Adam Brown got a close-up look at what it takes to compete for League Two honours last season – and believes the building blocks are starting to come together at Forthbank.
The midfielder joined the Binos on loan from last season’s champions Stenhousemuir and has become a mainstay in the Stirling side, making six appearances and contributing a pair of free kick strikes against Peterhead and Stranraer.
The 29-year-old was part of the side which sealed back-to-back league wins last weekend with the 2-1 comeback win over Forfar, allowing the Stirling squad to put their feet up over the international break sitting in fourth place.
After the win, Brown told the Observer: “It was an excellent win to round off the first quarter. I came in after the fifth game but if you look at it through the full season, if you are getting 15 points per quarter, then you’re in good shape.
“The sending off changed the game a wee bit and it happened to us up in Peterhead and we ended up getting beat, so to show our character and dig in to stick together was an excellent result.
“I think you can see week-on-week that we are growing as a team and gelling quite well, there are a lot of new faces coming together, lot of changes at the club but there are loads of quality players in there and good characters and that’s what you need to do well in this league.
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“It’s about togetherness, good characters, I think it’s important to have that blend of good players and experience in the group, knowing how to manage games like this one when you go down to ten men, that’s going to happen.
“Every game is going to be tough and every game is different, sometimes you need to roll your sleeves up and dig in and sometimes there can be times where you can play nice football and do what we can do.
“It’s still early days, but we’re on track for where the club wants to be at the end of the season and hopefully we can better that in the second quarter and see where we end up.”
The Binos’ efforts to stay at the top end of League Two have been helped by the capture of forward James Graham, who had played in the last two matches as a trialist.
The former Rangers youngster, 20, has also turned out for Annan and Dumbarton in his short career so far – scoring twice in his 26 appearances.
Albion boss Alan Maybury had expressed hope of getting a deal for Graham over the line after Saturday’s match and he has now got his wish for more forward depth in the squad.
Maybury told the Albion website: “I’m really pleased to get James signed. He has been training with us for a number of weeks and featured as a trialist in recent games where he has had a positive
impact.
“He is a little bit different in what he offers us and can play a number of attacking positions. Thank you to the board for their support in getting this done.”