Stirling Albion to play Alloa this Saturday

Dec 30 2009 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Wednesday

STIRLING Albion will hope to take their season out of cold storage on Saturday when they are due to play local rivals Alloa at Recreation Park.

The Binos haven’t played since the 2-2 home draw with Dumbarton on December 15 following the postponements of the Forthbank fixture with Stenhousemuir and the Boxing Day trip to Brechin, which was called off on Christmas Eve.

Alloa’s plastic pitch should mean there is a good chance of this weekend’s game going ahead, although The Wasps’ Boxing Day encounter with leaders Cowdenbeath fell victim to the snowy conditions and the weather looks set to remain cold this week.

Single-goal

Allan Moore’s men have failed to score in only three of their 17 league games to date and two of them have been single-goal defeats to an Alloa team who are four points behind Albion and who beat Brechin 2-1 at Recreation Park in their most recent outing on December 12.

Stirling have won six out of eight games on the road this season and assistant manager John O’Neill admits victory this weekend is important to keep the pressure on Cowdenbeath, who will expect to take full points from their home clash with Clyde and have a rearranged match against Arbroath on January 9 when Stirling are in Scottish Cup action at Albion Rovers.

O’Neill said: “The last game against Alloa was very disappointing and we owe the supporters a good result in the derby match. I was speaking to a few of them the day the Stenhousemuir match was postponed and I know how much it means. Alloa have done well against us but I don’t think there is any particular reason for that – we had chances in both games.

“Hopefully we will get a game this weekend. It’s important that we get matches played and points on the board as that can put pressure on the teams around you. What we don’t want is a situation where we have to cram games in later in the season and we already have a midweek trip to Brechin, which isn’t ideal.”

No new dates have been set for the postponed fixtures and Scottish League rules mean they don’t have to be played until after the last Saturday in February but Albion have not ruled out the possibility of scheduling them sooner – if their opponents are agreeable.

Stirling should have a strong squad available for the trip to Alloa, although on-loan Ross McCord has returned to Dundee United while the hosts have lost Iain Russell to Morton at the expiry of his loan agreement and Scott Agnew has gone back to Ayr.

Damage

However, Alloa boss Allan Maitland expects to have Andy Scott, Brian Carrigan and Stuart Noble back for the derby, with Scott the man who has done so much damage to Stirling’s title ambitions this term – with the winning goal in both meetings so far.

Albion’s on-loan Dundee defender Craig McKeown would have missed the Brechin game through injury but should be fit for Saturday and on-loan striker Bryan Prunty is in the frame as he chases his first goal of the season.

O’Neill added: “We have spoken to Jocky Scott at Dundee and Brian Reid at Ayr about extending the two loan deals. Nothing has been decided yet but hopefully we can do something, particularly as Craig has only managed to play one game since he joined.”

A frozen Forthbank pitch wiped out the New Year derby last season and the most recent festive fixture between the two ended 1-1 at Recreation Park in January 2007.

Stirling ultimately won promotion in the play-offs but the aim this year must be to keep in touch with an in-form Cowdenbeath outfit, while at the same time keeping challengers such as Alloa and Brechin at bay.