Preview Albion Rovers

Ladbrokes League One: Dunfermline are unbeaten in their last nine winning all but one - against Albion Rovers on 8th March.

Newly crowned League One champions, Dunfermline Athletic, are off  to Coatbridge on Saturday to face Albion Rovers. While all of West Fife focussed on the two league matches that mattered last Saturday - at East End Park and at Peterhead, a Lanarkshire derby was quietly taking place at the Excelsior Stadium. 

Albion continued to find their neighbours near impossible to beat with only two points out of the possible12 this season and only one win over them since 1976-77 season. Ali Love's late equaliser rescued a point for Albion Rovers as they held play-off rivals Airdrieonians. The point however kept the two Lanarkshire sides locked together on 39 points and only one win behind Stranraer who currently sit in the fourth play off place with one match in hand.

Looking in the other direction Albion Rovers are three wins short of ensuring that they are not relegated to where they came from for the start of this season. 

The Pars have only made one visit to Cliftonhill since March 1986 when Dunfermline, so for a number of Pars fans this will be their first opportunity to see the Pars play there.  Tickets for this visit were almost all taken up before last Saturday's title clinching win over Brechin City and for that reason there will be a sizeable away support this Saturday.

Of the 73 previous league matches, the Pars have won 37, 14 have been drawn and 22 lost. The recent meeting at East End Park ended all square - Ryan Wallace had shot the Pars into a 1-0 with just a quarter of an hour remaining but Ross Davidson levelled just two minutes later and it finished 1-1.

That was also the scoreline when the teams met in Coatbridge in November. It was the same then - Andy Geggan got the Pars into an early lead but just five minutes later Josh Mullen netted for1-1. In October the first fixture ended in a 3-0 Pars win with goals from Joe Cardle (43), McCabe (62) and El Bakhtaoui (75).

Albion Rovers moved to Cliftonhill in 1919, with the new ground opening on 25 December. The Main Stand sits high on a rise above Main Street and a roof extension over the standing area in front of the stand was added in 1994.

The Main Stand and paddock are the only parts of the stadium normally used nowadays and the current capacity is listed as 1,238. In its heyday, Cliftonhill housed many thousand more people and its record attendance was set on 8 February 1936 when 27,381 watched the visit of Rangers. Unusually and owing to the ground's small capacity, there are no stands or open space behind either goals for spectators.

Albion Rovers were founded in October 1882 with players drawn from two junior teams - the Rovers and The Albion. It was not until 1903 when they entered the Scottish League playing in Division Two. Dunfermline first met Albion Rovers on 14th September 1912 when the Pars ran out comfortable 5-2 winners. The following season Albion Rovers finished runners up - one point ahead of the Pars.

In season 1919/20 they were elected to the First Division and in the same year they moved to their current home, Cliftonhill. This was perhaps The Wee Rovers most successful period in their history, reaching the Scottish Cup final in 1920 only to lose 3-2 to Kilmarnock in front of a crowd of 95,000, a record for the time.

With their relegation in 1922/23 season it meant that they would face Dunfermline once more, with the Fifers taking three points out of four but finishing three points and two places behind fifth placed Albion. In season 1933/34, Albion pipped Dunfermline to the Second Division title. They had to thank their 2-1 victory at East End Park on 17th March - when Dunfermline were top of the league and undefeated at home - for this achievement.

After the Second World War Albion found themselves, like Dunfermline, in Division 'B' and in 1947/48 they were promoted as runners up to East Fife. One season on they were back in the bottom league. They finished fourth in the Second Division in 1979/80 and in 1988/89 won that league. Albion Rovers won League Two last season by a ten point margin and a goal difference of +28. Last season's League Two champions find themselves up against the Pars in the league for the first time since season 1985/86.

Albion Rovers started the season well but since October they have only won four times.  Albion have now gone seven matches without a win while Dunfermline are unbeaten in their last nine winning all but one - against Albion Rovers on 8th March. 

Sandy Clark left Albion Rovers in the summer to join Allan Johnston's management team at Dunfermline but the most famous link between the clubs is Jock Stein.  Stein played 94 times for Albion between 1942 and 1950 and was part of the team that won Division 'B' in 1948.

In addition to Darren Young the current Albion squad includes former Pars players Andy Barrowman, Paul Willis and Scott McBride.

Last Time Out

DUNFERMLINE (v Brechin City): Sean Murdoch; Craig Reid, Brad
McKay, Ben Richards-Everton, Jason Talbot; Michael Paton, Andy Geggan (c), Josh Falkingham, David Hopkirk (Michael Moffat 40); Ryan Wallace (Paul Joseph Crossan
89), Faissal El Bakhtaoui.
SUBS NOT USED: Rhys McCabe, Shaun Byrne, Lewis Martin, Shaun Rooney, David
Hutton (GK).

ALBION ROVERS (v Airdrieonians): Ross Stewart; Alan Reid, Michael Dunlop, Ross Dunlop, Kyle Turnbull;  Gary Fisher, Ross Davidson, Ally Love, Scott McBride, Spas Georgiev, Paul Archibald.
SUBS NOT USED: Mark Ferry, Darren Young, Ben Cappie, Connor Shields, Blair Lochhead (GK)

Referee will be Mat Northcroft.

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