Stirling Albion continued their recent run of good form with a resounding 3-0 victory over second placed Stranraer. The margin of victory was surprising in that recent league matches between these 2 teams have been very close and tend to finish in a draw. However, a Paul Di Giacomo second half double ensured that the small band of travelling fans would enjoy the return journey back up the A77.

There is no doubt that the Binos rode their luck, especially in the first half, as Stranraer dominated the match in the first period and only failed to score thanks to some good defending by the young Stirling rearguard.

The team selection produced no surprise as Allan Moore stuck by the same starting eleven which performed so well against Morton in midweek. The only change on the substitute’s was the introduction of another trialist. I presume this is Chris Aitken, formerly of Hamilton, who has been linked with a move to Forthbank.

Stirling kicked off on a pitch which, although very green, appeared to be on the slightly heavy side. At times the ball did not appear to bounce as high as the players would have expected. However, the sun was shining which, in itself, provided some problems in following the action.

An early chance came when Di Giacomo played the ball to O’Brien. Unfortunately, Obrie elected to play the ball into the centre for Wilson when a shot may have been the better option. The ball broke to Canning but his shot was blocked. Next, Di Giacomo cut in from the left and played the ball across to the right wing. Unfortunately, there was no Stirling player to latch on to the pass. Then a Hay free kick was partially stopped by McGovern and the ball went for a corner.

Stranraer responded with full back Guy driving the ball across goal but no-one managed to get a touch to the ball. McManus should have done better when a cross from Finlayson found him unmarked but his header was not on target. At this point, with quarter of an hour played, Stranraer were starting to get on top.

Hogarth was then called into action to produce a point blank save from Wingate after a McPhee shot had broken to him. Stirling were struggling to get any service to the front two of Di Giacomo and Dunn.

On the half hour mark, a Di Giacomo shot caused McGovern some problems when the ball bounced up in front of the keeper but he managed to hold onto the ball. At the other end, Stranraer had appeals for a penalty turned down when Finlayson went down under a challenge from Scotland. The referee produced the yellow card for Finlayson for diving.

Good inter play between Di Giacomo and Canning ended with the midfielder screwing his right foot shot wide. As half time started to loom, Stirling took the lead when Di Giacomo managed to get his head to a long ball from defence and knock it into O’Brien’s path. The winger held off a challenge to send a left foot shot past McGovern to make it 1-0 to the Binos.

Stranraer almost got the equaliser just before half time but McManus’s shot was only prevented from going in by the outstretched leg of Stewart Devine. Chris Scotland then blocked a shot to leave the half time score, 1-0 to the Binos.

The Binos got the best possible start to the second half when they doubled their lead on 46 minutes and it was Di Giacomo who got the vital goal. Wilson won a free kick on the right and Hay’s cross broke off a defender into the path of Di Giacomo who despatched a shot into the bottom right hand corner. 2-0 to the Binos.

Stranraer again responded and Nugent and Scotland held firm to repel the Stranraer pressure. In 51 minutes, a header from former Bino Gaughan was held by Hogarth. Devine did well to put enough pressure on Finlayson to ensure that the winger’s shot didn’t trouble Hogarth.

Just after the hour mark, Stranaraer made the first substitution with Sharp being replaced by Crawford.

A minute later, Stirling finished the match off when Di Giacomo pounced on a mis hit clearance by Gaughan and scored from close range. 3-0 Stirling.

Stranraer did not give up and Devine had to be at his best to clear a Jenkins cross off the line after the Stranraer number 6 had beaten Hay on the bye line.
A few minutes later, Crawford headed past after the Stirling defence had been beaten by a long ball over the top.

Henderson became the second player to go into referee Smith’s book when he brought a fine run by Dunn to an end on the edge of the box. The resultant free kick from Dunn avoided the defensive wall but didn’t have enough bend to trouble McGovern.

Stranraer then brought on McCutcheon for Finlayson.

Wilson had a good opportunity to make it 4 when the ball broke of Dunn. However, Jinky decided to go for power and the ball sailed well over the bar.

The last 15 minutes were dominated by a spate of substitutions with Wilson being replaced by the trialist, Glancy replacing Dunn and Hutchison coming on for Hay.

In the last couple of minutes, McManus collected a through ball but he overran and Hogarth came off his line to save. That was the last action and the referee brought the match to an end to roars from the fans sporting red and white.

Having missed the Morton match, I was delighted that the improvement continued at what is always a difficult ground to get points and against a strong Stranraer side. Whether Stranraer will recover from the loss of Graham, only time will tell, but this was their third successive home defeat and a continuation of this will make the promotion race very interesting.

For me, there were no failures in the Stirling team. Hogarth didn’t make any mistakes, the defence played well together and had to sustain a lot of pressure. However, Nugent looked impressive at centre half although he was not up against the tallest of strikers. It will be interesting to see how he does against bigger strikers.

The midfield looked balanced and the front two of Di Giacomo and Dunn worked tirelessly throughout. Di Giacomo continues to look a class above everyone else and it is a pity he is only on loan until the end of the season. I also liked the look of Dunn through the middle although he tended to be used as a winger the last time he was with the Binos.

Next week sees a visit to Dumbarton to play a team we’ve already beaten twice this season although the earlier visit to the Strathclyde Homes Stadium saw the two teams share the points in a 1-1 draw. This match will also be attended by a party of Young Reds. Not wishing to be a party pooper, but the Young Reds have yet to see the Binos record an away victory when an organised trip has been made, and there have been 7 of these, so next week would be a good time to break that duck.

Look forward to seeing a much larger travelling support at the foot of the rock.