Stenhousemuir

Also written as Stenhousem'r.

The club

Stenhousemuir were founded in 1884 and play at Ochilview Park in the village of Stenhousemuir, in the Falkirk district. Ochilview holds 3,746, of which 626 are seated, comfortably the smallest permanent home in the 2026/27 Championship. The club are nicknamed the Warriors, or simply Stenny, and their own match reports describe players turning out "in maroon".

Recent seasons

Three ordinary seasons in the fourth tier were followed by the best run in the club's history. Stenhousemuir finished sixth in League Two in 2020/21 with 26 points from a Covid-shortened 22 games, fifth in 2021/22 with 49 points and sixth again in 2022/23 with 47. Gary Naysmith arrived in January 2023 and in 2023/24 the club won the cinch League Two title, the first league championship in their 140-year history. They were fourth in League One in 2024/25, reaching the play-offs. In 2025/26 they finished second with 67 points, two behind champions Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who had been docked five points for entering administration the previous season. In the play-off semi-final they drew 2-2 with Queen of the South at Ochilview on 9 May 2026 and won the shootout, Olly Whyte converting the decisive penalty. In the final they won 3-1 at Alloa Athletic through Ross Taylor, Matty Aitken and Michael Anderson, lost the home leg 1-0, and went up 3-2 on aggregate. It is their first season in the second tier since Scottish football abandoned the two-division system after 1974/75.

Honours and landmarks

The League Two title of 2023/24 is the club's only league championship. They won the Scottish Challenge Cup in 1995/96, beating Dundee United 5-4 on penalties after a goalless 90 minutes and extra time. Earlier honours are the Scottish Qualifying Cup in 1900/01 and 1901/02, and the Stirlingshire Cup 11 times, most recently in 2014/15. Their furthest Scottish Cup run was the semi-final of 1902/03, lost 4-1 at home to Rangers. Record attendance is 12,525 for the Scottish Cup quarter-final against East Fife on 11 March 1950. The club's proudest landmark is not a trophy at all: on 7 November 1951 Ochilview staged the first floodlit match between two Scottish senior sides, a friendly against Hibernian that Hibs won 5-3. The lights had been funded by local butcher Tommy Douglas, and one of the lamps is on display at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden.

Notable scorelines

Record win: 9-2 against Dundee United on 16 April 1937. Record defeat: 2-11 against Dunfermline Athletic on 27 September 1930. The giant-killing season was 1994/95, when Stenhousemuir knocked St Johnstone out of the Scottish Cup 4-0 and then beat Aberdeen 2-0 to reach the quarter-finals, before winning the Challenge Cup the following season. From the recent promotion campaign, Scott McGill's long-range strike in a 3-1 win over Montrose at Ochilview took the club's Goal of the Year award.

Head-to-head notes

Raith Rovers publish the all-time record as Raith 39 wins, Stenhousemuir 19, 17 draws. The two last shared a division in 2018/19, when Raith took 10 points from the four meetings and Stenhousemuir were relegated after losing a play-off to Annan Athletic. Against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in League One last season the four league games were remarkably tight: Inverness won 1-0 at home, Stenny won 2-1 in Inverness, and the other two both finished 1-1. Inverness also knocked Stenhousemuir out of the Challenge Cup at the quarter-final stage that season. Partick Thistle and Stenhousemuir drew 2-2 at Firhill in the League Cup on 21 July 2026, Stenhousemuir winning the shootout 5-3; Livingston and Stenhousemuir drew 0-0 at Ochilview on 25 July 2026, Stenny again taking the shootout. Arbroath were the League One champions in 2024/25, the season Stenhousemuir finished fourth in that division. Published all-time records against Ayr United, Dunfermline Athletic, Greenock Morton and Queen's Park are not established.

Right now (2026/27)

Marvin Bartley was appointed first-team manager on a full-time contract on 9 June 2026, with Neil Hastings, who worked with him at Livingston, as assistant, and club captain Gregor Buchanan taking on a player-coach role. Bartley had managed Livingston in the 2025/26 Premiership and left after their relegation. Martin Christie was appointed director of football on 13 May 2026. The men Bartley replaced left in a block: Gary Naysmith accepted a three-year contract at Ayr United, announced on 6 May 2026, taking assistant Brown Ferguson with him, after 160 competitive matches and 73 wins at Ochilview. Naysmith then signed Ross Taylor for an undisclosed fee on 8 June; Taylor had made 109 appearances, scored 25 goals, and swept the club's four player-of-the-year awards in 2025/26. Scott McGill departed on 3 June and joined Arbroath, and loan players Zeke Cameron and Kane Ritchie-Hosler returned to Dunfermline while Olly Whyte, 47 appearances and 10 goals, went back to Motherwell.

Bartley rebuilt with young players: defender Sam Young from Dunfermline on a one-year deal on 24 June, Callum Penman and Lewis Hodgkiss on loan from St Mirren until January on 9 July, left-back Scott Bright from St Johnstone on 10 July, midfielder Lewis O'Donnell, formerly of Dundee United and Cove Rangers, on 20 July as the seventh signing, and 6ft 5in goalkeeper Robbie Hemfrey on 27 July. A cooperation agreement with Heart of Midlothian, announced on 8 July, brought defender Matthew Gillies and attacking midfielder Gus Stevenson to Ochilview for the season.

The start has been excellent. Stenhousemuir went unbeaten through a difficult Premier Sports Cup Group E: 2-0 at home to Forfar Athletic on 11 July, 2-1 at Brechin City on 18 July, 2-2 at Partick Thistle on 21 July with the shootout won 5-3, and 0-0 at home to Livingston on 25 July, goalkeeper Darren Jamieson saving a penalty in normal time and three more in the shootout. Ten points won the group by one from Partick, and the reward is a home tie with Motherwell in the last 16 on the weekend of 15/16 August. Ross Meechan made his 300th competitive appearance in the Partick game. The league campaign begins away to Raith Rovers on 1 August 2026.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.