By Connor Ryan
Rovers continue with league action this Saturday as they take on Stirling Albion at the Reigart Stadium as we look to build upon last week’s 2-2 draw at home against Stenhousemuir. Rovers could take plenty of positives from their last outing with the draw being an unlucky one due to the nature of Stenhousemuir’s late equaliser courtesy of captain Ross Forbes, resulting in the sending off of Ewan Wilson. Ewan will be a big miss for Rovers as he has been impressive in the few games that he has played at left back, but it won’t be too long until he’s back again.
Moving onto Stirling Albion, we have faced The Binos twice already this season with the first fixture seeing Rovers win 3-1 in the NL cup, and also up at Forthbank in the league which resulted in a 1-1 draw as top scorer Charlie Reilly for Rovers and Kyle Banner getting on the scoresheet.
Rovers also took the bragging rights last season across the four encounters with Rovers getting two wins, Stirling Albion getting one, and the sides also drawing a fixture. Saturday’s encounter will be a lot tougher however as Rovers reside in joint bottom with ten points while Stirling Albion sit joint top of the league on 26 points following seven wins in their last eight games. Stirling Albion’s title charge has also been helped by a recent collapse by Dumbarton who have only won one of their last five games despite it looking as though The Sons would run away with the league unopposed.
A win for Rovers tomorrow could see us jump up to as high as 7th in the league, potentially overtaking Bonnyrigg Rose on goal difference should they lose out to Elgin City at home. With the positive performances against Stirling Albion so far this season, Rovers fans can feel quietly confident going into tomorrow’s match despite the large separation between both sides in the table. Charlie Reilly will also be looking to add to his impressive goal tally this season having already scored against tomorrow’s opponents. Michael Paton, who grabbed a double in the first encounter this season in the NL Cup, may also return to the team following a slight injury while captain Sean Fagan still remains out.
