Musselburgh 0 Stirling 4

Depleted squad move into the next round

Stirling moved into the next round of the East of Scotland cup with a comfortable win by the seaside. Playing a team that had given Stirling’s second team a tough game two weeks previous, Stirling were braced for a defensive performance against a so-called ‘superior’ team. However Stirling showed their class to run out comfortable winners even though they had only 11 players available and Coach Tommy Craig being forced to 

make an appearance in the final 15 minutes.

On a blustery afternoon Stirling, once again, arrived with little time for a warm up but showed no signs of a slow start as they held possession well early on. The first chance came from a quick gamble by Matty McLachlan to leave him through on the keeper. Fortunately for the home defence the striker snatched his shot across goal.

Stirling continued the pressure with their opponent’s content to fire long balls towards the commanding centre half pairing of the chirpy Ryan Mahoney and Fraser Gillespie. The duo dealt easily with the threat, Mahoney even throwing some tricks in against the attacking players. Right back Graeme Crawford almost set up a goal but the ball was blocked when cut back from the by-line.

What the...

They were rewarded for their dominance with the opening goal as Connor Wells doubled his tally for the season. Enterprising play by Owen Smith to keep the ball in allowed Ryan McCue to get to the by-line. Showing no signs of last week’s knockout punch, the curly haired full-back found Wells unmarked and he powered the header past the ‘keeper.

The remainder of the half was scrappy as Stirling’s tempo began to drop and they were giving away easy possession to their opponents. Musselburgh couldn’t make anything of this drop in form though, threatening only through their striker ‘Chico’ but Stirling defended well against the greedy forward. McLachlan and Smith had a couple of half chances but were unable to take them; a sign of things to come for McLachlan.

Stirling came out for the second half confident and, after a slight spell of Musselburgh possession which still failed to test Fraser Meechan with a shot at goal, Stirling doubled their lead and ended the game as a contest.

'Model'

Smith managed to get his first two goals for the club which crushed the home side’s hope of a comeback. Picking the ball up down the left, Smith got past his defender, who had just came on, in the corner before jinking inside past another defender. His shot had too much power for the goalkeeper and he could only palm into the net.

He took the score to three only a couple of minutes later as a ball in from fresher Richard MacDonald down the right was cleared by the unfortunate fullback straight to Smith at the edge of the area and he drilled a sweet strike into the bottom corner to end the Musselburgh challenge.

Stirling were sitting back and with the home side running out of ideas, they took their foot off the pedal and began to lose sloppy possession. They did manage to add to their lead however as McLachlan got on the score sheet. MacDonald played a neat ball in behind the defender and McLaughlin rifled a shot past the stationary keeper although this was not the main moment of his match.

This arrived with twenty minutes left as miss of the season grabbed hold of an early contender. Superb play from Jamie MacLean through the middle, which was a feature of the game, beating two men neatly and getting to the by-line set up the chance. His dinked cross left McLachlan two yards out and he managed to blaze over on the bounce ruining his good performance previously.

On the pull as usual

He conveniently suffered a hamstring injury soon after, which brought about a sight no football fan wants to see. The sight of Craig getting ready to come on at the sideline strikes fear into his own teammates and Stirling immediately when defensive as a four goal comeback seemed a distinct possibility.

In shocking scenes Craig nearly scored, which may have led to Mikey MacDougall going AWOL on a permanent basis. A cut back from Smith after over-running the chance for his hat-trick left the ball 6 yards out. A good connection gave it a chance but the keeper’s legs kept the ball from being burst and all football games being cancelled until further notice.

The game fizzled out to a conclusion and leaves Stirling with a trip to Premier Division league leaders Bluebell in late November. Stirling will take heart from a good win with a depleted squad and bring this into Wednesdays game at home to Heriot Watt 3’s; a cup game they have to win.

Referee’s, and most important, MoM; Graeme Crawford (Although I have no idea why)

Combined decision MoM: Owen Smith

Stirling: Meechan, Crawford, Gillespie, Mahoney, McCue, MacDonald, Wells, MacLean, Lynch, Smith, McLachlan (Craig)