| Review of the
Year 2004
Race On Line Fanzine | |
Review of the Year 2004 by Robin Bairner | | The year 2004 has been the best year for Binos supporters for a long time, with promotion being achieved, and the club currently sitting 3rd in the Second Division. Although we just missed out on the Championship, the year has had far more ups than downs. Thanks to Robin Bairner for his review of the year and Paul and Deena at RedWeb and Kevin Croall for the accompanying photos. |
| This was a bit of a last minute addition to Rave On Line so it’s been cracked together in little under 60 minutes so don’t blame me if it’s crap but here’s a review of the year, as seen by me, in 60 minutes… | 2004 started with Allan Moore replacing one man with a radioactive tan with another as Andy Gibson’s loan spell from Partick Thistle ended while, tellingly, striker Derek Lyle joined the club until the end of the season. The New Year derby in f*lkirk against East Stirling on 3rd January was postponed due to a heavy frost and, tragically, this left a number of the Albion support stranded in the Goose all afternoon. When the match did get played, a week later due to both teams already being KOed from the Scottish Cup the New Year hangovers quickly kicked in again as the Binos slipped to an excruciatingly embarrassing 2 goal deficit against one of the worst teams Britain has ever seen. However, with little over 15 minutes to go, Jinky Wilson, a second half substitute, clawed a goal back. Still a goal down in the 89th minutes, Gary Kelly scored before Scott McLean and a Scott Livingstone own goal both in stoppage time sealed an incredible win for the Binos. Shire ended up with only 8 men their frustration boiled over towards the end of the match.
Next up was a run of 3 consecutive home games. First up was Cowdenbeath, who took the lead with a Dene Shields header midway inside the second half, but Tanman, Derek Lyle, immediately endeared himself to the Forthbank crowd with a spectacular bicycle kick to equalise. A weak looking Albion Rovers side was comfortably dismissed 3-0 seven days later before a big promotion clash with Peterhead. The Blue Toon managed to beat a sluggish looking Albion team 2-0 to drag themselves back onto the fringes of the promotion hunt as they flourished under new manager Ian Stewart. | | But the Binos got back on track straight away, winning 4-1 away to both Queen’s Park and Montrose. In both games the Binos raced to a 2 goal lead within half an hour only to see it pegged back, Webster’s goal for Montrose being on of the best goals I saw last season in any competition, but managed to step up a gear again when required. Another crucial promotion match followed down at Gretna in midweek with the Albion squad ravaged by injury. The situation wasn’t aided any by Mark McNally’s early departure and the makeshift defence couldn’t hold out against the Gretna attack, Bryan Wake getting the only goal of the game just after half an hour. Then came Gretna’s trademark cheating and timewasting to ensure there was no way back for the Binos. Derek Anderson, for all I didn’t like him as a player, was the victim of a very harsh refereeing decision just after the Gretna goal when he was sent off for a tackle that barely merited a booking. Gretna’s David Holdsworth followed him into the dressing room a couple of minutes later when he foolishly lashed out at Gary Kelly. The match threatened to boil over when Paul Nugent was sent off for a second booking early in the second half but it always simmered. Myles Hogarth, yes, Myles Hogarth, nearly stole a point for the Albion right at the death but his header from a corner flashed only just past the post after Scott McLean’s header had been fantastically tipped round the post by David Mathieson.
Trigger had only played half of that game due to injury and would miss the trip to, at the time, 2nd placed Stranraer on Saturday, where the Albion would be without much of their first choice defence, Nugent and Anderson were both suspended while McNally was also injured. A fantastically resilient performance saw the Binos come away with a 1-1 draw. Division 3’s top scorer Michael Moore had practically kicked Hogarth over the line for the opener before Coco McKinnon refound his scoring touch of earlier in the season with an important equaliser. | | Thirteen goals were rattled into the net in the next two games at Forthbank, twelve for the Binos with them shared equally between Elgin and East Stirling respectively with, first Scott McLean grabbing a hat-trick against the men from the north, before Derek Lyle got three against Bainsford’s best. Then another crucial trip, this time to Peterhead. Only the chairman and his tractor saved this match from being postponed on a day that can best be described as driech but it ended in an entertaining stalemate with Chris Scotland in particularly fine form for the Albion.
The result meant that Stranraer closed the gap to 1 point at the top of the table and they were soon ahead as the Binos slipped up against Queen’s Park at Forthbank (0-0) partly due to one of the worst refereeing displays ever to grace a football park as Scott MacDonald lost the plot, not for the first time last season, and has yet to see another SFL game. Gretna played in their usual manner to record yet another 1-0 win at Forthbank a week later in a none-too-memorable clash.
At Albion Rovers the following week the Binos did their best to make things difficult but ended up winning 5-3. Perhaps one of the crucial results of last season was the 1-1 draw the following week with Montrose which was to make life very difficult if the Championship was to be sealed, which, as we all know by now, it wasn’t. | | The long trip to Elgin brought 3 points, if another unimpressive 1-0 win, but that didn’t matter too much the following week when promotion was sealed at Firs Park where the Binos managed to win 3-0 against a more stubborn looking East Stirling team.
Seven days later over 2,100 turned up to watch what would almost certainly prove to be the Championship decider between ourselves and Stranraer at Forthbank. It was generally a tight game but Stranraer exploited weaknesses in the Stirling defence to take a two goal lead. Things were getting desperate and Allan Moore threw on sub Craig Ferguson but with 10 minutes to go the Binos were still trailing meaning Stranraer had the league in the bag. But a couple of cracking goals from Fergie saw the home stand erupt and it was only a last minute save from Andy McCondichie which allowed Stranraer to take even a point from this game. Right enough a point wasn’t enough for the Binos, who finished the season by at least getting a weight off their shoulders by hammering bogey team Cowdenbeath 5-0.
There were a few surprising names in the players released in June, namely Andy Smith, Colin McKinnon and Gary Kelly, who had all contributed a lot to the Binos promotion season. Clearly Moore wanted to rebuild the midfield and Kevin MacDonald was brought in from Motherwell along with Barry Neville in pre-season. The other signings made were the skilful James Allan and experienced Martin Glancy. | | Things started well for the Binos in August, hammering Arbroath 5-2 at Forthbank to gain revenge for their lucky win in the Cup 8 months earlier and this was after one of the favourites for promotion, Dumbarton, had been seen off in the Challenge Cup thanks to a couple of Scott McLean goals. Queen’s Park were squeezed past in the League Cup to earn a tie with Livingston but the standout result of August was hammering Brechin 3-0 on their own patch in the league. The matches against all*a(soap dodgers) (2-0), Berwick (3-1) and Forfar (2-0) all yielded 3 points each as the Binos impressive start to the season continued, with Trigger looking in imperious form. However, the first slip up came at home to Morton, who managed to claim a 1-1 draw. In between all these games Livingston and f*lkirk had knocked us out of the League and Challenge Cups respectively but, particularly in the first of those two matches, we certainly hadn’t been outclassed.
A run of three draws against Stranraer, Dumbarton and Ayr, was a little disappointing as in at least 1 of these matches 3 points should’ve been claimed but at least the unbeaten record against Stranraer was still in tact. Three poor performances followed as Brechin gained revenge for our win at Glebe Park by hammering us 5-1 at Forthbank, with Chris Templeman in sensational finishing form then Arbroath beat us 2-1 at Gayfield when it looked like Scott McLean had got us into a winning position after equalising their earlier strike and then bottom club Berwick were only beaten 1-0 after a controversial penalty decision. | | Things picked up a bit the next week as Forfar were well beaten 3-1 at Forthbank to hammer another nail into the coffin of everyone’s favourite former Binos boss, Ray Stewart. But this was only a slight blip in the Albion’s form as Morton outplayed us at Cappilow the following week, winning 3-0 and then a dire Berwick team beat an even worse Albion team 1-0 at Forthbank in what has to go down as the worst performance under Allan Moore’s reign.
Stranraer came calling again the next week and again took the lead before their bottle got the better of them, allowing Paul Hay in to score with his head, for a well deserved equaliser for the home side after a great goal from Davie Graham. Three points were taken from Dumbarton the following week thanks to a sclaffed Connor Gethins free-kick before Brechin knocked the Binos out of the Cup with a rather fortuitous 1-0 win at Glebe Park. | | That’s the year 2004 so far…there’s not much of it left and let’s hope the Binos can claim maximum points from Ayr and Arbroath to complete what has to go down as a successful year under Allan Moore. |
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