Stirling Albion manager Darren Young heaped praise on his players after they kicked off the new season with a 2-1 win at Dumbarton in Premier Sports Cup Group A on Saturday.
Robert Thomson scored on his debut following his summer switch from Stenhousemuir and Kieran Moore doubled the lead before Ross MacLean pulled one back late on.
The Binos don’t have a game this midweek but return to action on Saturday against Ian Murray’s Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park. The Kirkcaldy club host Peterhead tonight (Wednesday) while Aberdeen take on Dumbarton at Pittodrie.
Striker Danny Burns could return to the squad for the trip to Fife but Jack Leitch will again miss out and former East Fife midfielder Ross Davidson is still side-lined as he works his way back from injury.
Stirling face Dumbarton again on the opening day of the cinch League 2 season on Saturday, July 30 and Young was delighted that his players had put down a marker at the weekend.
His side had shipped 10 goals in three pre-season games against Alloa Athletic, Airdrieonians and Albion Rovers but generally defended well in the cup opener with Stevie Farrell’s men.
Young said: “I’m really pleased with both the scoreline and the performance. I think we could have scored more goals to be honest and we deserved to win the game.
“It’s great to start the season with three points in what is a very difficult section and you could see the togetherness of the players.
“Robert Thomson and Kieran Moore took their goals well. We made a couple of mistakes and Dumbarton did have a couple of good chances that they didn’t take but, overall, it was a very good performance for our first game.
“Dale Carrick and Robert Thomson linked up well and we had worked on things in training in various areas of the pitch that we took into the game.
“We let them back into it with Adam Cummins’ pass-back giving them the chance to score but Scouse did very well at right-back. He has played there before because Ross McGeachie had missed training on Thursday due to work commitments.
“It will obviously be a big test against a good Raith Rovers team on Saturday but it’s great to be going there on the back of a win, particularly against a team in our own division.”
Meanwhile, midfielder Josh Cooper became the club’s seventh signing of the summer at the end of last week when he put pen to paper at Forthbank. The 19-year-old was previously with Morton and had spells at Broomhill and Gretna 2008 last season.
Young added: “Josh is only a young lad but he did well in the Lowland League last season and I thought he did well when he came on against Dumbarton.
“We also had several U20 players on the bench. We might have had the chance to make more changes if we had scored the third goal but it got a bit anxious in the last few minutes when they got one back.”
