Scottish League 2: Stirling Albion aim to avoid Yo-Yo return after title win

Jack Leitch's goal put Stirling 2-1 ahead against Annan

Once nicknamed The Yo-Yos for consistently going up and down from Scotland's top league for 20-odd years after the Second World War, Stirling Albion have been stuck in the fourth tier for the last seven. Until now, that is.

Former Aberdeen and Dunfermline Athletic midfielder Darren Young's side clinched the League 2 title and automatic promotion with two games to spare after Saturday's 3-1 win over Annan Athletic.

Albion have now gone 19 games without defeat to overturn the five-point lead Dumbarton had established in mid-November and are now nine points ahead of the side that led the division for most of the season and looked certainties for a quick return to League 1.

Can Young's side avoid the same fate as the last time they won promotion to League 1 in 2014 - when they promptly returned after finishing bottom the following season?

Fan ownership threat averted

Stirling's title achievement is all the more notable when you consider their fortunes in the seasons following their return to the fourth tier - and the boardroom upheaval in which the club has been embroiled since shortly after the start of the current campaign.

Since 2015, Albion have finished seventh, sixth, third, fifth, sixth, fifth and, last season, seventh again.

In that one season where they qualified for the promotion play-offs, they lost both home and away in the semi-finals to Peterhead.

The Stirling Albion Supporters' Trust, which owns 83% of shares, last summer claimed that the lack of success had led to those controlling the club board to lose faith in their fan-ownership model and to consider alternatives.

The trust's desire to instead introduce a more democratic structure was aided by the resignation of club chairman Stuart Brown in late August for historical tweets that women's campaign group Zero Tolerance described as "misogynistic".

By the end of March, the trust and club had signed a legally binding "working together agreement" to cement the continuation of what became Scotland's first supporter-owned club in 2010 under a new board.

While the trust was in temporary charge off the field, Young and his side were going from strength to strength on it.

Having sat fourth - eight points adrift of Dumbarton - at the time of boardroom resignations in August, they took over at the top on 21 March by beating Forfar Athletic.

They then maintained that with a 2-2 home draw against the former leaders - days after the imploding Sons slumped to a 5-1 defeat at home to bottom side Albion Rovers.

Stirling had signalled their intent with a 6-0 thrashing of Dumbarton in October and, although the sides drew 0-0 at The Rock last weekend, the title party was only to be delayed by a week.

Statistics point to consolidation

Given they are a part-time club, it may be fanciful to suggest that Stirling could repeat the back-to-back promotions enjoyed most recently by a Queen's Park, who had enjoyed a cash injection after selling Hampden Park to the Scottish FA.

Even Cove Rangers took two seasons to take that extra step, while Kelty Hearts, another side who have had some relatively healthy financial backing, have similarly stalled at the first time of asking.

Consolidation seems a more realistic aim for Stirling before they target a return to the second tier for the first time since their last, one-year, stay in 2010-11.

The good news for Albion is that, not since they themselves in 2013-14, after finishing third and beating East Fife in the play-off final, have a team promoted from League 2 gone straight back down.

Better news still. Not since Berwick Rangers in 2007-08 have the fourth-tier champions gone on to suffer relegation the following season.

And in 44-year-old Young, Stirling have a manager who is no stranger to securing survival against the odds.

Having led Albion Rovers to the League 2 title in his first year in charge in 2014-15, the Coatbridge side finished sixth the following season only for Young to leave shortly before they again avoided relegation.

He only lasted five months with then League 1 rivals East Fife as he was sacked in November 2021 with his side five points adrift at the bottom, but a month later Young was picked up by Stirling and has resurrected their fortunes after missing out on the play-offs on the final day of last season at the end of his first six months in charge.

With only goalkeeper Blair Currie, midfielder Ross Davidson and forward Robert Thomson signed up for next season so far, Young faces a busy summer, with retaining top scorer Dale Carrick surely a priority.

The 29-year-old former Hearts, Raith Rovers, Kilmarnock and Livingston striker's career-best 25 goals - 19 in the league - have been crucial and he must surely relish another crack at a division he last graced with Airdrieonians two years ago.

With this month's appointment as football operations manager of former St Mirren and Hibernian midfielder Brian Hamilton, a director of sports facilities company SGS and with a keen interest in youth development, Stirling hope to build on this season's success on and off the park.