Edinburgh City:- Armitt, R.Ross, K.Ross, MacNamara, Bain, Hunter, Caddow, Morrison, Noon, Young and Dodds.
Subs:- Gair for Dodds. Unused - Jardine, Mclauchlan, Allan and Mackintosh.

Stirling Albion:- Christie, Hay, Devine, McNally, Graham, Aitken, Bell, Tomana, Cramb, Cashmore and Taggart.
Subs:- O’Brien for Tomana and Wilson for Taggart. Unused – Fraser, Malseed and Nugent.

Stirling Albion progressed to the 3rd round of the Tennents Scottish Cup courtesy of a 1-0 victory over East of Scotland League side Edinburgh City. The reward is a home tie against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. However, it is safe to say that the Binos will have to raise their game considerably if they want to progress further in the competition as today’s performance was their worst since the cup defeat at Cowdenbeath in the middle of August.
The Binos line up showed 3 changes from the midweek victory at Forfar with Christie replacing Hogarth who had gone down with a bout of food poisoning. The other 2 changes were also in defence with McNally coming in for the injured Roycroft and Devine replacing Forsyth at left back. Paul Nugent also made his comeback from injury with a place on the bench. However, it was as substitute goalkeeper as cup rules do not permit the use of trialists.
The Binos almost took the lead in the first minute when Aitken’s snap shot was held at the second attempt by Armitt whilst, at the other end, Christie was in action, gathering a weak shot. The Binos’ fans probably thought that they were going to be entertained by a good old fashioned cup tie. Sadly, this wasn’t to be the case. The Binos dominated the match but didn’t show enough urgency whilst Edinburgh City were rarely seen in attack.
The Binos took the lead in the 7th minute when Tomana, Cramb and Bell were involved in some good build up play. Bell collected Cramb’s pass before sidestepping a defender and sent a low right foot shot past Armitt. 1-0 to the Binos.
Shortly after that, Bell and Cramb again linked up but Armitt managed to save Bell’s shot with his feet.
Aitken showed his dead ball skills when, firstly, his free kick hit the post then he had another free kick which was parried by the keeper into the path of Tomana but the Slovak’s effort went wide.
Just on the half hour mark, the home team broke away but Bell managed to get back to clear the danger. Just before half time, Taggart weaved his way inside but his shot was wide of the goals.
Edinburgh City almost got the equaliser shortly after the re-start when Morrison collected the ball and tried to go round Christie. Fortunately, “Inchy” had managed to force him wide of the goal and his shot wasn’t on target.
The Binos had appeals for a penalty waved away when Bell went down in the box. The Binos almost got a second in a bizarre moment when Armitt’s clearance clattered off one of his own defenders but Cramb didn’t react quickly enough.
With time running out, both teams did have the ball in the net but, on both occasions, the goals were disallowed for offside. City did put some pressure on in the final minutes to try and force a replay but the Binos defence held firm and the final whistle was met with a big sigh of relief from the visiting fans.
As I have already said, this wasn’t a vintage performance but the main priority was to ensure the Binos were in the draw for the next round which was made shortly after the final whistle.
Next up is a return to Forthbank after 4 away games on the trot. The visitors will be Cowdenbeath when the team will hope to extend their unbeaten run to keep up their promotion push.