The League One meeting at Balmoral Stadium on Saturday will see hosts Cove Rangers facing Stirling Albion.
Scroll down for all of our predictions, poll and stats for the Cove Rangers v Stirling Albion game - plus the latest match odds.
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Form Guide
Cove Rangers
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Cove Rangers will be looking for an improved result here following the 1-3 League One losing effort in their last game against Hamilton Academical.
The only scorer from Cove Rangers was Connor Scully (13' Own goal, 56'). Euan Henderson (83') and Kevin O'Hara (86') scored for Hamilton Academical.
In their past six games, Paul Hartley's Cove Rangers have hit the target 7 times, an average number of goals per match equal to 1.17.
Coming into this contest, Cove Rangers haven’t won at home in the past 3 matches in the league.
Stirling Albion
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Stirling Albion will go into this meeting following on from a 1-0 League One win with the eclipse of Montrose in their last fixture.
The only scorer from Stirling Albion was Kieran Offord (92').
In the course of their 6 previous matches, Darren Young's Stirling Albion have slotted home 8 times therefore yielding them a goals scored per game average of 1.33.
Coming into this contest, Stirling Albion have not won away from home in their last 4 league games.
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Head to head
An examination of their prior head-to-head clashes stretching back to 09/11/2019 shows that Cove Rangers have won 3 of these and Stirling Albion 1, with the number of drawn games standing at 2.
Loads of goals were seen in those games, too - 26 in all at an average of 4.33 goals per meeting.
The previous league clash between these sides was League One match day 23 on 03/02/2024 which ended up with the score at Stirling Albion 2-2 Cove Rangers.
The referee was Iain Snedden.
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Team News: Cove Rangers
The Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley doesn’t have any fitness concerns whatsoever coming into this clash thanks to a fully injury-free group available to select from.
We think that The Wee Rangers will probably make use of the 4-3-3 formation for the game and select Jack Butland, James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, John Souttar, Ridvan Yilmaz, Mohamed Diomande, John Lundstram, Nicolas Raskin, Rabbi Matondo, Cyriel Dessers and Fábio Silva.
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Team News: Stirling Albion
Thanks to a fully injury-free squad available for selection, the Stirling Albion manager Darren Young has no fitness concerns to speak of before this game.
From our viewpoint, The Binos seem most likely to elect for a 4-2-3-1 system, starting the game with David Marshall, Chris Cadden, Will Fish, Rocky Bushiri, Jordan Obita, Nectarios Triantis, Joe Newell, Élie Youan, Emiliano Marcondes, Myziane Maolida and Adam Le Fondre.
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Prediction
We’re of the view that Stirling Albion should have enough to find the net against this Cove Rangers lineup, but that probably won’t quite be enough to prevent defeat.
We reckon that it will be a 2-1 winning margin for Cove Rangers at the end of this one. There shouldn’t be much in it, either way.
Our expert partners are tipping under 3.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.
Lucas Pereira,
10:07 28/03/2024
🏟️ Team Focus:
Cove Rangers
Formed: 1922
Stadium: Balmoral Stadium (3,023)
Captain: Mitch Megginson
Chairman: Keith Moorhouse
Manager: Paul Hartley
Competitions: League One position 5
🔑 Star Player: Rumarn Burrell
Mostly used in the Striker position, Rumarn Burrell was born in Birmingham, England. After having made a senior debut playing for Falkirk in the 2022 - 2023 season, the dangerous Forward has struck 19 league goals in the League One 2023 - 2024 campaign to date from a total of 30 appearances.