Stirling Albion bowed out of this season’s Bell’s Challenge Cup with a 5-3 defeat by Falkirk at The Falkirk Stadium. The result wasn’t really a surprise but the plus side was the scoring of 3 goals even though top scorer, Scott McLean, was absent due to injury. The worrying aspect was conceding so many goals, especially, as some of them were due to slack defensive play. We can only hope that these problems are sorted out before visiting Forfar on Saturday.

The Binos lined up with Gethins wearing the number 9 jersey but it was Falkirk who started brightly with pressure being put on the Bino’s rearguard. Scotland did well to clear a cross from O’Neil. A few minutes later, a mistake by Rowe allowed a cross to be made to Duffy but, the one time Bino’s target, was unable to keep his header down.

However, it was not all one way traffic and a McDonald curling free kick, awarded after O’Brien had been pulled down by Lawrie, went just past Hill’s right hand post.
Another Falkirk attack saw Latapy’s 25 yard shot go just past the post but Hogarth had the shot covered. Then a shot by Duffy brought out an unorthodox save which saw the shot bounce off the keeper’s body. As play started to go from end to end, the Bino’s had half hearted appeals for a penalty turned down when O’Brien went down as he was trying to turn past a Falkirk defender. At this stage the Binos were starting to come more and more into the match and Gethins did well to turn a defender. However, with only the keeper to beat, he blasted his shot well wide.

A minute later, the Binos took the lead when they were awarded a penalty after lawrie had brought down O’Brien. The Falkirk defender was booked and, for the second match in a row, Gethins stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way to make it 1-0 to the Binos.

At this stage, an upset looked a distinct possibility as a Glancy shot was blocked by James. O’Brien, following up, saw his effort deflected for a corner. Then Falkirk equalised when they were awarded a very soft free kick. The ball was played to Nicholls whose shot beat Hogarth to make it 1-1. Four minutes later, Falkirk took the lead when O’Neil collected a pass from Latapy to send in a cross to leave an easy tap in for Duffy.

Just on half time Hogarth produced a finger tip save from a Nicholls long range effort to keep the score at 2-1 to Falkirk.

Neither team made any changes at half time and the match re-started with the Binos kicking towards the end of the ground where the Binos’ fans were housed. Some of these fans had the misfortune to be housed in the temporary stand.

Falkirk quickly extended their lead when Latapy collected a through ball and ran through to easily slot the ball past Hogarth with the Binos’ defenders posted missing. A minute later Duffy hit the post as Falkirk threatened to make it an embarrassing night for the Binos. A Latapy crossfield pass to Thomson saw the forward’s attempt to lob the ball over Hogarth land on the roof of the net.

Then, much to the relief of the Binos’ fans, Falkirk took off James and brought on Sharp. The tactic of playing high balls to Glancy and Gethins was always going to fail when you have a defender with the height of James. In response, the Binos took off Gethins, who had worked hard all night, and brought on Darren Cummings. Falkirk then took off McKenzie and brought on Scally.

Falkirk made it 4-1 when a Thomson cross found Latapy in the clear. The Trinidadian must have been surprised as he mis-hit his shot. However, it was still good enough to beat Hogarth. Falkirk obviously thought that they had the match won as they replaced Latapy with Moutinho.

The Binos started to fight back and they managed to reduce the leeway when Cummings beat Hill after Glancy had laid the ball back to him. Hogarth then produced an excellent save to deny Thomson. Scotland became the second player to be booked when he was adjudged to have fouled Duffy in the penalty box. Duffy, himself, stepped up to send Hogarth the wrong way and make it 5-2 to Falkirk.

With time running out, Hutchison came on for Hay. The Binos then scored when a Glancy cross was met by George Rowe who had decided to join in the attack. George’s header went past Hill to make it 5-3. In the last minute a Nugent cross was met by Cummings but, despite having to stoop to get his header in, the youngster was unable to keep his header down.

Shortly after that, the referee blew his whistle to finish the match. Whilst it is always disappointing to lose, especially to a local rival, it leaves the Binos free to concentrate on the league with 3 away matches coming up in September. We start with a difficult trip to Forfar who have also started with 4 wins. A draw and a couple of bridies will suit me on Saturday.