It's All About The Finish

“East Stirlingshire can now begin to make preparations for the end of season play-offs,” was the gist of a remark made last Saturday by a Radio Scotland commentator as Stirling Albion’s second goal was scored. “If some of the results remain the same by the end of the ninety minutes,” he went on, “Shire will be ten points behind with just five matches left to play.” 

Following the recent five successive defeats it can’t be denied that there is now a distinct possibility that Shire will be participating in the two-legged pyramid play-off, which if lost would interupt Shire's ranking as a Scottish Professional Football League club for at least twelve months.

The loss of SPFL status is a prospect that each League 2 club now faces every season - and it's a stressful system that the Shire bravely embraced when it was proposed.  

In June 2013 East Stirlingshire Football Club expressed support for the introduction of a long-awaited pyramid system in Scottish football, despite the fact that, as one journalist put it, the club had “a history of finishing last in the SFL”. Shire Secretary Tadek Kopszywa (pictured left) summarised the club’s honorable position: “If we are the club to fall through that trap door then that is something we are ready to accept."

No-one at the club wants to fall through “that trapdoor” at the end of this or any other season and the current East Stirlingshire squad, management team and the board will be doing everything they can to ensure the Shire remain an SPFL club. The stats tell their own story of Shire's season so far. That can't be undone; from now on it's all about the finish.