Demanding Stirling Albion boss Darren Young watched his side ease to a 2-1 victory at East Fife – but declared his side had produced better displays in recent weeks.
Albion were impressive and squandered a number of clear chances to create a more comfortable winning margins as Young enjoyed a fruitful return to Bayview where he enjoyed a successful four-and-a-half-year stint as manager.
Robert Thomson got the visitors on the board early, before a hotly-disputed Alan Trouten penalty – which led to the Binos gaffer being sent off – drew the hosts level.
But Dale Carrick’s fifth league goal of the season on the stroke of half-time secured the three points and trimmed the gap to leaders Dumbarton to five points.
The Sons’ 0-0 draw at Forfar sets up a big clash at Forthbank on Saturday, with the hosts looking to firmly kick their title ambitions into gear.
Young said: “We did very well, we’ve probably played better in the last few weeks to be honest but we had couple of chances to kill the game off and it would have been good to get them and finish it.
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“We defended well and got forward at the right times, we really should have had that third goal but a mixture of bad finishing from us and good defending stopped that.
“We’re heading in the right direction with three wins in a row now and we’ve cut the gap to the top, so it’s a good three points.
“The boys know we have a good squad and we know there is strength in numbers, the guys we are bringing on we know they can start and that’s a really good position to be in because it’s not always the case.”
The awarding of the 36th-minute penalty incensed the Albion gaffer, who admitted he had angrily confronted referee Daniel Graves looking for an explanation before the whistler showed him the red card.
“We’ll need to see if it’s a penalty or not because I feel the boy made the most of it”, Young added.
“I told the referee that it was never a penalty and obviously I swore and he says it was aggressive, that I was out of my box and that it was foul and abusive language.
“I was just obviously saying what I felt but, at the same time, I think you can speak to me without sending me off but it’s just one of these things and I’ll need to take responsibility.”
A sour note on the afternoon was a first-half injury to midfielder Kieran Moore, with the Albion midfielder limping off with an apparent leg injury.
Young said: “We don’t know much yet, I don’t know if it’s a dead leg or if it was his knee because it was around there so we’ll just have to see how it goes over the next couple of days.”
