Robin Bairner Column – Part 11

Date – 8^th May 1999
Venue – Forthbank Stadium
Competition – Bell’s Scottish Second Division
Result – Stirling Albion 2-1 Arbroath
Kick Off – 3.00pm

It was another one of those days where the world nearly came to an end. Needing only a draw to secure Second Division status Stirling found themselves trailing Arbroath to a Colin McGlashan goal. McGlashan, who it seemed score at least fifty percentage of his career goals against the Binos, fired the ball low past Gary Gow in the seventeenth minute. This seemed like the final nail in the coffin on a season which had started promisingly only to go pear shaped for John Philliben’s side in the most horrendous way.

It was a Colin McGlashan goal way back in December 1998 which had started the atrocious run, his curled free kick into the Stirling net deep into stoppage time was the difference between the sides and since that point the Binos had struggled to get any consistency.

Thankfully for the Albion faithful there was one man who would be consistently relied upon to produce goals when it mattered. Only twelve minutes after McGlashan’s goal, which had effectively knocked Stirling down to 9^th and relegation (East Fife were leading in their match). Alex Bone burst through the Arbroath defence and drove the ball past Craig Hinchcliffe in the Lichties goal to restore parity and hope.

Understandably it was a tense afternoon with many ears fixed to radios in the hope that results elsewhere were going according to plan. They weren’t but everything was still in the hands of the home team. This did nothing to settle the home fans however, as the team often lacked fight and determination when it really mattered.

A goal was needed early in the second half to settle the nerves and that is just what happened. As the clocks ticked towards the hour mark Ally Graham had the ball thrown to him, he took a nice touch on his chest and hooked the ball over his head. The next second or two felt like hours as the ball looped into the air before finally coming to a rest in the corner of the net. It was the goal which would ultimately secure another season of Second Division football.

The last hour was tense but there was no great sting in it as both sides appeared to be fairly comfortable with the way the game was going; Arbroath had very little to play for other than pride.

So ultimately it was East Fife who slid down to the Third Division with Forfar and Stirling living to fight another season.