We start with a look back at the rise, fall and end to Annfield, Stirling's first home ground.

In Footballing terms Stirling Albion can be described as a young club having only been formed in 1945. Previous to that year the town of Stirling had a senior football team called Kings Park. During the Second World War a German bomb landed on the Kings Park ground and destroyed the grandstand and due to the ground damage, financial difficulties set in and Kings Park were closed down in 1945.

At that time for a town of Stirling's size to be without a football team was a disaster, so later on in 1945 Tom Ferguson a Stirling Coal Merchant and a few friends set the wheels in motion to form a new club.

Mr. Ferguson and his friends bought a piece of land called the Annfield estate for £5000 in May 1945.Remarkably in the space of just three months work was completed on creating a football ground on the estate ready for the first match on August 11th 1945 against Airdrie in a friendly match in which Stirling Albion won 3 - 1 in front of 5000 spectators.

Throughout the years the facilities at Annfield were modified and improved, in 1961 floodlights were installed costing £12,000. Annfield hosted its and Stirling Albion's largest ever home crowd when over 28,600 people watched the Scottish Cup Quarter Final against Celtic in 1959 with Celtic coming out winners 3 - 1.

From 1945 Stirling Albion's changing facilities and offices were based in the Annfield House, a large mansion house on the Annfield Estate. The facilities in the mansion deteriorated rapidly and in 1974 it was decided to close it down and build a new building containing all the facilities Stirling Albion would need to accommodate senior football, and which would be on a par with the best in Scottish Football.

As time passes thing deteriorate and The Albion found Annfield was past its best and during the 1970's and early 1980's the ground was falling apart with the terracing deteriorating the worst.

During the early 1980's financial problems were mounting up on the club, primarily because of the cost of the ground maintenance. After lengthy discussions with Stirling District Council, the council bought Annfield for £180,000 from Stirling Albion in 1983 and then they leased the ground back to the club.

The council then carried out major repairs on the ground, but due to the severe state of the ground, one stand was closed as was a section of the other stand, this left the ground with virtually only a handful of seats with only terracing left. New floodlights were also installed at this time.

Because of the severe disrepair of the ground, discussions started to take place by the council and the club about the possibility of a building a brand new stadium. But it was decided that at that time it would be better to repair and upgrade Annfield.

Around this period in the mid 1980's artificial all weather pitches were becoming more well known and indeed several English clubs had already installed them. The council decided that this was the way ahead, and Stirling Albion got the go-ahead to lay an artificial pitch for a three year trial period.

During the summer of 1987 Annfield saw its biggest development since it was built. The grass pitch was lifted, the slope on the ground rectified and layers of stone, tarmac, rubber shock pad and then the artificial pitch laid,. the terracing was strengthened and new crush barriers installed, with other ground improvements carried out it saw Annfield turned into a very modern small football ground.

During the three year trial period visiting teams to Annfield made it very clear that they did not like the artificial pitch and criticised it at every opportunity they could get. So it was to no ones surprise that the Scottish Footballing Authorities in February 1990 stated that Stirling Albion must return to playing on real grass by the start of the 1992/93 season.

This led to the great debate starting again by Stirling Albion and the District Council about what to do next. It was eventually decided to build a new football stadium and sporting complex in the outskirts of the Town.

On May 2nd 1992 the last ever match was played at Annfield against Clydebank, a match The Albion won 2-0. Only 1121 spectators turned out to watch The Most Famous Annfield go down into the history books. Many people here at Twist'n'Shout certainly miss the old ground, with all its character and memories it holds for us and the atmosphere a few hundred fans could create in the shed end behind the goal just cannot be forgotten.

While the last match was being played at Annfield work had already started at the new stadium but the work would not be completed until April 1993, this gave The Albion a headache as they had no ground to play at. So ground sharing with another club would be the only option. For eleven months Stirling Albion shared near neighbours Stenhousemuir`s Ochilview Park.

Eventually the new ground was opened on April 1993, ironically against Clydebank the last team to play at Annfield eleven months before. So it was with great pride that Stirling Albion moved into their brand new stadium one of the most modern stadiums in Scotland. The stadium was officially opened on July 21st 1993 in a 2-2 draw pre-season friendly against Rangers.

It was decided by local schoolchildren that the new stadium should be called Forthbank. The same name as the old King's Park ground.

	Annfield - pre plastic pitch days

The first team to play on the Annfield Plastic Pitch