Allan Moore Lays down the law

Aug 13 2008

STIRLING Albion manager Allan Moore has called on his players to cut out the individual errors that have cost them dearly in the early part of the season.

The Binos shipped two poor goals in their Challenge Cup opener at Dunfermline then lost a late goal at Brechin after slack play in midfield before a number of errors saw them crash out of the Co-operative Insurance Cup, 3-2 at Arbroath.

Another mistake left Moore in a bad mood at the conclusion of Saturdays 1-1 draw with East Fife at Forthbank, where a careless pass from Liam Corr ultimately led to Dougie Camerons equaliser after John ONeill had nodded the hosts in front.

Stirling head south to play Derek Fergusons Stranraer on Saturday and Moore has demanded that his players stop taking risks in the wrong area of the pitch.

He said: The East Fife game was the same old story. It was another mistake that cost us a goal. I took big Myles Hogarth out the team because of a mistake and I took Scott Christie out of the team for the same reason and it will be the same for the others if they dont start listening to the coaching advice.

Turning

Weve told Nathan Taggart and Liam Corr to play balls down the channels because if you can get defenders turning in this division you will get goals. I think the fans expect us to play a passing game but we need to do it in the right area.

The players had better learn quick or we will not get anywhere in this division. Sometimes we will have to knock it long and it might not be pretty but thats just tough.

As Stirling prepare to face a Stranraer side also looking for their first win of the season after losing 4-0 to Livingston and 6-3 to Morton in the cups and going down 2-1 to Brechin on Saturday after an opening-day league draw at Queens Park, Moore feels there is plenty to build on after a sound showing against pre-season title favourites East Fife.

Sluggish

He said: I was happy with the general performance apart from the first 15 minutes when I thought we were sluggish. Once we started getting the ball down and passing it we were fine. The defending was better than of late but we nearly got caught a couple of times because we had pushed up and then had a chase back to the goals.

What annoyed me in the second half was our final ball because we had chances and at 1-0 up I thought we were in control of the game. Some people might say a draw was a fair result but Im more annoyed than I was after the Arbroath game.

Chris Hamilton looked lively after coming off the bench and Moore said: We are hoping to have a look at a few trialists in a game this week. We have four strikers and cover in defence with Sean Roycroft coming back, but I think we need someone to help John ONeill and Paul Murphy in midfield.

East Fife boss Dave Baikie said: I thought it was a pretty even game which swung end to end for most of it. I thought we were sharper than we have been but we have half a team who were in the Third Division last year and it will take time to find the pace of this division.

We pushed Dougie Cameron further forward and put Goran Stanic at left-back and that made a difference Dougie breezed through the game. I would say it was an encouraging performance overall and we had plenty chances in the second half.

Meanwhile, Albion assistant boss John ONeill insists he has no regrets about missing out on a European adventure with Queen of the South after leaving Palmerston in the summer.

The Scottish Cup runners-up take on Danish outfit Nordsjaelland in the first leg of their UEFA Cup second qualifying round tie at New Broomfield tomorrow (Thursday) but the one-time Bournemouth, St Mirren and Celtic midfielder isnt wondering what might have been.

He said: I left the club on very good terms with everyone. We will be in training on Thursday or else I would have been at the game. I hope they do well and Im sure they will. Gordon Chisholm will have them well organised and I think they might get a result.

Reflecting on Saturdays game, he added: We looked quite comfortable at 1-0 so it was disappointing not to win. We are not making teams work for their goals at the moment and individual mistakes have cost us but we will get them ironed out. Going forward we look a threat and we just need to push on.

Albion failed to beat Stranraer in four attempts in Division Two in 2006-07 but thrashed the Blues 6-0 in the Scottish Cup last season. Victory by any margin will do this time.

Eddie Smith the referee who caused controversy by awarding Celtic a disputed penalty against St Mirren on Sunday will take charge of Albions match at Stranraer this weekend.