Stirling Albion:- Hogarth, Nugent, Forsyth, McNally, Roycroft, Fraser, Bell, Tomana, Cramb, Shields and O’Brien.
Subs:- Hay for Tomana, Aitken for Cramb, Cashmore for Shields. Gibson and Christie (unused)

Alloa Athletic:- Creer, Bolochoweckjy, Forrest, Townsley, Malcolm, McColligan, Hamilton, Grant, Brown, Sloan and McKeown.
Subs:- McCallum for Grant, Hazeldine for Brown, Comrie for Forrest. Ovenstone and Hutton (unused)

The Binos made the short trip to Alloa to take on a Wasps team which had produced one of the upsets of the CIS Cup in midweek when they had disposed of First Division Ross County. However, an excellent all round display by the boys in red saw the visitors leave with all 3 points though the main talking point will be the “Graham Poll” imitation by the man in the middle when referee Boyle allowed Forsyth to stay on the park after administering a second yellow card. The oversight was brought to his attention by both assistants. The referee then seemed to show a third yellow before flashing the red card. This incident just about summed up his afternoon as he allowed Alloa players to get away with tackles which certainly merited further action.
Despite reports that both sides had injury problems, the Binos’ starting line up was unchanged from the Stranraer game but Aitken replaced Graham on the bench. Alloa showed one change from the Ross County match with Brown taking the place of McAnespie.
The home team got off to the best possible start when they took the lead in the 1st minute. A slip by Roycroft allowed Brown to get to the bye line and his cut back was slotted home by Sloan. 1-0 to Alloa.
The Binos, kicking up the slope, responded but Shields could do no better than turn an O’Brien corner over the bar. Next Bell hit the bar following a cross from Cramb. The Binos continued to apply the pressure but Fraser couldn’t get his shot on target from a Forsyth cross.
At the other end, a shot by McColligan was saved by Hogarth. Just when it got to the point where, despite all their pressure, it seemed the Binos would go into the break trailing by that early goal, a wonderful move involving Tomana and Nugent ended with Cramb sliding the ball home to make the half time score 1-1.
The first chance of the second half inevitably fell to the Binos but Bell’s effort went over the bar. Just before the hour mark, the Binos scored what was eventually to be the winner when Bell sidefooted the ball home following good interplay between Tomana and Cramb.
Creer produced a fingertip save to touch a Nugent shot onto the bar. A few minutes later, Cashmore came on for Shields who was injured following a tackle from behind by Townsley. The Binos’s striker was bizarrely booked either for taking too long to leave the field or for something he said to the referee. Meanwhile, the Alloa player went unpunished.
Shortly after that came the Forsyth sending off incident. From the resulting free kick, Sloan hit the bar. This signalled a spell of Alloa pressure and the 10 men were left hanging on for the final 13 minutes though they did take every available opportunity to get the ball up the park and run out time.
McCallum had a chance to get the equaliser in the closing minutes but he headed a Hamilton cross over the bar.
The Binos did manage to hold out for a victory they totally deserved considering the way they dominated the game.
Next up is Sunday’s match against Raith Rovers. Hopefully, today’s result and the novelty of playing on a Sunday will see a good turn out.
In addition to the bookings for Forsyth and Shields, Cramb was booked for seeming to say something to the referee after he had been fouled whilst, for Alloa, Sloan was booked for a foul on O’Brien, Bolochoweckyj for clattering into Tomana and, eventually, Townsley for yet another foul on the man of the match, Tomana.