Alloa v Stirling

[StewartyMac]

2 hours ago, Magic Hat said:

Wonder who the trialist was for Stirling, what a game to have to come on in.

 

Mark Bradley, who actually signed for us after that game. An unremarkable midfield player, think he only played about 7 games for us in total. Later played for Cowdenbeath and Dumbarton, and I think managed Linlithgow Rose at one point. 

[miketheheadlesschicken]

Think if the players knew or cared, that game would probably have been 7.

[BB_Bino]

45 minutes ago, miketheheadlesschicken said:

Think if the players knew or cared, that game would probably have been 7.

Remember it well and also remember Allan Creer having an absoute shocker of a game, right in front of the Morrison’s End. My brother in law (at the time) had to report it on local radio and had a nightmare trying to keep up with the play 

[Quentin Taranbino]

2 hours ago, miketheheadlesschicken said:

Think if the players knew or cared, that game would probably have been 7.

I remember 4-0 at half time thinking that this was our chance to get our own back and being gutted at only scoring the one in the second half. Was that the season Marek Tomana was outrageous for the first six months before teams cottoned on and started booting him about?

Whi the f**k was Malseed? Don't remember him at all.

[miketheheadlesschicken]

Just now, Quentin Taranbino said:

Whi the f**k was Malseed? Don't remember him at all.

Chris Malseed. Was a student at Stirling Uni who played for Finn Harps so we signed him on loan. He barely played.

[Sixtyten]

Some good, and bad, reminiscing on here. One of my favourite derbies was a 3-0 Jose Quitongo masterclass at the Recs around the mid 2000's.

It's odd how infrequently the two teams have met on league business in the last 30 years or so. Whenever Stirling were doing well for a few years, we were utter dross; and vice versa.

I'm a bit concerned that the momentum swing is more with Stirling at the moment, but also hopeful that we've taken some confidence from the Palmerston performance last Saturday.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Sixtyten

[BB_Bino]

9 hours ago, Quentin Taranbino said:

I remember 4-0 at half time thinking that this was our chance to get our own back and being gutted at only scoring the one in the second half. Was that the season Marek Tomana was outrageous for the first six months before teams cottoned on and started booting him about?

It was Quentin, from memory that was his first season at the club and he was absolutely frightening for the first part of it. Earlier in the year, someone posted a video on Facebook and it seems he still lives in Central Scotland and runs a 1-1/ small group football coaching company, there was even suggestions that he had been spotted at Forthbank over the years but can't say I've seen him personally.

8 hours ago, Sixtyten said:

Some good, and bad, reminiscing on here. One of my favourite derbies was a 3-0 Jose Quitongo masterclass at the Recs around the mid 2000's.

It's odd how infrequently the two teams have met on league business in the last 30 years or so. Whenever Stirling were doing well for a few years, we were utter dross; and vice versa.

I'm a bit concerned that the momentum swing is more with Stirling at the moment, but also hopeful that we've taken some confidence from the Palmerston performance last Saturday.

Remember him playing for you that season and although I can't remember the exact game you are referring too, he always seemed to do well against us and hit the heights that saw him do well at Full Time level in Scotland. Definitely a player that was some kind of fans icon in the lower leagues, seemed to be a standout but then jump from club to club to club before doing the same in the Juniors, but always seemed to look exceptional every time I saw.

Pretty much said it for most of last season and have posted the same elsewhere a number of times, we genuinely seem like a club on the up again. I think Darren Young put us on the right track on the pitch (although at this point last season I didn't think we would win the league but I did suspect we would be very competitive in the Play Off positions) after his fire fighting few months when he took over from KR. Then for whatever reason, might be change of board, might be the community engagement, might be a number of factors, around about November our crowds seem to climb significantly and then before you know it we were regularly hitting 800-1000 Home supporters and people were interested in the club again. Yes, pushing for League Titles brings people out but I don't remember Moore or any other Stirling manager having such a bounce as we had last year. That seems to have carried on, to the extent that maybe the club are struggling a little bit to meet the demand of people wanting merch and to get along. It's great to see and long may it continue

[StewartyMac]

11 hours ago, Quentin Taranbino said:

I remember 4-0 at half time thinking that this was our chance to get our own back and being gutted at only scoring the one in the second half.

Exactly the same. We absolutely destroyed them in the first half. It's just a shame none of the players or staff remained from the 7-0 embarrassment as they would have geed the team up to keep going. 5-0 was still a decent score against them, mind, but it could have been so much better. 

[StewartyMac]

Of course, there's never a good time to lose to Alloa, but looking back in retrospect, the defeat at the Recs in 2010 that put us 15 points behind them and the home players celebrating in the dressing room as if they'd won the league made things all the more sweeter a couple of months later when we pipped them for the title. I think Alloa beat us in all four games that season, which is even better!

So for that reason, it's the only time I've been pleased to lose to Alloa, albeit that pleasure didn't come until much later. 

[WattersIsGod]

1 hour ago, BB_Bino said:

Then for whatever reason, might be change of board, might be the community engagement, might be a number of factors, around about November our crowds seem to climb significantly and then before you know it we were regularly hitting 800-1000 Home supporters and people were interested in the club again.

I know what you mean. Part of it for me was having a team playing decent football. Another part was the squad seeming to be a likeable tight bunch without any huge egos.

I usually make about 10 Home games a season but ended up at nearly all of them plus a few away games.

I was more excited about the team than I'd been since the late 80s and early 90s.

The feeling only grew as the season went on.

Got a season ticket this year and so did my brother.

On the historic alloa games.... my first ever game was against alloa at Annfield. 2nd Jan 1988 and we won 2 0 and I was hooked.....

Can't remember the scorers and struggle to find that far back online.

[Magic Hat]

We did win all four games that season and still managed to blow the title.

Alan Maitland should have been sacked, despite finishing second in the league.

It was the writing on the wall as we were relegated the next season.

Remember him sending the players over to the fans at Peterhead on the second last game, when it was clear barring a miracle we had thrown it away, they got a very cool reception from the fans, bottle merchants.

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Magic Hat

[Kevchenko]

There's a wee match preview in this week's episode of our podcast if you fancy a listen before tomorrow's game:

 

https://waspsnest.buzzsprout.com

 

Big thanks to @Raving On for jumping on and joining us in enemy territory to hear some Bino perspective!

[Waspie]

52 minutes ago, StewartyMac said:

Of course, there's never a good time to lose to Alloa, but looking back in retrospect, the defeat at the Recs in 2010 that put us 15 points behind them and the home players celebrating in the dressing room as if they'd won the league made things all the more sweeter a couple of months later when we pipped them for the title. I think Alloa beat us in all four games that season, which is even better!

So for that reason, it's the only time I've been pleased to lose to Alloa, albeit that pleasure didn't come until much later. 

That was ultimately a horrible season for Alloa! We never looked as good as we should have given we had a decent team on paper but they had a great knack of digging out results. The 3-0 win at Forthbank when we had huge injury problems, injured players on the field (and trialist from the fringes of the Bo'ness team at CB) was a special day, as was the late winner in the 2-1 victory at the Recs. That we contrived to lose 3 games in a row at the end and chuck it away hurt a lot and the hangover then saw us make an almighty mess of the following season. I could never have thought then any good could have come from any of that, but as it turned out it was all ultimately fundamental in Hartley coming and laying the foundations for a truly exceptional decade that wouldn't have happened otherwise. As such, made my peace with it now and can take pleasure from those wins despite what happened thereafter! 

As for tomorrow, hard to call. I didn't think the title winning Stirling side looked particularly strong on paper and Alloa probably shaded long spells of the League Cup game despite not playing well. That game did suggest though that Stirling have a settled and established team who all know their roles with a good spirit and momentum behind them. Crucially, they also have a few decent attacking options for League One. I'm sure they'll have enough to stay up comfortably and from there they can look to strengthen the team. 

Alloa have more flair I'd say but far from a settled team - even before we brought in a lot of new players. There were encouraging signs last week but Stirling will be nowhere near as open as QoS were, which certainly played into our hands. We'll need to defend much better too and I'd hope PJ will be back between the sticks. Really can't call it. 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Waspie

[StewartyMac]

I'd be delighted with a point tomorrow given the injuries we have. Will be a hard game. We've only lost one game in 2023 so far, so we are hard to beat, but Alloa have League 1 street smarts, gonna be a tough yin. 

[StewartyMac]

40 minutes ago, WattersIsGod said:

 

On the historic alloa games.... my first ever game was against alloa at Annfield. 2nd Jan 1988 and we won 2 0 and I was hooked.....

Can't remember the scorers and struggle to find that far back online.

Johnny Brogan and Jimmy Ormond scored that day. The latter was at the game last week and has purchased a season ticket for this season!! Crowd of 1266 that day. You really need to get the Albion online book, gives all scores, scorers and line ups for every game in our history. I'll DM you. 

[WattersIsGod]

Brilliant.

I often almost forget Johnny Brogans time as a player as I saw far more games with him as manager.

Had some cracking teams late 80s and early 90s.

[Tamhain]

21 hours ago, miketheheadlesschicken said:

Think if the players knew or cared, that game would probably have been 7.

I spent most of the 2nd half panicking over that.  Though in the end the biggest embarassment was Hogarth getting a clean sheet.

[LeodhasXD]

Couple PSA's - My Friday night plans might be washed out.

Edited August 12, 2023 by LeodhasXD

[Oweny]

On 07/08/2023 at 21:49, BB_Bino said:

Great to have the derby back, a proper derby. Ticket bought and excitement is high!

Totally agree. Proper football rivalry. A great derby .

[Quentin Taranbino]

Hows the game so far? Anyone edging it? Hard to tell from the twitter updates from the clubs 

Hopefully a decent crowd made it through