Alloa Athletic
Also written as Alloa.
The club
Alloa Athletic were founded in 1878 and play at Recreation Park in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, a ground holding 3,100. They are the Wasps, after the black and gold hoops they have worn for most of their history; the change strip is navy and white.
Recent seasons
Alloa were relegated from the Championship at the end of 2020/21 and have been a League One club ever since, always in the upper half and never quite going up. They were fourth in 2022/23 with 57 points, third in 2023/24 with 56, and fifth in 2024/25 with 51, reaching the play-offs without advancing.
The 2025/26 season was the closest they have come. They finished fourth with 53 points from 36 games, 15 wins, 8 draws and 13 defeats, scoring 50 and conceding 38, and went into the Championship play-offs. They beat Airdrieonians 3-1 on aggregate, a tie that relegated Airdrieonians from the Championship, and reached the final against Stenhousemuir. Alloa lost the home leg 3-1 at Recreation Park, Ross Taylor, Matty Aitken and Michael Anderson scoring for Stenhousemuir, and won the return 1-0. Stenhousemuir went up 3-2 on aggregate and Alloa stayed in League One.
Honours and landmarks
Alloa won Division Two in 1921/22, the club's highest league title, and the Third Division in 1997/98 and 2011/12. They won the Scottish Challenge Cup in 1999. Record attendance is 15,467 against Celtic in a Scottish Cup fifth-round tie on 5 February 1955, more than four times the current capacity of the ground. Willie Crilley scored 49 league goals in the 1921/22 title season. Record transfer fee paid is £26,000 for Ross Hamilton from Stenhousemuir in 2000; record fee received is £100,000 for Greig Spence to Celtic in 2010.
Notable scorelines
Record victory: 9-0 against Selkirk in the Scottish Cup on 28 November 2005. Record defeat: 0-10, suffered twice, against Dundee on 8 March 1947 and against Third Lanark on 8 August 1953. From last season, the play-off final first leg at Recreation Park on 12 May 2026 is the one that will be referenced: 3-1 to Stenhousemuir, and the 1-0 win in the return four days later was not enough.
Head-to-head notes
Alloa do not publish all-time head-to-head records, and no published all-time record was established against any 2026/27 League One opponent. The recent record that matters is against Airdrieonians, beaten 3-1 on aggregate in the play-off semi-final in May 2026 and now a divisional rival after their relegation. Alloa and Stenhousemuir met in the play-off final, but Stenhousemuir are in the Championship this season and will not be a league opponent. In the 2026 League Cup group Alloa drew 2-2 with Stranraer and 1-1 with Falkirk, lost 2-0 at Edinburgh City and 4-1 at Ayr United, none of whom are in League One. No record was established against Cove Rangers, East Fife, East Kilbride, Hamilton Academical, Montrose, Peterhead, Queen of the South or Ross County.
Right now (2026/27)
Andy Graham is the manager, appointed in 2023, and this is his fourth season in charge. The summer's recruitment was announced piecemeal on the club website and no consolidated retained or released list was retrievable from the sources consulted, so the picture of departures is incomplete and is not guessed at here. What is confirmed is that Alloa agreed a cooperation partnership with Rangers, finalised on 13 July 2026, which brought Max Cameron to Recreation Park on a cooperation loan the same day. Three further squad signings were announced on 14 July, among them Kyle Glasgow, also from Rangers. John O'Malley joined the board of directors on 31 July 2026.
The Premier Sports Cup group brought two shootouts and no qualification. In Group G Alloa lost 2-0 at Edinburgh City on 14 July, drew 2-2 at home with Stranraer on 18 July with Rankin scoring twice and won the shootout 4-3, drew 1-1 at home with Falkirk on 21 July through a Kyle Glasgow goal on 65 minutes and lost that shootout 4-2, then lost 4-1 at Ayr United on 25 July, O'Donnell scoring the consolation. Four points left them fourth of five in a group won by Ayr United with a maximum 12. Alloa did not win a match inside 90 minutes.
The League One campaign opens at home to East Fife at Recreation Park on Saturday 1 August 2026 at 3pm.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alloa_Athletic_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Scottish_League_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_Scottish_League_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023%E2%80%9324_Scottish_League_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_Scottish_League_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%9322_Scottish_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Scottish_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_League_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_League_Cup_group_stage https://www.alloaathletic.co.uk/ https://www.alloaathletic.co.uk/news/ https://www.irishnews.com/sport/soccer/stenhousemuir-promoted-to-championship-despite-second-leg-loss-to-alloa-XN2HXUD3UVKI5EHAWRLEBBHMLQ/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.