Annfield Park was the home of Stirling Albion football club for just shy of 50 years from the clubs inception in 1945 to 1993, when the stadium was closed and demolished. The former ground was replaced by a housing development and the club moved to Forthbank Stadium about a 10 minute drive across town.
Stirling Albion, who had formed from the ashes of former Stirling club, Kings Park, quickly packed out the new Annfield stadium, averaging crowds of 8000, a figure the club would bite your hand off for today.
The clubs initial successes in the early years, which included sitting on top of the league in the Old First Division (now the Scottish Premiership) for a short period of time, soon grew in a long period of mediocrity which is still ongoing today. The clubs struggled financially in the 1980s and had to sell the ground to the local council to stay a float.
The council tried to make the repairs and installed an artificial park, being the first club in Scotland to do so, to try and make the ground profitable. They soon decided that selling the ground to housing developers and building a new stadium elsewhere in town was the best move finaclially, spelling the end for the ground which had graced the town for 48 years.
When we went along to the Stirling Albion game I advised the rest of the guys early on that I wanted to see the site of the old ground and take a few pictures. Much like my visit to Beresford Park in Ayr, I did not listen to my own advice and decided to go to what is now known as Annfield Gardens several hours into a boozing session.
We hailed a taxi close to Forthbank stadium and the instructions to the taxi driver was to take us to the former home of Stirling Albion. The taxi driver was quite knowledgable about the old ground and took me to the housing development to take a picture or two.
The first picture as you can see, I was struggling to stay on my feet after exiting the taxi, the second picture is a picture of the houses that now grace the former Annfield park. Far away from the houses enough not to alert local residents to notify the local police.
Until next time
The 42
The 42 