Albion Rovers, who were thought to have one of the smallest playing budgets in League One this season, avoided the worst of the relegation battle as they finished eighth in the standings. Certainly, this was not a campaign to be heralded like the previous season’s, when they very nearly won a place in the playoffs, but they achieved a good deal. They even offered Celtic a good challenge in the Scottish Cup, although that was something of a turning point as they were never quite as strong after that match. Once again, Darren Young built his side around a very solid defensive corps, in which Mick and Ross Dunlop were to the forefront. But there was more than just organisation to this side; they were a more attacking unit than their team last season, with more technical, ball-playing midfielders in their ranks. However, in attack they were mixed. Ryan Wallace had a good campaign but was troubled by injury at the midway point, while Ross Stewart was plucked from obscurity and had a fine breakthrough season that will likely see him move up through the ranks in the summer. Perhaps the greatest difference between Rovers in the first and second half of the campaign, though, was the presence of on-loan Hamilton forward Steven Boyd, who gave them a dimension that they otherwise missed. Certainly, in 2017 they were not nearly as potent an attacking threat, although this has something to do with the aforementioned injury concerns. There were points of the campaign that they were forced to rather muddle their way through, with a heavy schedule in March and April taking its toll on the thin squad. By the time the season ended with a run of four successive losses – Rovers failing to score in all of these – the team seemed out on its feet. Young will leave the club in the summer, and with cuts in the playing budget forecast, survival next season would be an astonishing achievement.
