After two weeks of Cup excitement for the Seasiders, we are back to league action and our supporter’s bus is back on the road as we head to Coatbridge and Cliftonhill to visit Albion Rovers for our 12th Scottish Lowland Football League match of the season.

⚽️ Albion Rovers versus Troon F.C. ⚽️
Saturday 17th October 2026
Scottish Lowland Football League (West)
Cliftonhill, Coatbridge
Kick-off 3pm

It’s been a thrilling couple of weeks around Portland Park with the club progressing in two Cup competitions, but we re-focus on our bread and butter of the league campaign, and Manager Jimmy Kirkwood will be hoping to take our Cup form into the Lowland League West.

It’s fair to say the season has been a little up and down so far, but with five wins from our last eight matches things are starting to look up. With this being a season of firsts (as mentioned many times before), we have yet another first this weekend with our first ever competitive match with Albion Rovers.

Albion Rovers have endured a challenging opening to the 2026-27 Lowland League West season, with inconsistent results leaving them in the lower reaches of the table. A promising 2-2 draw away to Johnstone Burgh was followed by a 2-0 home victory over Caledonian Braves, offering early encouragement. However, heavy defeats against Kilwinning Rangers, Renfrew and Auchinleck Talbot exposed defensive vulnerabilities, while a 5-1 loss at Pollok in October added to their difficulties.

The Wee Rovers went out of two cup competitions in the last two weekends; their Scottish Gas Scottish Cup campaign ended in the first round, with Rovers beaten 4-1 away to Pollok and a 1-0 defeat at home to WOSFL 4th Division side Eddlewood last Saturday, which will give Manager Steven Saunders plenty to ponder. He’ll be pushing for a reaction this weekend.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Saturday’s match…

We have a few recovering bodies now thankfully, as the queue to Darrell’s treatment room eases somewhat.

Lewis Allan has been working hard with Darrell since taking a knock to his knee in August, but he is now fit to return to the bench this weekend. Nathan Baird sat out the last few matches after picking up an ankle knock at Newton Stewart, but he is back in full training and is eyeing a return to the squad for this weekend.

Recent signing Scott Lewis returns to the squad after being cup-tied in our last two weekends, while Stephen Bronsky is available for selection again after agreeing to come off the transfer list. Young midfielder Ryan Hamilton has joined Hurlford United on a season long loan.

Back to league action this weekend after two very satisfactory Cup weekends, but we’re looking to keep up the momentum with plenty of football coming up in October.

Looking forward to visiting Cliftonhill, a legendary ground in Scottish lower league football and one that really encapsulates everything you think about football at our level. Plenty of history and memories, and looking forward to taking to the field. For me, it’s symptomatic of our season in this new Lowland League West set-up; a mix of the traditional Scottish football with new ideas and teams. All in all, a step up for sure.

Excitement is building for next weekend’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup match, which will be the first Scottish Cup match to be held at Portland Park in the club’s 80 year history. There is a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes to get the ground looking it’s best for the event, and there has been an awful lot of hard work put in just to get us to this level in the first place. I’m sure the supporters, the town and the youth academy will come out in their numbers to cheer the team on against Caledonian Braves.

But, we absolutely have to focus on this weekend and make sure we don’t get distracted. This will be a very taxing match and one we need to be at our best in. I’ve only heard good things about the Albion Rovers Manager from his time at Kilwinning, he’ll have done his homework on us as we have on them so we need to make sure we turn up and play how we know we can.

‘MON THE TROON!!

Jimmy Kirkwood (Team Manager)

Full Name	Albion Rovers Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Wee Rovers
Founded	1882
Ground	Cliftonhill, Coatbridge
Capacity	1,572 (489 seated)
Director & LL Board Member	Ben Kearney
Manager	Steven Saunders
Captain	Barry Duncan
2025-26	Scottish Lowland Football League, 13th from 18

⚽️️ OWEN RONALD ⚽️

⚽️️ JONATHAN PAGE ⚽️

10th Oct	Albion Rovers	0-1	Eddlewood	South Challenge Cup R3
3rd Oct	Pollok	4-1	Albion Rovers	Scottish Cup R1
26th Sep	Pollok	5-1	Albion Rovers	Lowland League (West)
19th Sep	Albion Rovers	2-1	Cumbernauld Colts	Lowland League (West)
16th Sep	Albion Rovers	0-3	Kilwinning Rangers	Lowland League (West)

10th Oct	Troon F.C.	2-1	West Park United	South Challenge Cup R3
3rd Oct	Deveronvale	2-3	Troon F.C.	Scottish Cup R1
26th Sep	Troon F.C.	2-3	Kilwinning Rangers	Lowland League (West)
23rd Sep	Cumnock Juniors	4-0	Troon F.C.	Lowland League (West)
16th Sep	Troon F.C.	1-2	Johnstone Burgh	Lowland League (West)

If you can’t make it along to the game, you can keep up to date with all the latest info via the club’s social media channels:

Albion Rovers endured a difficult but ultimately encouraging 2025-26 campaign in the Lowland League, finishing 13th after spending much of the season battling near the foot of the table. Manager Sandy Clark was pleased with the team’s late resurgence, which culminated in four wins from their final five matches and a convincing 4-1 victory over Civil Service Strollers on the final day. Tony Garth and Barry Duncan both scored twice in that memorable finish.

Their Scottish Gas Scottish Cup campaign ended in disappointment, with a 2-1 defeat away to Camelon Juniors in the first round. The Rovers also faced a challenging South Challenge Cup campaign, drawing 0-0 with Thorniewood United before exiting on penalties.

Despite the cup setbacks, there were positive individual contributions. Barry Duncan finished the league campaign with 11 goals, making him the club’s leading league scorer, while Tony Garth’s late-season double underlined his importance in attack. The Rovers’ strong finish offered encouragement for the future, with Clark’s side showing they could compete more consistently as they prepared for another Lowland League campaign.

Troon enjoyed a landmark 2025-26 campaign, securing promotion to the Lowland League West for the first time in their 80-year history and achieving their Scottish FA Licence award, which will see them take part in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup for the first time ever in 2026-27. They also achieved a club-record highest league finish, guaranteeing a top-three place in the WOSFL Premier Division with six matches remaining. Their season was crowned by West of Scotland Cup success: after penalty-shootout victories over Beith Juniors and Drumchapel United, and another shoot-out win against Irvine Meadow in the semi-final, Troon defeated Auchinleck Talbot 1-0 in the final. Substitute Sam Jamieson headed the decisive 92nd-minute winner, securing the club’s first major trophy since 2014.

The Scottish Communities Cup also produced a memorable run. After defeating Beith, Glasgow United and Carnoustie Panmure, Troon reached the last 16 before suffering a 2-1 defeat at Benburb in December.

Their South Region Challenge Cup campaign was shorter-lived, ending in the second round after a 5-2 defeat by Auchinleck Talbot. The Development Team retained their Conference E title, and reached the Robbie Meiklem Memorial Trophy Final, where they were edged out by Thorn Athletic following a penalty shoot-out.

(before this week’s matches)

	REFEREE:
	Ross Donaldson
Assistant Referee 1:		Assistant Referee 2:
Lauchlan Dougall		Daniel Boyle

Referee Observer:

To be confirmed

For travelling supporters, our media team have put together a number of new “Supporter’s Travel Guides” for directions and helpful tips to an away day:

Supporter’s Travel Guide – Albion Rovers (Cliftonhill)

You can find out all about the match itself by visiting the match centre both before and after the game, with the team line-ups, scorers & bookings on the specific match page for the fixture.

To visit the match centre, CLICK HERE.

⚽️ Troon F.C. vs. Caledonian Braves ⚽️
Saturday 24th October 2026
Scottish Gas Men’s Scottish Cup Round 2
Portland Park, Troon
Kick-off 3pm