Towering forward Barney Stewart will be well-equipped for life in the Sky Bet Championship after becoming Albion’s first summer signing.
The 22-year-old created plenty of memorable goalscoring moments during his stay at Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership - proving he’s more than capable of adapting to English football to play in navy-blue-and-white.
Only forward Tawanda Maswanhise (17), along with four others, notched more league strikes across the highest two tiers in Scotland than Stewart in 2025/26.
His goal-scoring efforts for both Dunfermline (Scottish Championship), where he spent the first half of the campaign on loan, and for former club Falkirk saw him score 14 league goals (18 across all competitions) - making him the third-highest Scottish talisman across the top two divisions.
Standing at 6ft 2in, the London-born marksman uses every inch of his prominent stature to leap above opponents to meet headers. This leads him to rank within the top 13 per cent of strikers in the SPFL for his aerial duel win rate, and among the highest 15 per cent for sheer quantity of successful battles.
Stewart combines an adept heading ability with his promising movement inside the box, scoring three headed goals from a total of 1.90 XG (expected goals) from those attempts. A prime example of his aerial prowess was seen against Kilmarnock, when he adjusted his body position in the nick of time to stoop and deflect Coll Donaldson’s volley into the top corner.
His goalscoring manoeuvres don’t end in the air. Take his hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Hibernian, for example - his first career treble.
Barney’s opener wouldn’t have been scored had he not spotted the run of tricky winger Calvin Miller, who he combined well with for the second goal, too, before claiming the match ball as a result of excellent movement to convert a pinpoint delivery.
Away from the penalty area, the Scotland Under-21 international can be seen dropping deep into the middle third to link play, using close footwork to combine with his team-mates through the 14 chances manufactured for them across 2025/26.
His defensive contributions usually don’t allow defenders a moment’s peace, either. Stewart’s endeavours away from the ball lead him to win the ball on an average of 0.95 times a game (top 91 per cent of SPFL strikers).
In Barney, Albion have a capable striker in the box and across the field and, at just 22, the forward has plenty of potential to develop into an exciting talent over the next four years in B71.
