The weather may have wreaked havoc on Stirling Albion’s preparations in recent weeks – but the hard work on the training ground paid off with the winning goal over Stranraer on Saturday.
The Binos enjoyed victory in their first run out of 2023 thanks to Ross Davidson’s placed 48th minute effort and were good value for their win as they bagged three points ahead of a busy run of fixtures in the coming weeks.
Stirling manager Darren Young had described in recent weeks how the squad had been forced to use five-a-side pitches in Glasgow in order to keep up their training schedule with their regular facilities falling victim to the freezing temperatures.
But after a tight first half, the Forthbank side blew away the cobwebs to keep up the pressure on League Two leaders Dumbarton.
Young said: “I was delighted with getting the three points, especially having not played for a month.
“I think in the first half we were still a wee bit rusty, we had two or three chances to take the lead but never took them. Blair didn’t have too much to deal with from that side of things.
“In the second half, we got a well-worked goal and it was something we had worked on in training and I was taking a bit of stick from the lads to have some credit from our first training session.
“It’s all about wee movements and bits and bobs that we can do and it was a great finish from Davo [Ross Davidson] to seal it.
“It was great to get the clean sheet, we defended right from the front for that. The lads did get a little tired towards the end but they haven’t played for a while and it was good to get those minutes in the legs at the end.”
Albion welcomed their latest new signing to the squad, with goalkeeper Mark Weir joining on loan from Bonnyrigg Rose to add depth to the squad, with young keeper Callum Law off for a loan spell to West of Scotland side Benburb to secure some much-needed game time.
There was also a debut off the bench for new striker Greig Spence, with fellow signing Flynn Duffy taking his spot on the bench.
The visitors had come into the game after a good 3-1 away win at East Fife and presented a stiff return test for the Binos, but the home side created a number of good opportunities to pad out their lead.
Young added: “We knew this is a tough game and that Stranraer are a decent team, they’ve signed well in the January window.
“There’s always the chance that you can get done on the counter or with a ball into the box when the game is at 1-0 but we were absolutely solid and even at the end, Blair has come out two or three times to take the pressure off which was good to see.
“It was overall just a really satisfying win.”
