Molloy double sinks Blues

Nov 5 2008 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Wednesday

FOOTBALL can indeed be a funny game – not that too many Albion fans were laughing as their team trooped off a goal down at half-time on Saturday.

In the end, Stirling chiselled out a 3-2 victory from a match they didn’t really deserve to win but perhaps that luck was overdue. In a number of games this season, the Binos have played well enough for little reward.

The common script has been of poor goals shipped and opportunities missed for the usual outcome of a draw. Here, Albion were again guilty of poor defending and were fortunate only to concede twice but for once they made the most of the chances that came their way.

Vital

This was a vital win – just the third of the season and the first since Alloa were beaten 3-2 in September. Albion now go to Recreation Park then host bottom club Arbroath on November 15 looking for maximum points to boost their play-off hopes.

This success lifted them to within four points of fourth-placed East Fife who were surprisingly held to a goalless draw by Queen’s Park. On a day when leaders Brechin were thrashed 5-1 at Peterhead, the feeling persists that there is very little between most of the teams in the Irn-Bru Second Division.

Certainly Stranraer don’t look like a team who deserve to be occupying the relegation play-off place at present. They beat Albion at Stair Park in August and could easily have claimed a fifth successive league win over Moore’s men on Saturday.

Instead, two goals from on-loan St Mirren midfielder Craig Molloy in the final quarter turned the tide in Stirling’s favour and ended their Blues’ jinx. It wasn’t pretty but all three of Albion’s victories have come after going behind and they rallied for a draw at Ayr last time out, so the battling qualities of the team can’t be questioned.

Whether they have enough to go on and claim a play-off berth remains to be seen but the main aim for Moore’s men must be to stay in touch with the leading quartet and, to be fair, Albion have only lost three times in 2008-09. It’s the six draws that have been the problem.

Moore made changes to his line-up after the Somerset Park stalemate of the previous week, one enforced, others by choice. Ross Forsyth was injured so Stewart Devine came in at left-back and David Lowing moved into the centre alongside Andy Lawrie.

Top scorer Ian Harty got the nod ahead of David McKenna in attack while Chris Hamilton was preferred to Nathan Taggart on the right wing, although by the start of the second half Hamilton and Mark Docherty had made way for Taggart and Martin Grehan on the flanks.

Stirling looked disjointed in a grim first half and were lucky not to suffer an early blow when Gregory Tade – easily the best player on the park – seized on an error from Lowing and raced into the box, only to pull his shot wide of the far post.

Tade was a threat all afternoon and it was no surprise when he broke the deadlock a minute before half-time, converting Michael Mullen’s deep cross at the far post. Before that, Myles Hogarth had made a splendid save to keep out Mullen’s diving header.

Stirling lacked any spark but Stranraer didn’t look convincing at the back either and Liam Corr might have done better than head wide before Harty had a penalty appeal turned away. The same player should have done better after a terrible piece of defending but failed to get his shot away with keeper Scott Black stranded.

At that point, anyone suggesting this game would produce five goals might have been asked to take a lie down in a darkened room but the second half dished up a surprising feast, even if it was not a high-class offering.

Substitutes Taggart and Grehan combined six minutes after the restart for the ex-Motherwell man to glance a header past Black but Stranraer were back in front in 66 minutes when Albion failed to clear their lines and Ian Dobbins found the corner through a crowd of players.

You wouldn’t have bet your house on Stirling coming back but within four minutes Molloy latched on to a Corr flick-on and guided a shot into the corner for his first senior goal.

Lashed

Tade then exposed the home defence once more but Mullen was denied his first goal of the season when he lashed the ball against the post with only Hogarth to beat and that allowed Albion to nick the points with 12 minutes left.

Molloy gathered the ball on the edge of the area and sent a fine dipping volley beyond Black. It was a memorable moment for a player due to return to Love Street before Christmas and it earned Albion a crucial win, but the quality of the goal was not in keeping with the match.

Stirling Albion: Hogarth, Graham, Lowing, Lawrie, Devine, O’Neill, Hamilton (Taggart 45), Molloy, Harty, Corr (Murphy 89), Docherty (Grehan 45). Subs not used: McKenna, Christie.

Stranraer: Black, McKinstry, Noble (McColm 86), Dobbins, Kane, Nicol, Gibson, Mitchell, Mullen, Tade, Frizzell. Subs not used: White, Jones, Budinauckas.

Referee: Euan Norris