New Stirling Albion relishes pre-season after painstaking recovery from knee injury

A brutal pre-season can often send shivers down the spine of footballers ... but Stirling Albion new boy Sam Denham is relishing every moment after coming back from a devastating knee injury.

The 21-year-old defender came through the ranks at Celtic before moving to St Johnstone before heading out on loan to Edinburgh City and Cowdenbeath.

Strong displays of his potential attracted the attention of East Fife, who snapped up the young centre-back before the 22/23 campaign.

A promising campaign saw him rack up more than 30 appearances for the Fifers on their way to the League Two play-offs - but it was all to be cut short after Denham picked an ACL injury in the semi-final second leg against Clyde,

It put him on the shelf for nine months, with East Fife fans crowdfunding to help pay for the surgery.

The injury kept him out for the whole of last season - but he is now hoping for a restart with his former youth team boss at St Johnstone, Alan Maybury, as the Irishman pulls together his Stirling squad for this season.

Denham made an assured debut against Broxburn in the Binos’ 1-1 draw last weekend and will be able to build up the fitness with another good showing against Queen of the South tomorrow.

Speaking to the Observer, Denham said: “It’s been good in pre-season so far, it’s been tough and with myself being out for a long time personally, it’s just been great getting back into full training and on the grass.

“There were a few reasons why I decided to come to Stirling; it was a great opportunity for myself and it’s a great club which provides me the chance to get back in the leagues and get some game time under my belt.

“I worked under the manager at St Johnstone so that was another factor which played a part in the decision.

“I was back in full training before the end of last season but didn’t manage to get a game under my belt so now for me it’s about having that good pre-season and racking up as many games as I can to try to get back to the levels of performance I had before the injury.”

The stopper spoke up glowingly of new boss Maybury and believes that he and the squad built so far show signs of a side able to make an instant return back to the third tier.

Denham added: “I’d say he’s a great man-manager and very good one-to-one with the players.

“He’s good at running the sessions and has a track record of getting out of League Two with Edinburgh City before so the fact that he’s been here and done it is a big advantage to him as well.

“I’ve played a half season at Cowdenbeath and a full season at East Fife, so I know what the league is all about so now for me, I got in the play-offs with East Fife but never managed to get up so if we can end up going one step further this time around, then that would be brilliant.”