Albion on a high despite Ross ban

Jan 21 2009 by Our Correspondent, Stirling Observer Wednesday

STIRLING Albion aim to keep their good run going at Stranraer on Saturday but will head to the south west without suspended skipper Ross Forsyth.

The former St Johnstone full-back received a straight red card 18 minutes from the end of a terrific 2-0 home victory over Ayr United for what referee Neil Watters ruled was a two-footed challenge on Chris Aitken and that means an automatic one-match ban for the trip to Stair Park.

Forsyth will also miss two further fixtures – at Brechin on January 31 and at home to Peterhead on February 14 – after going through the disciplinary points threshold, a consequence of the dismissal and two bookings earlier in the season.

That was the only bad news on a weekend which saw Albion follow up their recent 2-1 win over Raith with a defeat of second-placed Ayr United, a result that keeps the Binos within three points of the play-offs.

Manager Allan Moore also revealed that goalkeeper Scott Christie signed a new contract at the end of last week and that will see him remain at Forthbank until the summer of 2010.

The 21-year-old has been keeping Myles Hogarth out of the side since November and Moore said: “We have signed Scott for another year and that is very encouraging. We have had him here since he was 14 and hopefully he will stay for a while then make the club money if he moves on - the chairman deserves it.”

Moore will be hoping his players can produce the goods at bottom club Stranraer this weekend. The Blues, beaten 2-1 at Raith on Saturday, might have only won twice this season but one of those victories was against Stirling in August and Derek Ferguson’s men were unlucky to lose 3-2 at Forthbank in November.

Looking back on the 2-0 win over Ayr, courtesy of second-half goals from Martin Grehan and Ryan McCord, Moore said: “I was absolutely delighted. The boys gave their all from first minute to last and I said to them that if they come in feeling sore and aching then they have put a shift in - they have done that in the last four or five games. The effort they put in against Ayr was unbelievable and that is half the battle in this league.

“Ryan McCord showed great desire to get forward for the second goal and it was a terrific finish from him. I think there were six or seven teams trying to get him in on loan and credit to Craig Levein for allowing him to come here.

“Whether he’ll be here for longer than a month we’ll need to wait and see but he is enjoying it and that was his first senior goal. Roddy Grant and I were blowing the ball over the line after it hit the post!

“The biggest disappointment was Ross Forsyth getting sent off. He got the ball but he put two feet in and that means the referee has a decision to make. He was daft to do it, and the reaction of their players didn’t help, but to be fair our players would have probably done the same and we have no real complaints.

“We’ll take one game at a time but the way we are playing we won’t fear anyone. The cornerstone of any team is getting your defence right so it’s disappointing Ross is out but we will go to Stranraer with confidence and we have guys like Andy Lawrie, David Lowing and Mark Docherty waiting to get in.”

Ayr gaffer Brian Reid saw his side suffer only their fourth league defeat of the season – all of them have been away from home – but he had no real complaints about the outcome.

He said: “The first half was pretty even and the wind was in our favour in the second half but we never took advantage of it. We didn’t create as many chances as we usually do. Their keeper had a couple of decent saves but it looked as if we could have played all night without scoring.

“The lads were well warned as to how hard a game this would be and we wanted to keep our run going but too many players were off the boil.

“Bryan Prunty felt aggrieved that he didn’t get a penalty in the first half. He said it was a stonewaller but I didn’t get a great view of it from the dug-out. We gave away poor goals on the day and you saw the difference with Stirling – their defenders were throwing themselves in front of things.”

Albion will need all that commitment if they are to overcome a Stranraer team who are more dangerous than their lowly standing would suggest.