Familiar face set for Forthbank return as Stirling Albion take on home finale

Daily Record

25-04-2025

Stirling's final home match of the season is set to bring a familiar face back to the Forthbank technical areas ... but the Binos know the task in hand to take their play off hopes to League Two's curtain call. Their bruising 2-0 defeat to East Fife at Bayview last week - coupled with a bad set of results elsewhere - means they sit sixth in the table and five points behind Elgin City with just six left to play for. The task therefore is simple - win their last two matches and hope results elsewhere offer a chance of a remarkable recovery. It all begins with the last game at Forthbank for the 2024/25 campaign - and the visit of Binos' League Two title-winning boss Darren Young and his Clyde side to Stirling. The 46-year-old guided the Binos to glory in the 2022/23 season, but failed to keep them up in League One during the following campaign - sparking his sacking from the Albion board and the eventual appointment of Alan Maybury to the Stirling hotseat for this season. On paper, it feels like a positive match-up for Stirling, with the Bully Wee struggling with squad availability in recent matches and in something of a 'no man's land' having already secured their League Two survival a couple of weeks ago. They were beaten comfortably at Spartans last time out courtesy of second-half goals from Cammy Russell and Jamie Dishington, but revenge could well be on the mind for Young, who came out on top in his first meeting as Clyde boss with his former employers this season. That post-New Year dust-up saw the Bully Wee run out 2-0 winners in Hamilton - but also coincided with a poor run of form around the festive period for Stirling. If Albion are able to do the business, then they will look to Stranraer to produce an unlikely result and avoid defeat up in Moray, as well as hoping Bonnyrigg can keep up their survival ambitions by giving fifth-placed Spartans a bloody nose. Despite last week's defeat firmly stacking the deck against his charges, Stirling gaffer Maybury insisted they would be up for the fight until it was mathematically impossible. He said: 'Things just haven't gone our way today but there's an opportunity next week that if we can win that game, then we're still in it. 'We've chopped it down from nine points at the start of this quarter to two points, albeit we've lost some ground today but I still think if we can reach that important points total then we have a shot.'