Stirling Albion play their first home game of the League Two season when they welcome Elgin City to Forthbank on Saturday.
It was a bad start to the 2022/23 campaign for Darren Young’s men as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Dumbarton on the opening day. Declan Byrne scored twice inside five minutes and the Binos had left-back Cammy Clark sent off for a reckless challenge on Aron Lynas with 18 minutes left.
The summer signing from Annan will now serve a two-match ban, ruling him out of this weekend’s visit of Elgin and next week’s local derby at home to Stenhousemuir.
Elgin head for Forthbank on the back of a 3-1 loss to relegated East Fife, but Gavin Price’s men have an excellent record in Stirling.
The Black and Whites triumphed 2-0 on their last visit in April and also won 1-0 in Young’s first game as Albion boss back in December.
City have won four in a row at Forthbank since a Josh Peters goal earned Stirling a 1-0 win in September 2019.
Albion have a poor record in their first home league game of the season in recent times, losing 3-1 to Kelty Hearts 12 months ago after starting with a victory at Stenhousemuir.
Three years ago, they lost 1-0 to Queen’s Park although they did begin with a 0-0 draw against the Spiders in the Covid-delayed 2020/21 season when the Glasgow club went on to lift the title. The 2018/19 campaign saw Clyde triumph 3-0 at Forthbank after a defeat at Berwick in the opener.
You have to go back to August 2017 for a Stirling success in their first home league game when a Darren Smith double helped secure a 4-0 thumping of Berwick Rangers.
Dave Mackay’s men won their first four League Two matches that season and were top of the table until the autumn but eventually finished in third place and were beaten by Peterhead in the play-offs.
Binos boss Young will be expecting much better from his team against Elgin after the disappointment at Dumbarton and with challenging fixtures against Stenhousemuir, Annan Athletic and Bonnyrigg Rose still to come this month.
He said: “The standards last week were well short of what we had set in the Premier Sports Cup and I hope it was a wake-up call.
“The goals we lost were very poor and it allowed Dumbarton to sit and defend. We had chances to get back into but we didn’t manage to take them.”
Meanwhile, Stirling Albion will discover their SPFL Trust Trophy opponents on Wednesday when Hibernian B host Brechin City in the first round at New Victoria Park, home of Newtongrange Star.
The Binos are away to the winners of that tie in round two on August 23/24, with the third round scheduled for Saturday, September 24.
