7. Stirling Albion win promotion – Sunday, May 18
Since the play-offs were introduced in 2005, the levels of drama in the finals have been mixed.
Sometimes they’ve been done and dusted after the first leg. Other times one team has had an advantage going into the second match, before crushing the opposition once and for all over that 90 minutes. Case in point for the latter would be Dumbarton’s triumph over Airdrie in 2012. But occasionally, the drama and excitement the play-offs were brought in for has been in full evidence. One Sunday afternoon in Methil was a perfect example in a dramatic swing of emotions for both sets of fans.
Stirling Albion’s players, fans and officials would have been forgiven for leaving Forthbank Stadium on Wednesday, May 14 with only the faintest hope left. They’d lost 2-1 to East Fife in the first leg of the play-off final, with home advantage, and with a late winner. Ross Forsyth’s opening goal that night looked as if they would make the most of that home advantage, but Scott McBride’s equaliser with 20 minutes left hinted that it was all to play for at New Bayview. And then, with a minute to go, Nathan Austin’s winner handed the Fifers a massive advantage. All they had to do to stay up was see the game out on their own turf. Stirling, in a bid to return to the third tier after two years away, had to dig deep. Very deep.
Fifteen minutes remained of the second leg, with the game still goalless and East Fife still retaining hope of another four local derbies with Dunfermline in season 2014/15. Then – salvation for Stirling, with Jordan White, their talisman over the season, lobbing home a shot from a tight angle. The job wasn’t done – there is no away goals rule in the play-offs and as it stood, an extra half hour was in prospect. As the minutes ticked by, it was being prepared for. A season’s worth of effort, by both sides, was going to be extended.
But nine minutes were left when one of those moments happened that this type of fixture was invented for. Sandy Cunningham slammed home a volleyed shot and suddenly it was the visitors in control. From a position of desperation merely eight minutes beforehand, they were nine minutes away from being rewarded for their efforts after all.
They succeeded where East Fife had failed. They hung on.
Number 6 will be published on Thursday, December 18.
The Dumbarton Terrace 