Up until the late 90’s the only place you would ever read decent Albion reports would be the Stirling Observer. The national papers couldn’t care less about teams at our level and if it wasn’t for the local press you probably wouldn’t even know if we’d signed anybody. Quotes from management and players were almost non existent and gossip surrounding potential transfers and the likes was pretty thin on the ground too. In summary coverage was poor…especially if you didn’t live in the local area. The advent of the internet changed all that. For RedWeb the story began in the autumn of 1998 just as the John Philliben era was unfolding. Having bought a copy of FrontPage the net was my oyster and after a busy weekend at the PC RedWeb was born !! Being new to the net things looked a bit basic to start with but we were up and running and that’s all that mattered. Being the Philliben era it was often a struggle to find different ways of saying “Shocking”, “Dire”, “Nightmare” and “Woeful” but we did our best !!. At the time of RedWeb’s arrival the only other Albion site out there was one by Andy Blackwood. Unfortunately this site had not been updated for a while and so there was pretty much nothing else going on. After a few months of RedWeb the official site came onto the scene and the fans now had a choice of opinions and comment to choose from. For the next 3 years things pretty much stayed as they were with both sites continuing to provide the sort of service their readers expected. There were moments of friction between the sites (and the webmasters !!)….but in general both sites existed happily together.
The first big change in the Albion on-line presence came in 2001 when RedWeb was approached to join what was hoped would be the No 1 football portal on the Web. The company was called “Rivals” and it did indeed look like an exciting opportunity for RedWeb. With a network of linked sites, contacts at every club, an exclusive photo database and neat well laid out sites with excellent chat rooms and message boards it seemed nothing could go wrong. Around this time RedWeb approached Robin Bairner who was working on a site called “Albion In The Net” to see if he would be interested in combining forces to make the Rivals site the best it could be. Happily Robin agreed and so the RedWeb/Rivals era got underway.
Sadly as many other internet ventures have done the Rivals experiment didn’t last too long. With profits not what they expected the Scottish sites were dumped and a potentially interesting and exciting partnership was over. However, RedWeb wasn’t going to hit the skids and so it was back to the drawing board and after some more busy weekends the new RedWeb was up and running.
Things pretty much stayed as they were for the next year or two until a dramtatic decision was reached….RedWeb was closing down !! To be honest the John Philliben and Ray Stewart eras had taken their toll on the site and weekend after weekend of reporting on yet another miserable defeat just became too much. After 4 years it was over…hopefully somebody else would pick up the “unnoffical” baton but for me ze war was over.
It really was going to be all over for RedWeb but with RedWebToo (Deena !!) arrving on the scene with her excellent digital camera we dediced to make a comeback. Photo’s from away games were very rare and with this being our main focus it was decided to redesign and relaunch the site. RedWeb was back !! With RedWeb back, ourselves and Scott McLeans official site carried on doing their bit. However, after several good years service to the Albion on-line cause Scott and the official site finally conceeded defeat in their efforts to give the Albion an official on-line presence. The Albion can be an awkward and infuriating club to deal with and I think this just got too much in the end for Scott and his team and their efforts came to an end. Once again RedWeb was alone.
The last year has seen another couple of unofficial sites appear as Stirling remain without an recognised official presence. James Smith (MIF) seems to be aiming for the official side of things with Scott Johnston (Froggy) doing things his way on his “Mad” site. No doubt sites will continue to come and go as people fancy the idea of getting on-line with the Beanos. Running a website is a big comitment…coming home after a 3 hour trip to Peterhead to write about a dire 0-0 draw isn’t everybodies idea of fun but it’s the kind of thing you have to do. Thankfully we have people who support our club who are willing to do it.
Up the Beanos. | 
