Stirling Albion hope to break league champions' hearts

Stirling Albion will aim to do what no-one else has managed in cinch League 2 this season and defeat champions Kelty Hearts at New Central Park tomorrow.

Kevin Thomson’s side clinched the title with a 1-0 win over Stenhousemuir a fortnight ago and drew 1-1 with Edinburgh City at Ainslie Park last weekend.

The SPFL newcomers have won 13 and drawn three of their 16 home league games, with Stirling one of the few teams to have denied them full points in a 1-1 draw at the end of October.

Joe Cardle opened the scoring that day but Daniel Scally equalised for the Binos a few minutes later.

The former Lowland League club also knocked St Johnstone out of the Scottish Cup and their only home defeat in any competition this season was 1-0 to Dundee United in the group stage of the Premier Sports Cup way back on July 9. Kelty, who will receive the League 2 trophy after their match against Forfar on April 23, won both meetings at Forthbank with ease – 3-1 in August and 3-0 in January – but have been less free-scoring in recent weeks.

Stirling return to Fife after drawing 0-0 with bottom club Cowdenbeath on Saturday but manager Darren Young should have more options this weekend. Akeel Francis will be available again after illness and Nathan Flanagan should also be back. Ray Grant and Jordan McGregor were also expected to train this week and could come into contention for a place in the squad.

Young said: “We’re looking forward to the Kelty game and we’ll go there confident after keeping clean sheets in the last two games.

“We lacked a cutting edge at Cowdenbeath but we looked very comfortable at the back and Blair Currie didn’t have much to do.

“The players were adamant that Jack Leitch’s header had crossed the line but obviously it