Stirling Albion boss leaves position after Binos suffer playoff relegation

Stirling Albion manager Darren Young is to leave the club with immediate effect after the club's relegation back to League Two was confirmed on Saturday.

The 45-year-old had been in position at Forthbank since December 2021 and led the club to League Two glory just over 12 months ago.

A strong start to the League One campaign saw Young rewarded with a contract extension to May 2026 in January.

But plummeting form soon saw the Binos in trouble and they fell into the League One relegation play-offs, where they lost to Dumbarton in the semi-final 2-1 on aggregate after a second-leg goalless draw on Saturday.

It's a rapid fall for Young, who had been Scotland's fifth longest serving manager heading into the weekend clash with the Sons - but Albion will now launch the hunt for a new manager to bring them back out of the fourth tier.

In a statement published on Monday afternoon, the club wrote: "Stirling Albion announces that manager Darren Young will be leaving the club with immediate effect.

"Assistant Manager James Creaney will also depart.

"We would like to thank Darren and James for the hard work and commitment they demonstrated at the club and wish them every success for the future.

"The process of identifying a new manager will commence immediately."

Following the disappointing defeat on Saturday, Young had pledged to fight on and prepare for life back in the fourth tier.

He told the Observer: "They’ve managed to grind out the draw they need, same thing with Annan last week.

"I thought we were terrible in the first half, made a change with the formation and then for the second half, we battered them but to no avail. I think I counted maybe ten chances which has been the story of the second part of the season - just not taking the opportunities we created.

“We got a great start to the second half and young Rudi hits it off the post when maybe he could have done better but there’s plenty of chances through the game.

"That’s where the problems have laid and been our downfall, we’ve lost poor goals as well but we’ve had more than enough chances to win games and stay in the league, but it’s just massively disappointing for me, for the fans and we can only apologise for that.

“The fans have backed us all season and again they are the ones that are feeling it most, you feel as if you’ve let them down, the chairman down as well so that’s just the disappointment.

“We know next season will be very hard in League Two for sure, depending on who is in it because there are a lot of big teams there. It became a two-horse race the last time with ourselves and Dumbarton, but there are a lot more teams that will be stronger and it will be a strong division.

We’ll sit down with the board in regards to everything, the budgets, who we’d like to keep and let go, but it’s not great at the moment.”