Stirling crashed out of the CIS Cup with a dreadful performance at the Strathclyde Homes Stadium against Dumbarton. The Sons, who’s playing style could best be described as direct, looked toothless in the first half but by the 90 minute mark had cruised past a beleaguered and sapped Stirling team. David Bagan opened the scoring with 15 minutes to go following a corner that was not properly cleared, the 3rd such goal the Binos have conceded in just two matches, before late goals from Boyle and Gemmell sealed the embarrassing defeat.

Allan Moore opted to revert to a back four following the return from suspension of Devine and Forsyth meaning the former played on the left, the latter with Andy Graham in the centre leaving Paul Hay to be shunted to right back. Of the 5 midfielders selected on Saturday arguably the best, the forward thinking Marek Tomana, was dropped while Chris Aitken and Steven Bell retained their places with O’Brien and Gibson given more aggressive roles. Colin Cramb also called off due to family problems and so Ian Cashmore partnered Dene Shields upfront.

The game started brightly enough for Stirling stringing some nice passing moves together without much end product, often overcomplicating things. At times things seemed to be over complicated and Dumbarton, now a much more organised outfit than they were under Paul Martin last year, were able to sit back and absorb anything thrown at them comfortably. It was a Dumbarton defender who forced the first, and best, save of the match from Grindlay as Paul Hay’s driven cross was diverted goalward only to be clawed off the line. Ian Cashmore had the best shooting opportunity of the half for the Binos as he found space to latch onto a through ball but his finished lacked accuracy if not power and was punched away. Dumbarton looked aimless at this stage with ball after ball running through to Myles Hogarth. With their only real move of the match to date John Gemmell headed powerfully past the post for ten yards. This was Dumbarton’s sole counter to Stirling’s dominance of possession but still the Reds had no penetration with the final ball too often being poor.

The second half began in a similar pattern with O’Brien smacking the post with a curling effort from twenty yards but this effort proved to be a watershed in the game as it marked the time when Stirling ran out of ideas and Dumbarton’s physical approach took over. After an hour it became apparent that something needed to be changed in the Albion team as Dumbarton began to create some half chances, with an angled drive beaten away by Hogarth. There were another couple of scares before the breakthrough came from a corner. The ball was not properly cleared allowing Gemmell to turn and sclaff a shot off the post before Bagan followed up by scaffling his shot into the far corner with Hogarth little more than a spectator. Moore waited until the last ten minutes before bringing on Tomana for Devine as the team switched to a 3-5-2 but Saturday’s star man didn’t get time to shine. Fraser was also brought on for Bell when perhaps Aitken looked more jaded but this probably wasn’t a deciding factor in Dumbarton’s next two goals. Gemmell had earlier fired over from 6 yards when it looked easier to score but there was no mistake from Boyle a couple of minutes later as he smashed his shot off the underside of the bar and into the net. As for the third… I had already left the ground by that stage.

Overall it was a highly disappointing evening for Stirling as they were all too easily humbled by their Third Division opponents. Moore must address the problem quickly, I would argue that the midfield of Bell and Aitken has been ineffective during the first two games with Aitken in particular looking a bit off the pace and that this would be a starting point if anything was to change. With John Fraser back in contention and hopefully Colin Cramb too by the weekend maybe tonight’s game will be the kick in the proverbial that means the Binos lift their game and shock Brechin.