Ground 13: Forthbank

Forthbank Stadium's East Stand. Plenty of room to spare

Game: Stirling Albion 1 v 4 Elgin City

Date: Saturday 17^th November 2012

Competition: Scottish Football League Division 3

Attendance: 454

Admission: £10

Programme: £3

Confession time: I’d didn’t pay to get into this game. In fact I wasn’t going to attend any games this Saturday as I was a tad cash-strapped. Thank goodness then for my Dad, who stepped in and met me in Stirling and paid us both through the turnstile (in return it looks like I’m taking him to Ibrox in a couple of weeks, so I’m not sure who’s the winner in the long run).

This was only my second visit to Forthbank – in 2009 I saw Dundee turn them over 2-0 in the Challenge Cup, but it’s a compact little ground to the east of Stirling town centre. Forthbank hosts 3,808 but all fans for today’s Third Division clash were held in the main stand. Stirling in the past few years have very much been a yo-yo club flitting between all three SFL divisions. Hence this was Elgin’s first visit to Forthbank since 2004.

We entered the ground to be greeted by fans selling lottery tickets and tickets for the away visit to Ibrox. Rangers were defeated here at Forthbank earlier in the season in a result that shocked Scottish football. Another appealing aspect of Stirling Albion as a club is they are Scotland’s first fan-owned club through the Supporters Trust. Hopefully this a model that is replicated throughout the country as the community value of these clubs are recognised.

We took our seats at the north end of the Main Stand but not before I picked up a copy of The Albion, Stirling’s official magazine. It’s a substantial A4 production costing £3 but covers a month’s worth of games. This is something I’ve seen before in the United States and I welcome the innovative. The magazine is well designed and put together and clearly they’ve done their work getting lots of sponsorship from local businesses. If they could provide an insert with that day’s teams like they do in America then that would be perfect!

Kick-off in the game was delayed by a linesman checking the net and discovering something was amiss. Another first in this 42 Grounds adventure! Who knew there was actually a reason for the assistant referees to be checking the net.

The game finally got underway and both teams were feeling each other out – Stirling are struggling near the foot of the division whilst Elgin are flying high in 2^nd behind Rangers. My Dad turned to me and said “Elgin haven’t offered much – they are just looking for that quick through pass to Gunn”, which less than three seconds later happened and Craig Gunn put the Black and Whites 1-0 ahead.

At this point, the rain started to lash it down obscuring the great view of the Ochil hills you get from the ground. The game was still a bit of a battle for the next twenty minutes before Gunn doubled Elgin’s lead with a cool finish after some neat interplay and a good advantage played by the referee.

Gunn completed his hat-trick five minutes later when he tucked in from close range, whilst Elgin extended their lead to 4-0 when Stuart Leslie netted a pass from left-winger Daniel Moore. Stirling were shell-shocked – they really hadn’t played that badly yet found themselves four down! They managed to pull a goal back just before half time with a deflected shot that looped over Gibson in the Elgin goal.

At half-time we discussed the likelihood of more goals in the second half – I went for two more whilst Dad, ever the optimist, predicted none. Unfortunately for us both, my Dad was correct. The game really petered out and any chance of a Stirling comeback looked unlikely as they were forced into their third substitution of the game in the 52^nd minute with a sub replacing an injured replacement. Elgin threw on a few of their fringe players but neither side pushed hard for more goals, but after a cracking first half we could have very few complaints as we filed out of a lovely but cold Forthbank.