Boss Brian Reid felt the better team lost on Saturday as his relegation-threatened Albion Rovers side came away empty-handed from a five-goal thriller at Stirling Albion.
The Cliftonhill side had led League Two’s second-place side 2-1, but a goal for the hosts just before the break turned the game in their favour, and Rovers ended the game with 10 men after Blair Malcolm saw red for foul and abusive language in the 85th minute.
A Charlie Reilly double either side of Danny Denholm’s opener and Dale Carrick’s strike for Binos had Rovers well in contention to at least take something from the game, but Paul McLean’s goal after 68 minutes proved to be the winner for the hosts.
The result leaves Reid’s men joint-bottom of the table with Bonnyrigg and sitting ninth by virtue of goal difference, but he insisted his side were ahead of their rivals on the day.
He said: “For most parts, we were the better team. To score two goals away from home to a team at the top end of the league is very disappointing.
”It was a game we should have taken at least a point from.
“We dominated most of the second half and looked the more likely to win the game, but we got hit by a sucker punch at a set-piece.
“It’s poor defending and that’s the disappointing thing because the game was there for the taking.
“Their first goal the boy puts it in the top corner so there’s not much we can do about that. Nine times out of 10 he hits the corner flag but, unfortunately for us, he hits the top corner.
“We got back into the game with two good goals from Charlie and then we concede a terrible goal just before half time, which gets them right back in it.
“I think if we went in at half-time 2-1 up, we’d go on to win the game but the team talk totally changed.
“We had eight players missing on Saturday and the average age of our team on Saturday was 19-and-a-half so that puts it into perspective.”
Malcolm’s red card didn’t have a major bearing on the result but Reid felt referee Ross Hardie was conned into awarding the foul that sparked it.
He said: “I’m not really sure what happened.
“It’s supposedly for foul language but he wasn’t talking to the referee, he was talking to the player who, no disrespect, went down kidding that he’d been elbowed.
“There was hardly a mark on the boy. I think he’s conned the referee there and I think he [Blair] has shouted something at the player and maybe the referee has thought it was aimed at him.
“I’m not fully sure, but our players have got to be a bit more disciplined than that because it is bad enough right now with the injuries we’ve got, to be losing players to suspension.
“Blair will miss this Saturday now and that certainly doesn’t help our cause.”
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