A hush fell over the Recs as the Tullibody Pipe Band began to play the Flowers of the Forest. Lined up in front of the stand were the players of Alloa and Stenhousemuir, the home team wearing black armbands in tribute to a fallen comrade. With the club flag at half-mast, fans bowed their heads as the old lament played. S talwart Alloa winger Jock Stirling had played in the previous home game, bringing his usual bag of tricks to torment the King’s Park defen ce in a hard fought local derby. Just two weeks later Stirling was gone. He had been buried in Alva Cemetery on the morning of the match, two days after his death in the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. Alloa players and directors formed part of the funeral cortege on that March 1924 morning, with w reaths coming from Middlesbrough and other clubs that Stirling had served. He had played at the highest level in Scotland and England before coming to Alloa in the autumn of his career and helping to inspire the Wasps to a golden era