James Smith Reporting

STIRLING ALBION TEAM-

Christie, Graham, Lawrie, Forsyth, Lowing (Corr), Taggart, Murphy, O'Neill, Devine (Waddell), Grehan (McKenna), Harty Unused Subs- Hogarth, Roycroft

Goals- Andy Graham- 5 mins, Ian Harty- 63 mins

Crowd- 448

 

The Binos traveled up to a wet and windy Gayfield Park to take on newly promoted Arbroath in the first round of the League Cup in the hope of gaining their first win of the season.

Alan Moore continued to rotate the goalkeepers with Scott Christie returning between the sticks in favour of Myles Hogarth. Liam Corr limped off the field early on, on Saturday, however, he was fit enough to make the bench tonight, whilst Nathan Taggart started on the right hand side of midfield in his place. Other than this, the Binos were an unchanged team from the one that went down 2-1 to Brechin in our opening league game of the season on Saturday.

The Binos got off to a bright start when an O'Neill corner was headed just over by left back, David Lowing. The first goal came only a minute later when a Stewart Devine corner was headed in by ANDY GRAHAM. Arbroath seemed to lift themselves from this and were unlucky to score in 7 minutes when the Arbroath player struck the crossbar from outside the box. Both teams had their fair share of pressure but it was Arbroath who should have scored when Ross Forsyth gave away the ball and the Arbroath striker, who was one on one with Inchy, tried to place it in the right hand corner, but Christie pulled off a good save. The Binos set pieces were causing Arbroath problems all night and in the 38th minute a Stewart Devine corner was just headed wide by Martin Grehan. John O'Neill found himself in the book for a deliberate handball and David Lowing joined him at the stroke of half time for snapping a Arbroath player. In saying this, it was Lowing who came off worse as he had to be subbed at half time for Liam Corr and Stewart Devine slotted into left back.

HALF TIME- ARBROATH 1-1 STIRLING

Arbroath equalised 3 minutes into the second half when a Arbroath cross should have been easily taken by Christie, but the Binos number one spilled the ball to KEVIN McMULLAN who tapped the ball home. Both teams tried to serve up a decent game of football despite the weather and in the 53rd minute the Binos almost took the lead again when a Stewart Devine free kick went just past the post. Ten minutes later, the Binos did go back ahead, this time from Ian Harty who scored his first goal for the club. A John O'Neill corner took a couple of deflections before Nathan Taggart flicked it on for IAN HARTY to head home. The visiting fans had barely stopped celebrating when Arbroath went up the field and equalised. Stewart Devine seemed to miss a header and KENNY WRIGHT lobbed the ball over Christie's head and into the net. Both teams continued to press each other's goal's, but it was the Binos who should have went ahead on the 71st minute when an O'Neill free kick should have been headed home by the striker, but he somehow managed to hit it into the ground. Play was moving from end to end and it was Arbroath who smacked the bar a minute later from outside the box. Two minutes later and some good play from Andy Graham down the right saw his cross headed just over by the in-rushing Harty. The Binos then made their second substitution of the night when David McKenna came on for Martin Grehan in a straight swap. It was Arbroath who took the lead with ten minutes to go when the Binos failed to clear their lines and JAMIE BISHOP slotted home to what proved to be the winner. A minute later Stirling should have equalised when McKenna crossed in for Harty and the unmarked striker could only put his shot wide of the post. The Binos made their final substitution in a bid to equalise when Steven Waddell came on for Stewart Devine, but despite some late Stirling pressure, Arbroath shut up shop to progress into the next round of the cup.

The Binos take on East Fife at Forthbank on Saturday and the pressure is already on the players and manager to come up with the first win of the season after the traveling support voiced their disapproval during the game. Silly errors need to be cut out if the Binos are to take all three points on Saturday at home to East Fife, who themselves are under pressure after a bad start to the season and who also went out the cup tonight after going down 3-0 at home to Brechin. Hopefully the Binos support will get behind the team on Saturday and cheer the Binos onto their first win of the season.