Season: 2026/2027

Attendance

The season kicks off at Stirling Albion’s Forthbank where University of Stirling play host to Broxburn Athletic in the Lowland League East Division .

It was the University side that kicked off  and got the game under way in perfect conditions for football

Broxburn were the first to create an opportunity when Docherty and Thomson manufacturing a cross into the box but the Students cleared the danger . A minute later The visitors gained the advantage . A Kane Thomson ball from the right went beyond all but the defender knocked it out for a corner to be safe . The corner on the left was taken short to QUINN MITCHELL on the corner of the penalty box who took a touch before firing home through a crowded box into the net .

Stirling applied the pressure to try and get back in the game but after a couple of corners on fourteen minutes they had nothing to show for their efforts .

On 17 minutes Kane Thomson put a great ball across the hosts box but there were none of his team mates able to take advantage and the ball was cleared .

The first yellow card of the game was shown to Christopher O’Kane for a mistimed tackle on 35 minutes  .

With a few minutes left of the first period Stirling took a short corner and Jay Burns steadied himself before shooting , Kyle King in the visiting goal parried the initial shot and the ball was returned into the box where Sam Gormley nodded behind for a corner .

With the last action of the half Jamie Docherty weaved through the home defence before sending a shot just high over the left hand post from the right .

The second half started with Stirling trying hard to get on level terms creating the first opening on 53 minutes with continual pressure which ended with a bye kick to the visitors .Sam Martin hit the outside of the post for the home side after an excellent cross ball from the left . On the hour mark Stirling couldn’t believe they had not equalised After several attempts to put the ball over the line in a good old fashioned scramash with the ball cleared twice of the line  and then cleared as the Broxburn defence stood strong

A double substitution by the visitors on  64 minutes fell foul of the new laws of the game when two players coming off had left the field and one player had entered the field of play the referee stated Broxburn had not done the substitution quickly enough and the second sub was not allowed to enter the field for another minute .

With both on the park a minute later  it was Jon Robertson on for Quinn Mitchell and Scott  Irving on for Kane Thomson .

On sixty five minutes  a good ball down the left to Docherty was crossed to Christopher O’Kane who saw his shot screw just wide of the left hand post from the right hand side of the box .

On 74 minutes the home side made a triple substitution  with Chulainn Doan , Lennox Tandhar and Finlay Millar replacing  Liam Trotter , Calan Ledingham and Finn Regan  .

With ten minutes remaining Jon Robertson cleared a shot off the line after King was beaten .

on 82 minutes both sides made further changes with Lluc Vila Canilo replacing Sam Martin for the home side and Alasdair Shrive replacing Christopher O’Kane  for the visitors .

The game approaching the end Broxburn put their new under 20’s sides Callum Chinyanga for the remaining time .

The Students had a great chance to get level with two minutes remaining when awarded a free kick twenty yards out and centre but they fired the attempt into the wall and the visitors cleared the danger .

New rule lesson number two from referee when Gallagher was injured near the half way line at the stop of play the referee came over just as he was getting to his feet but then ordered him off the park for a minute due to getting treatment when no first aider had come on the park ? .

 

A good three points to start our campaign and sets us up for Tuesday Evening’s game at home to Galafairydean Rovers ,who had a creditable 1-0 away win to Cowdenbeath on Saturday past , in the Lowland League with a 7.45pm kick off .