Stenhousemuir looking for fast start against Stirling

The Warriors paid a heavy price for a sluggish start to last season with ultimate relegation and boss Brown Ferguson is keen to avoid a repeat.

He admitted: “It’s massively important. You’re looking at the first four or five games of the season as a start but for the first game of the season it’s so important to put down a performance and come away with the points, just to kick start our season and get ourselves moving.

“But it’s important for everybody. There’s 42 teams with the thought process going into the weekend that it’s important to go and get up and running and we’re no different to that. We want to go and take the points.”

Midfielder Martin Scott, struggling to shake off a calf injury, is Stenhousemuir’s only injury doubt for a match which will see Ferguson’s side come up against some familiar faces to Warriors fans.

He said: “We know some of their players. Sean Dickson and Darren Smith spring to mind as players that have been at Stenhousemuir in the past and are obviously good players.

“Ross Smith is there as well at centre-half and they have got players like Peaso [Peter MacDonald] who can hurt you.

“They finished last season well. There was a point round about January when they were getting involved in the relegation battle and then they got a bit of stability and had a good run.

“They’ll be expecting to do well this season. It’s a derby against a team who have been together rather than a team like ourselves who are quite new together but I think we have got real quality in our team.

“It’s the first game of the season and a local derby so it should be an exciting game and one Stirling and ourselves are really looking forward to.

“The Hamilton game on Saturday was a tough one against a team better on the ball than we’ll be used to and that bit quicker and sharper. It was a very good test for us and I was pleased with how we looked in terms of the shape,

“We contained Hamilton reasonably, we just need to be a little bit higher up the pitch and on the front foot a bit more and hopefully we can take that into the Stirling game.”