Saturday 27th October 2018
We are back again, this time with a trip up to the ancient town of Stirling. This is trip number 4 of 42 and we decided that our next stop would be Forthbank Stadium, Stirling to watch Stirling Albion.
Steeped in Scottish history and home to Stirling Castle, the site of the battle of Stirling Bridge, the battle of Bannockburn and frequented by Scottish heroes like Robert the Bruce and William Wallace, then we came along; the Scottish zeros, otherwise known as the “42” team.
A team consisting of 5 on this trip being myself (Simon), Ross, Boab and Ian (who had came along with us to Somerset Park) and joined this time by another Boab, who we will refer to as Boaby Wan Kanobi to avoid any confusion. Together we descended on Stirling by train at 11am and proceeded to drink an excessive amount of alcohol from the moment we boarded the train at Queen Street Station in Glasgow.
The amount consumed was so absurd that my recollection of the day is not unlike that of Homer Simpson’s night out – as illustrated below – so most of the days information comes to me 2nd hand from the rest of the guys.
So why Stirling? I went on a trip when I was younger to Stirling Castle. We didn’t get to go on many trips in those days so Stirling was like another world to me and for some reason I would look out for their results every week when the Saturday evening edition of the Evening Times would come in with the scores. Anyway, enough of this sickening nostalgia!
At the start of the season I had put an accumulator bet on in respect of who would win the 4 Scottish Football leagues and I’ve backed Stirling Albion to be League Two champions, purely on the basis I had a soft spot for them from childhood. They are not favourites and sacked their Manager a few games into the season due to a poor start which saw them place third bottom of the table after 9 games. I wanted to, no I needed to see the start of the turnaround from Stirling to save my bet at the end of the season but unfortunately Albion didn’t look in the mood, even with a new Manager in place.
A wee bit about the Club
Stirling Albion are one of our league’s younger clubs, established in 1945 they were resident at Annfield park which was situated just south of the town centre and the club’s home for 50 years before moving to Forthbank Stadium. 
The team are nicknamed the Bino’s and in terms of success they have won the Scottish Championship (then Division Two) 4 times and have been Scottish League One Champions (then Division Three) 5 times. The team have never reached a National Cup final but did once beat Celtic in the first leg of a League Cup tie in the early 80’s and managed to overcome Rangers in 2012, then in League Two, beating them 1-0 at Forthbank Stadium.
Stirling Albion once recorded a massive 20-0 victory over Selkirk in the Scottish Cup which was the biggest margin in the 20th Century in a senior game in Britain in 1984.
A wee bit about the ground
Forthbank stadium was built in 1993 although Stirling previously played their football at the aforementioned Annfield. The name Forthbank was name of the original football ground which was played in by Kings Park F.C before it was bombed by the Nazi’s during World War 2. Hitler must have really hated Kings Park as apparently it was one of only a few bombs dropped on Stirling, which unfortunately hit the ground, sending the former Stirling club out of existence. Their demise was the catalyst for the formation of Stirling Albion, so they can thank the Luftwaffe for their existence.
The stadium has a capacity of 3808 and was opened in 1993 to accommodate the Bino’s after Annfield fell into disrepair. The ground is owned by Stirling Council who lease it back to the club and consists of two stands with two very small terraces at either end behind the goals.
A nice wee stadium in my own opinion, located in an industrial estate about a mile outside the town centre. We were too lazy to walk the trip from the pubs in the town centre and got a taxi to the ground just prior to kick off.
The price
A ticket to get into Forthbank was £13 which is the lowest we have paid so far, albeit this is our first visit to a team playing in the 3rd tier of Scottish Football. It’s pay at the gate and kids under 16’s are £5 and under 12’s are free when with a paying adult.
The game
We were seated close to the dugouts and managed to get 5 seats together. On the day 603 folk were seated in the Main stand with all other stands and terracing behind the goals being closed. The atmosphere was quite subdued, noting that there was not much to shout about on the pitch from Stirling’s point of view.
The game would not go down as one of the greats of the tour as Edinburgh City, who in hindsight I maybe should have put my accumulator bet on to win the league, dominated large parts of the proceedings. I don’t recall Stirling having a shot on goal, although my vision was compromised due to the amount of booze I had consumed.
Former Rangers player Alan Gow, coming to the end of his playing career, played upfront for Stirling Albion. The player was the subject of discussion between Ross, Ian and Boab who debated and speculated between them on how much money he had made during his career, the injuries that have blighted him, amongst other matters. With this conversation going on for about 15 minutes during the game, a man sitting in front of us took extreme umbrage to the chat behind him and he made it clear that he had heard enough, this being the PG version. Stunned, it was explained to us that this individual was in fact Alan Gow’s father.
Suitably embarrassed Ross apologised to Mr Gow and we proceeded to watch the rest of the game with an awkwardness expected after being reprimanded by the father of the Stirling Albion striker.
Eventually the game came down to an error by the goalkeeper and Edinburgh City player Craig Thomson nipped in to score to make it 1-0. Ross missed the goal after nipping to the bog for a twosy. Final score, Stirling Albion 0-1 Edinburgh City.
The Pie
The pie was a steak pie disguised as a scotch pie after the kiosk under the stand had sold out of mince pies. We all had a pie each, but no picture this time due to the speed that the pies were consumed at half time. I recall quite liking it, as did Boab, Ian and Ross, who gave the pie a collective 8 out of 10. It would have been higher but Boaby Wan Kanobi didn’t fancy it as much, although I don’t recall him complaining at the time as he inhaled his own steak pie.
The Pubs
We arrived in Stirling around Noon and immediately made our way to the Cold Beer Company pub which was relatively close to the station. With not many folk in the pub we commandeered the pool table and set about getting our drink on early doors.
We then set off to Molly Malones around the corner and stayed in there for a few drinks. It was a nice atmosphere in here and they had some folk musicians in the corner as well as the football on, so we stayed for a few pints prior to moving on. We managed to get one more in before kickoff at Katie’s bar, which seemed ok although Boaby Wan thought it was a bit on the dodgy side.
After the match had ended, we went to The Springkerse View, close to the stadium but it was a family pub and in our drunken state, we had no business being there.
Jumping a taxi back into town, we went to the Corn Exchange where staff, like many other establishments in town, had dressed up for Halloween weekend. Ross won £32 on the fruit machine but due to a technical hitch it didn’t pay out meaning Ross had to give his personal details to a staff member dressed as a Jester to claim his money back.
We thereafter went to Tingle where we somehow managed to get 4 free pizzas with our round, which still doesn’t make sense as I type this. Either we somehow managed to capitalise on a mistake or the owners of Tingle will very quickly go out of business with this outrageous offer.
We soon headed for the train station for the journey back to Glasgow and were surprised to meet Liam Gallagher and proceeded to sing the Oasis back catalogue to him for the duration of the trip home.
A few lessons learned going into the next game on the tour:- 1) don’t drink so much travelling to the game on the train; 2) don’t drink so much prior to kick off; 3) don’t drink so much after the game and 4) when trash talking a player, make sure his Da is not sitting in front of you!
Until next time
The 42
The 42 