Albion's defensive failings exposed

Nov 12 2008 by David Ogilvie, Stirling Observer Wednesday

ALBION’S’ DEFENSIVEFAILINGS EXPOSED

STIRLING Albion manager Allan Moore was an angry man after watching his side slump to a 4-3 defeat against local rivals Alloa at Recreation Park on Saturday.

Poor defending saw the Binos trail 3-0 and 4-1 before two late goals made the scoreline look closer than it should have been. The result means Albion have won just three games out of 13 in Division Two and face bottom club Arbroath this weekend badly in need of a victory.

John McGlashan’s men haven’t won a league game since the opening day and Stirling triumphed at Gayfield in August, having lost at the same venue in the CIS Cup a couple of weeks earlier. Arbroath are on a run of five defeats, the latest of which was 2-1 at home to Brechin, but they won 3-0 on their last visit to Forthbank in December 2004.

Moore admitted that Stirling’s defensive frailties were horribly exposed by Alloa and the Stirling boss felt the absence of the injured Ross Forsyth was a key factor in the defeat, while Nathan Taggart also missed out after being ill in the week leading up to the match.

He said: “When we take Ross out of the back four we seem to be all over the place. Ross is a winner and we don’t have enough of them. We don’t know yet how long he will be out for but we are hoping it is not long. I was actively looking for a centre-half and a centre forward during last week but to no avail. There is maybe one we can go back to but we will need to wait and see on that.

“We could have snatched a goal at the end but the three goals just paper over the cracks and Alloa deserved to win. I told the players at half-time that we hadn’t started yet again and we were hoping to get back into it at the start of the second half but we lost a bad goal and it was the same story against Stranraer the week before, although we managed to win that one.

“I thought we had the best chance of the first half through Martin Grehan and I felt Andy Graham was fouled in the build-up to their first goal but I’m not going to make excuses. We didn’t defend well enough and the players need to stand up and be counted. I thought one of my back four had a decent game but the other three weren’t at the races.”

Moore shrugged off suggestions that the plastic pitch was a factor and said: “The surface didn’t score four goals against us. We have a hard game against Arbroath now but we need the fans to stick with us. I can understand the frustration they felt at 4-1 down but we need them on our side and hopefully we can get the win this weekend.

“There weren’t many positives to take from the Alloa game but I thought big Martin Grehan had a good game. He battled his corner well and scored a good goal but he should have taken more chances this season. We maybe need someone with a bit of pace up front to help him because at the moment the midfielders are scoring more goals than the strikers.”

Meanwhile Alloa, boss Allan Maitland was delighted to claim his first derby victory and said: “In all my days at Clyde I couldn’t do anything but beat Stirling Albion, but in my time here it has been the opposite so this result makes me very happy. I think this is the first time this season that we have been ahead at half-time

“For the first 25 minutes of the second half we were excellent and played at a tempo that caused them a real problem. It looked as if it might go 4-0 or 5-0 but whether it was tiredness or the break that Stirling got for the second goal we were hanging on at the end. I was pleased to hang on but I don’t think 4-3 was a true reflection of the game.

“We have struggled to create chances this season but we tried to get balls in behind Lawrie and Lowing to get them turning. I think it worked.”