FAREWELL TO FIRS PARK

East Stirlingshire directors have admitted the cost of bringing Firs Park up to meet new critera set by the SFA has made the decision to leave the ground a formality.

They reckon the club would only receive permission to keep on playing there if they spent "tens of thousands of pounds" on improvements demanded by the game's governing body in Scotland.

With a planning application to build on Firs Park pending it was decided it wasn't worth it.

"We would have to spend a lot of money bringing it up to to scratch," said director Spencer Fearn. "For one thing the pitch is too short. We would have had to dig up the terracing and extend the playing surface. It's just not worth it."

However, with the planning process taking time Firs Park might not disappear any time soon and the club intends to make use of that.

"There is a possibility we can retain our offices at Firs Park next season and use the pitch as our permanent training facility, " said Fearn.

"Obviously, that will depend on planning consent, but we are hoping Ogilvies aren't quite ready to move in and we can go on using Firs Park. That would be ideal for us."

Shire have also revealed the club will press on with a plan to build their own ground elsewhere in Falkirk.

"We want somwhere we can call our own," said Club Seceretary Les Thomson. "The fact that we have announced that we are moving away is the trigger to start that process.

"We will be seeking help from councillors and others to see how that can be moved forward," he said.

"We will be sharing with Stenhousemuir for a period of five years," said Fearn. "In that five year period we want to make sure we have a ground of our own.

"When the time is right, maybe in August or September, we would like to sit down with MP's and others to work out how we can do that."

Both officials believe the creation of a new stadium is achievable.

"Spencer has expertise in that field," said Thomson. "And if we can use that then maybe we can start going place."

You can watch the interviews on the future of the club away from Firs Park in full on shireTV.