Stirling Albion booked their place in the Stirlingshire Cup Final with a 3-2 win over Stenhousemuir. This result meant that the Binos completed their group matches with a 100% record to set up a possible meeting with Falkirk at the Falkirk Stadium.

Tonight both teams played virtually reserve teams with the majority of the Stirling team coming from the youth set up. Also in the starting line up were Wilson, Gethins and Cummings who had all recovered from injury. James Allan provided the experience in midfield whilst Chris Scotland was back in his customary centre back position as well as being captain for the night.

The Stenhousemuir team had former Bino Ryan Davidson in their line up and he was to leave his mark on the game in the wrong way.

The first half was a fairly lacklustre affair with very little to get the crowd excited. Unfortunately, the only incident of note was the Stenhousemuir goal after 25 minutes which was the only goal of the first half. Man of the Match, Sinclair, scored after, firstly, Savage hit the bar and the rebound was cleared off the line. The ball fell to Sinclair who made no mistake to put the Warriors one up.

Hutchison should have equalised but he allowed a header from Cummings to bounce and the chance was lost. The Binos had 2 more efforts in the first half. The first was when Orr spilled a Hutchison header and the ball broke to Gethins. He tried to play the ball to Allan but his pass was intercepted. The second was just before half time when a cross from Allan was headed towards goal by Cummings. The Stenny keeper got his body behind the ball to deny the Binos.

The second half was a more entertaining affair as the Binos began to take control of the match with four attempts at goal in the first six minutes. The pressure paid off in 53 minutes when a cross from the right came off the top of a Stenny defender’s head and fell into the path of Cummings who made no mistake in slotting the ball past the keeper. 2 minutes later the keeper produced as fine save to thwart Allan.

Sinclair was booked for a late tackle on Scotland and he was quickly followed into the referee’s book by Easton for a two footed tackle on Cummings.

The Binos took the lead on the hour mark when Gethins managed to get his foot round a Cummings cross to score from close range. Shortly after this Davidson was sent off for a late tackle on Ross.

Despite being down to 10 men, Stenhousemuir equalised in the 71st minute when a corner from the right came to Sinclair who shot through a ruck of players. However, the Binos came back and, with less than 10 minutes remaining, scored what was to be the winner. Cummings collected a reverse pass from substitute Donnelly and drilled a low shot past Orr. The Binos could have made it four just before the end but Donnelly’s excellent run wasn’t properly rewarded.

Considering Gethins and Cummings were coming back from injury, both played reasonably well but Allan was a disappointment. The young defence played well as a unit with Ross at left back being the pick of the bunch.