Albion hoping for a game

Feb 5 2010 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Friday

STIRLING Albion boss Allan Moore admits his team are desperate to get back into action this weekend when they travel to Dingwall tomorrow (Saturday) to face Ross County in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.

The Binos saw last Saturday’s top of the table clash with Cowdenbeath frozen out at Central Park and the weather intervened again when the game was rescheduled for Tuesday night.

That leaves Albion with six matches to catch up on in Division Two – at home to Stenhousemuir, Peterhead and Arbroath, who were due at Forthbank tomorrow, and away to Alloa, Brechin and Cowdenbeath.

Yesterday (Thursday) Moore said: “It’s not ideal preparation that we didn’t play last weekend and neither was losing to Camelon Juniors in a bounce game on Tuesday night. We need to get back playing on Saturday as going up there for a rearranged match in midweek would not be ideal.

Operation

“Andy Graham and Brian Allison picked up knocks against Camelon so we’ll need to assess them at training on Thursday night before we decide how we are going to play. Stewart Devine is out for the rest of the season because he needs a double hernia operation and Chris Aitken is cup-tied so we don’t have as many options as we did, especially with Martin Grehan away to Partick.”

Tuesday, February 16 is the postponement/replay date if required but County are hopeful of avoiding a call-off as they bid to reach the last eight of the competition.

A spokesman for the club confirmed that the pitch has been covered to keep off the worst of the frost and milder temperatures are forecast for the area on Friday and Saturday.

Ross County will present formidable opposition. They beat Division One leaders Dundee at Dens Park on Saturday and are six points off the pace with three games in hand. Their home record is particularly impressive, with seven wins, two draws and just two defeats in the league while SPL side Hamilton lost at Dingwall in the League Cup earlier in the campaign.

In the Scottish Cup, Derek Adams’ side have so far taken care of Berwick Rangers (5-1) and Inverurie Locos (4-0) on home turf and are favourites to reach the quarter-finals. Albion last made the last eight in 1989/90, losing to Clydebank, and have never gone beyond that stage.

Moore added: “It would be great to be in the draw for the next round. You never know what can happen in the cup – there is always a chance. I always feel we are capable of scoring goals but it will be a hard game because Ross County are a good side.

“I don’t know too much about them but Paul di Giacomo is one who was with us in the past.”

Stirling and the former Highland League outfit have not met for a decade since the Division Two encounters of 1999/00 when the Binos won 3-1 on their first visit to Victoria Park but crashed 5-1 later in the season, while a visiting team including a certain Mark Hateley were sent packing at Forthbank at the beginning of that season.

No deal

Meanwhile, Moore is still keen to bring in forward Darren Smith and defender Jonathan Page from Motherwell but no deal is imminent. Given that the maximum length of stay under the SFL’s emergency loan rules is 93 days, it would make sense to wait until later to avoid players missing out on possible involvement in the play-offs in May.