The new season begins for Stirling Albion on Saturday when they travel to play League 2 rivals Dumbarton in Premier Sports Cup Group A.
The Binos take on Stevie Farrell’s side in their opening match of the section then face Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park (July 16) before home games against Aberdeen (July 19) and Peterhead (July 23).
Stirling will also kick off their cinch League 2 campaign with a trip to Dumbarton on July 30, adding extra intrigue to Saturday’s Premier Sports Cup clash.
Darren Young’s men will hope to put a disappointing pre-season behind them when the real stuff gets under way this weekend.
They lost 4-1 at Alloa last Tuesday and suffered two defeats in the weekend’s North Lanarkshire Cup at Broadwood.
On Saturday, eventual tournament winners Airdrieonians triumphed 3-0 while on Sunday a much-changed side slumped to a 3-1 defeat to Albion Rovers.
The Diamonds - who just missed out on promotion to the Championship - took the lead after only five minutes when Adam Frizzell scored with the aid of a deflection.
Airdrie showed their class at times but Jack Leitch came close to an equaliser before Gabby McGill smashed the ball beyond Currie to make it 2-0 early in the second half.
The 21-year-old ex-Dunfermline Athletic striker rounded off a comfortable win for Rhys McCabe’s team when he netted from close range with five minutes left.
Earlier in the day, Lowland League Cumbernauld Colts had beaten Albion Rovers 2-1, meaning Stirling would face the Coatbridge club in the 3rd/4th place play-off on Sunday.
Only a few fans made the trip from Stirling and they saw their team fall to a disappointing 3-1 defeat. Kyle Banner and Kieran Moore were the only two players from Saturday to start against Brian Reid’s team while skipper Ross McGeachie and Paul McLean came into the side.
Recent signing Danny Burns from Shotts Bon Accord started up front but it was a frustrating afternoon as the Binos struggled to create chances.
Rovers led 2-0 at the break thanks to a pair of first-half penalties from former Brechin player/boss Michael Paton - the first awarded for handball against McGeachie. Kieran Dolan added a third in 73 minutes before McLean pulled one back when he got a touch to Banner’s effort following a corner.
Binos Darren Young said: “It was a disappointing weekend with the results, there’s no doubt about that. It was important for the players to get game time and we changed things about for Sunday.
“Unfortunately, in both games we conceded poor goals and there were also a lot of individual errors. We didn’t create the amount or quality of chances that we would have wanted to.
“We also had the Alloa game last week, which I didn’t think was a 4-1 game, but we made mistakes in that game too and both Alloa and Airdrie showed the quality they have. It was poor from us against Albion Rovers on Sunday and we need to do better.
“We now have a very tough Premier Sports Cup group coming up and it’s important we try to lay down a marker against Dumbarton given that we also play them in the league soon.
“We’re working as hard as we can to add to the squad but the market has been quite difficult.”
