15/42 - Forthbank Stadium, Stirling

15th September 2018
Ground Number: 15
Ground: Forthbank Stadium, Stirling
Home of: Stirling Albion FC
Match: Stirling Albion V Queen's Park
Score: 1-0
Attendance: 702

Ah Stirling. It's beautiful isn't it? The gateway to the highlands. Home of the Wallace Monument. Stirling Castle. Stirling Albion FC. Their home, Forthbank Stadium, is romantically located in an industrial estate away from all the tourist hot spots. The beautiful game eh?

Ground number 15 then. Home of The Binos and it looks like a great little ground! We get parked up easily at the stadium car park (free by the way Livingston) and we couldn't get parked closer if we tried. A wee look around the outside of the ground as usual and we're impressed.

That, sadly, is where our love affair with Forthbank ended. When will clubs realise that the fan experience is a vitally important part of a visit to a stadium home or away? First gripe of the day Stirling seen fit to open only 2 turnstiles for the 700 fans that showed up. The result? Unnecessary queues outside the ground. Annoying people when it could so easily be prevented. Add the bag searching of every single person with a bag and it was a frustrating entry experience.

 

£13 paid and we're in. The Club Shop / Cupboard is available as soon as you enter which is always handy. Pin badges located, we try to enter into conversation with the guy behind the counter about what we're doing. Not interested. At least the badges were good value at £2.50.

Let's just get to our seats and get food later on. Everyone's in the West Stand today so we find a couple of free seats and get comfortable on this pleasant day. Why (sorry but I need to ask) do people bring kids who are too young or not interested in football to matches? I had the joy of my seat being kicked from behind for the duration of the match by a youngster who wanted to be anywhere else but here!

Moaning aside, it's a neat little ground. The West Stand is the Main Stand here and it houses the grounds facilities and hospitality areas. Directly opposite is the similar, but smaller, East Stand which isn't in use today. Behind each goal is small purpose built terracing but again they aren't being used today.

The match begins and the home side take an early lead. Queen's Park offer nothing and I honestly do think they could still be playing now and they wouldn't have scored. A nasty injury in the second half saw them reduced to ten men due to them having already used all of their subs. Stirling couldn't capitalise further and the match finished 1-0.

I should mention half time. I don't want to keep moaning but I need to give you a fair and honest review. Off we go to the food stall for our pie. *Sigh* Is it honestly too much to give the staff some training. "How can I help you please?" Even "next please" would be fine. None of that here. After initially being ignored we did eventually get a "yes" from the staff member being the counter upon which we almost begged for a pie each. Sorry to inconvenience you! Thankfully the pie was good. Small mercies indeed.

David wasn't "allowed" out at half time to smoke. That's against the rules here in Stirling. I mean seriously? It just seemed like another way to annoy people quite frankly.

So yes, sadly, I'm finding it difficult to be enthusiastic about our day out to Forthbank. It is a lovely little ground. It looks great. But the whole "experience" certainly left a sour taste in our month. We've been to bigger clubs and we've been to small clubs and they've all been welcoming, interested in what we're doing and do what they can to make it a good day out for fans. Maybe we just experienced people on a bad day here. But all of them?

At least we can say we've been I suppose. Next up would be Peterhead, a fine example of a club welcoming us with open arms.