Stirling Albion make the short journey to the Indodrill Stadium on Tuesday night to play Alloa Athletic in the first round of the IRN-BRU Cup, kick-off 7.45pm.
The draw for the second round takes place at 1.00pm on Thursday and will be live on the SPFL Facebook page. Ties are scheduled for the weekend of September 8/9.
Drawn games: All drawn games in the IRN-BRU Cup, with the exception of the semi-finals and final, will now go straight to penalties if the scores are level after 90 minutes.
Team news: Darren Barr, Darren Smith and Kevin Moon remain on the injury list and on-loan Dundee keeper Calum Ferrie is also a doubt. Mark Stowe and Marc Kelly featured from the bench on Saturday but trialists are not permitted in the IRN-BRU Cup.
Past meetings: We have lost seven games in a row against Alloa since a 3-2 success away from home in March 2009. The most recent meetings were in August 2014 – the Wasps won 1-0 in the League Cup at the Indodrill Stadium and followed it up with a 2-1 victory in this competition at Forthbank.
Cup record: Our best run in the Challenge Cup is the semi-finals – a stage we have reached twice, losing to Stenhousemuir in 1995/96 and Alloa in 1999/00. Our first game in this competition was a 4-1 defeat to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in October 1990. We have lost in the first round in each of the last three seasons, including a 3-1 reverse to Montrose at Forthbank 12 months ago.
Opponents: Alloa lost 2-0 at home to Morton on Saturday but by all accounts there wasn’t much between the teams. Jim Goodwin’s side went down to a late goal in their Championship opener at Ross County the previous week. Their summer signings are Alan Trouten (Albion Rovers), Adam Brown (Airdrieonians), Greig Spence (Raith Rovers), Jake Hastie (Motherwell, loan), Liam Dick (Dumbarton), Zdravko Karadachki (Edinburgh City) and Chris Henry (St Mirren).
Referee: David Lowe
Admission: Adults £17, Seniors £9, U16s £4
Twitter: Match updates via @Stirling_Albion
Our next game: Edinburgh City v Stirling Albion – 18/08/18
