Stirling Albion manager Darren Young hailed his side after they drew 1-1 with Championship outfit Raith Rovers then won the penalty shootout for a Premier Sports Cup bonus point.
The Binos were good value for their draw at Stark’s Park and triumphed 5-4 on spot-kicks as they followed up a matchday one victory at Dumbarton with another positive result.
Aidan Connolly gave Raith Rovers the lead midway through the first half but Kieran Moore equalised shortly before the interval after being teed up by Dale Carrick and Albion survived the loss of defender Jordan McGregor to a second yellow card with eight minutes left. Stirling won the shootout, with Blair Currie denying Scott Brown after Kyle Banner had made it 5-4 with a perfect penalty.
Stirling were back in action last night when they faced Aberdeen in scorching conditions at Forthbank and they conclude their Group A fixtures at home to Peterhead on Saturday. The Blue Toon have failed to score in their three matches so far and lost 2-0 to Dumbarton on Saturday.
Looking back on the weekend game in the Fife sunshine, Young said: “It was an outstanding performance from start to finish and I’m delighted. We could have been a couple of goals up and we pressed them high up the pitch. It was pleasing that we stuck to our shape but we also took the game to a team two divisions above us.
“The goal we lost was a mistake and it is something we had talked about, but the players showed great determination and resilience to get back in it. We got a deserved equaliser right on half-time and the fitness levels were great.
“We could have had a penalty at the end when Kieran Moore was in and it looked like he was caught then there was another chance from a corner.
“I was here when they battered Peterhead 6-0 and it could have been seven or eight, but I have confidence in my players – there is plenty experience out there. It’s all about maintaining levels and standards now and we are still looking to add a couple of players.
“There were plenty of penalty takers and we were confident Blair (Currie) would save at least one penalty and he ended up saving two. He is a penalty stopper and he did it at Ibrox last year.”
Meanwhile, Rovers boss Ian Murray didn’t look for excuses and said: “It was night and day compared to midweek and we huffed and puffed a lot.
“We couldn’t get our flair players into the game as much as we would have liked and the full-backs weren’t high enough.
“We were really slow with the ball and that was frustrating because you need to move it quickly.
“When Stirling went into their shape, they went man for man and we didn’t do enough.
“We were probably fortunate to be 1-1 at half-time because Dale Carrick missed a great chance to open the scoring and they could have had a penalty at the end. We can’t say we were unlucky – we didn’t deserve to win the game.”
