Stirling Albion get ready to hit Scottish Cup trail

Nov 26 2008 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Wednesday

STIRLING Albion hit the Homecoming Scottish Cup trail on Saturday when they welcome First Division high-fliers Partick Thistle to Forthbank.

Allan Moore’s men go into the game in good heart after a much-improved performance in a 1-1 draw at snow-bound Peterhead, where John O’Neill’s overhead kick cancelled out Graeme Sharp’s opener to keep Albion within six points of the play-off places.

Stirling resume their Division Two campaign at home to leaders Raith Rovers on December 6 but on Saturday will attempt to pull off a cup shock and earn a potentially lucrative fourth-round clash on January 10.

A year ago, the Binos thrashed Stranraer 6-0 to set up a meeting with Celtic at Parkhead where they played well in a 3-0 defeat.

Simply being part of the last-32 draw is something to be enjoyed but Albion will have their work cut out against a Thistle outfit who had the chance to move to within a point of leaders St Johnstone if they beat Ross County in Dingwall last night (Tuesday).

Ian McCall’s men are enjoying an excellent season and came close to knocking Rangers out of the CIS Cup in September. Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Livingston was their third straight league win and the Jags look a better side than last term.

Indeed, Albion won 1-0 when the teams met at Forthbank in February and Thistle’s sole success in the four First Division encounters came in April when a last-gasp Paul Keegan goal condemned the Binos to relegation.

Assistant boss O’Neill knows all about cup shocks after helping Queen of the South to the Cup final last season and believes Albion can surprise their higher-ranked opponents.

He said: “You have always got a chance, especially at home. We are under no illusions and know we are the underdogs but I think we can take a level of confidence from the way we played at Peterhead on Saturday.

“We showed a great attitude and I felt we deserved to win the game. We missed some good chances but I thought the two strikers – David McKenna and Martin Grehan - were excellent. Ian Harty missed the game through injury but they did enough to earn their places against Partick Thistle.”

However, the management team will not be able to field an unchanged line-up as on-loan Falkirk defender Scott Gibb is not permitted to play and there is an injury concern over O’Neill, who was hurt in the process of equalising at Balmoor.

“I hurt my back when I landed and won’t be able to train on Tuesday,” said the man who came on as a substitute when Queen of the South were edged out 3-2 by Rangers in a thrilling Scottish Cup final in May.

“I don’t know if I will make it and we have a few injury worries. Stewart Devine is still struggling but we are hopeful Sean Roycroft and Nathan Taggart will be OK by the weekend.

“Andy Graham took a head knock on Saturday and was a bit groggy on the journey home but Andy is always in the wars. He is not afraid to go in where it hurts and I think he will be fine for the cup game.”

Whoever plays will be hoping conditions are more favourable than at the weekend, when the Peterhead match went ahead despite most of the pitch being covered in snow.

O’Neill added: “We couldn’t believe when we got there and saw the pitch that the game was on. The surface wasn’t hard as such but there was probably a couple of inches of snow on it.

“I believe that a local referee looked at it in the morning and said it was OK but the match referee didn’t get there until about 12.45pm. He asked Peterhead to clear the snow from the 18-yard boxes and said the pitch wasn’t dangerous and that the game would be starting.

“The conditions certainly altered our thoughts as to how we would play. We had been planning to start with Nathan Taggart but decided to leave him on the bench when we saw the snow. As it happened, he was injured in the warm-up anyway.”

Scott Christie got the nod between the posts but O’Neill insisted that wasn’t a comment on how first choice keeper Myles Hogarth has been playing: “It was more just to give us a change and also Scott strikes the ball well which we thought might be important in the conditions.”

Stirling Albion have never gone further than the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup – a stage they last reached under John Brogan in 1989/90 when they lost to Clydebank after a replay – and they will always be remembered for the 20-0 victory over Selkirk on December 8, 1984.

One of the low points was the 1-0 loss to Gala Fairydean in 2001 while the last meeting with Partick Thistle in this competition was in January 2006 when a Paul Ritchie goal sent Dick Campbell’s men through. Revenge for that defeat would be sweet indeed.