to the lower leagues.
Poor control by the Albion number 8[ one of two players I had been impressed with during the game, the other being his teammate number 3] eventually allowed the visitors a clear run in on goal and they made the most of this early season present. 0-1.
Then minutes later we had what Ice Hockey fans would call a “bench clearance”.
The Albion captain lunged in with a dreadfully late challenge and was immediately red-carded, that didn’t stop the entire Queen’s Park team race up the pitch to confront him or his teammates, as I said earlier, 100% commited.
Did I mention the roped off Directors Box earlier? At one point one of the Albion directors came over and sat beside us and started chatting away, nice to see he was in agreement to our evaluation of the match officials.

At full-time it was nice and easy to vacate the stadium, within 90 minutes, not only had we got back to the train station, we had managed a McDonalds and were even back in Edinburgh, ready to enjoy some of the delights of negiotiating the tourists and getting a seat on the bus and get home.

In summary, Forthbank is a lovely little ground with very friendly fans and staff. Defintely be looking to come back at some point once we’ve done the other 41 grounds.