East Stirlingshire FC

The reserves took a lot of credit but no points from their second Reserve League Cup match against Airdrie United at New Broomfield.

Alan Upton’s side included three players who faced Edinburgh City in the Scottish Cup just over 48 hours earlier and also featured trialist Derek Colquhoun, who had not played since scoring in the Third Division match against Arbroath last month.

The hosts included a number of first team players and, on paper, appeared to have the stronger squad.

Shire  had the better of the opening quarter and twice forced the home keeper into decent stops.

But the home team gradually took control and opened the scoring towards the end of the half when Fox headed home a Prunty cross.

The goalscorer might have made it 2-0 in injury time but was denied by a fine save from Greig Mitchell.

The second period saw both sides go for goals and neither team really had any superiority over the other. But clear cut chances were few and far between after the break and Airdrie United held on to their advantage until the finish.

Airdrie United : Hollis, Craig, McKee, Jenkins, McMillan(Kilday), Donnelly(Brady), Fox, Taylor(Donaghy), Prunty, Gillies, Watt.

Shire ; Mitchell, Upton, Carr, Doyle, McDonald, McShane, Donaldson, Wilson, K. McBride(Trialist 51),McLachlan, Trialist.

Tuesday’s planned closed-door friendly against Airdrie United fell victim of the weather, as expected.

Heavy rain meant the match was called of earlier in the day. It had been organised for the benefit of those players who have been lacking a bit of match practice.

Nevertheless, a full training session did still take place.

Paul Weaver was the only one who was unable to participate fully.

The new signing was struck down by a mystery bug over the weekend.

“From Paul’s point of view it was just as well the Berwick game was off on Saturday,” said coach Jim McInally.

“He was so ill he wouldn’t have been able to play. But he made it to training and managed to do a bit of work and we will kep an eye on things with Saturday in mind.”

Shire will travel to Albion Rovers in the third round of this season’s Scottish Cup.

It the reward for last weekend’s narrow 2-1 victory at Edinburgh City. Both clubs will see the match as an excellent opportunity to make it through to the fourth round, where they stand a chance of being drawn against a side from the SPL.

“It’s a good one for us because it’s a game we can win,” said coach Gordon Wylde after the draw was made at Hampden Park earlier.

But it will mean two matches in three weeks against the same opponents. The cup clash goes ahead on Saturday 24th November just a fortnight before the sides are scheduled to meet in the league at Firs Park.

There will, no doubt, be disappointment from fans who always relish a cup match against a team from outwith our division, but a repeat of our last visit to Coatbridge would secure victory and a potentially money-spinning fourth round tie.

Shire have played more league games against Albion Rovers than any other club but, strangely, cup-ties against the Cliftonhill team are few and far between.

It’s 30 years since the sides were drawn against each other in the Scottish Cup. That third round clash in 1976/77, at Firs Park, ended in a 3-0 Rovers win.

The last Shire Scottish Cup trip to Cliftonhill was in 1952/53, Shire lost that won as well, 2-0.

Shire’s search for fresh talent continued with a closed door friendly against Stirling Albion at Forthbank last night.

Coach Gordon Wylde ran the rule over five trialists, including a Kenyan international !

“It was a useful evening,” said Wylde. “But, in truth, there maybe wasn’t much there that was better than what we have already.

“The African guys have great skill, they are pacy going forward but they didn’t seem to like the physical side of things.

“A couple of the trialists will be invited back and we might give them a run out in the reserve game against Clyde.”

Scott Gibb is Shire’s main injury worry ahead of the vital trip to Gayfield to face promotion-chasing Arbroath.

The Northern Ireland under-20 international has been suffering from a neck injury which has stopped him training this week.

“It’s giving him a problem at the moment,” said coach Jim McInally. “But we will keep checking on the situation and we will give him every chance to play.”

Joe Savage has finally shaken off his groin problem and he will travel to Arbroath, one of his former clubs.

“He has put in two decent shifts at training and will certainly be in the 16 for the game,” said McInally.

The coach realises this game is absolutely vital to the team’s chances of lifting itself off the bottom of the Third Division table.

“We need to win at least two of our final three games,” he said. “We will go there with some confidence having been unbeaten in our last three.

“But we need to find a bit of composure in front of goal. If we can do that then we have a chance.

“Arbroath are a difficult team to beat at their own place and we are under no illusions about the task. They are also on on a good run of results.

“But they have Barry Sellars, who I  consider to be their best player, suspended and Bryan Scott who has scored a good number of goals is injured.

“So they won’t be at full strength and that can only be good for us.”

A Shire win is vital, but there are also two other games fans will be keeping an eye on.

Dumbarton face a difficult home match with Montrose while the two other teams in the mix, Forfar and Albion Rovers, meet at Station Park.

If Shire can repeat last season’s 2-1 win at Gayfield it would give them 31 points, which if the Dumbarton match goes to form, would leave them just a point behind with a trip to The Rock the following Saturday.

Interestingly, if Albion Rovers lose at Forfar they would be just two points behind Shire with two games to play.

“We will certainly not give up,” said McInally. “We know it will be difficult but we know as well we are in a positive frame of mind and are willing to give it everything we have got.”

Kick Off is now available on shireTV. Coach Jim McInally shares his thoughts on the Arbroath trip and talks about team building for next season.

After the excitement of Tuesday’s win over Falkirk it was back to earth with a bump for Gordon Wylde’s Shire team.

Following on from all the fizz which had accompanied the morale-boosting victory at Westfield, the first home match of the season looked a game too far for a bunch of players who seemed tired and listless.

By contrast Second Division Alloa buzzed about impressively and were well worthy of their victory.

Wylde made four changes to Tuesday’s team; Greig Mitchell replaced Darren Hill in goal, Kevin Struthers took the place of goalscorer Marc McKenzie, while Gary Kelly ousted Graeme McLaren and Paul Brownlie came in for Derek Ure.

Alloa started very brightly and the Shire rearguard had their work cut out in the opening few minutes. First Paul Doyle had to clear a netbound effort from Scott Agnew then a clever bit of play from Brian Fairbairn relased Graeme Brown but his lob over the keeper was just too high.

Mitchell was by far the busier keeper and did well on 16 minutesto save a long-range effort from Fraser Forest. The keeper looked less confident five minutes later when tested by a good effort from Agnew but did at least recover well to block his shot after the ball rebounded off the keper’s chest.

Joe Andrew was next to test Mitchell with a lovely curling effort on 39 minutes. Shire, by contrast, were rarely seen in attack, although Joe Savage turned Scott Buist perfectly and was clean through on goal with two minutes of the half to go. His shot, however, was straight at the keeper.

The match was won within ten minutes of the re-start. Afterv 47 minutes Paul Doyle was harshly judged to have fouled Graeme Brown outside the box and Agnew struck the resulting free-kick past a stranded Mitchell.

Six minutes later former Shire man Brian Fairbairn hit an unstoppable shot high into the roof of the net after a mazy run from midfield.

McKenzie, Ure and youth player Scott Donaldson all came on and Shire started to make an impression. But hte closest they came to scoring all night was on 67 minutes when a neat one-two on the edge of the box gave Godon Moffat a clear scoring chance which was blocked for a fruitless corner kick.

Alloa might have made it 3-0 with six minutes left when substitute Chris Mackie squeezed the ball under Mitchell’s body but Doyle hooked his netbound effort off the line.

Shire : Mitchell, Moffat(Ure 69), K. McBride, Doyle, King, P.McBride, Struthers(McKenzie 62), Brand, Savage, Kelly(Donaldson 62), Brownlie.

Alloa : Jellema(Creer 46), Clark, Fleming, Buist, Forest, Grant, Fairbairn, B. Ferguson, Brown(Mackie 67), Agnew, Andrew(A. Ferguson 67).

Referee : D. Somers

Sponsors’ Man of the Match : Scott Agnew.

Shire recorded their fifth straight win with a thrilling 3-2 victory at Albion Rovers, a result that keeps them second top of the Third Division. It’s also the club’s longest winning run since 1979/80 season.

But the points looked in doubt for a long time at Cliftonhill. Coatbridge striker, Kenny Wright, propelled his team into a 2-0 interval lead that would have been 3-0 had not Shire keeper Darren Hill saved his 39th minute penalty kick.

Shire took their time about a comeback but pulled one back when Derek Ure squeezed the ball over the line from a tight angle after 72 minutes.

A penalty five minutes from the end gave Gary Kelly the chance to equalise and in the third minute of injury time Sean Simpson fired home the winner.

“I honestly didn’t think we would do it,” said Shire boss Gordon Wylde afterwards. “They had stopped us playing quite effectively, but after we scored they started to look very tired and you could see the goals coming.

“It just goes to show the kind of team spirit we have here. At half-time the players told me they were all determined to go out and get the goals in the second half to win the game and they did that.

“But we could have done it a lot easier.”

Wylde and his delighted bunch of players are keeping their feet on the ground, however.

“We may be sitting second and have won our fourth league game of the season but I  would still settle for ninth place at the end of the season,” said the Shire boss afterwards.

“I really mean that, anything off the bottom would be great news but the way things are going I expect we will do a bit better than next to last.”

A dejected Albion Rovers boss, John McCormack admitted his team had thrown the points away. “We should not have lost the game having been two goals up. But sometimes, that’s football,” he said.

A full match report is now online and can be accessed from the Fixtures page.

You can also see shireTV’s Post Match feature which this week seeks the views of Gordon Wylde, penalty scorer Gary Kelly and keeper Darren Hill, who kept Shire in the game with a first half penalty save.

Shire will play one final match before facing East Fife in the opening match of the 2007/08 season on Saturday.

Coach Gordon Wylde has organised a hastily-arranged game against a Morton XI. The game will go ahead on Tuesday 31st July at Little Kerse in Grangemouth with a 7:15pm kick-off.

Wylde has admitted the team has perhaps not played enough in the run up to the start of the league campaign, and this match will, hopefully, give his players some badly-needed match practice ahead of the trip to New Bayview.

“It will be a useful exercise,” said Wylde. “I will mix and match the players, giving some first teamers and some of the reserve side a run out.”

East Stirlingshire FC has been told by the Scottish Football League the scheduled game with Livingston at Ochilview will go ahead as planned on Saturday.

The ruling follows the West Lothian club’s demotion to the bottom division for breaking rules over insolvency.

There was confusion followng the decision of the League Management Committee over whether Livingston would appeal against the ruling.

If that had happened the fixture would, in all probability, have been postponed.

A statement from the league released on Friday states :

“The Scottish Football League would like to announce that the amended fixtures for Saturday 8th August will go ahead as planned.

“The results involving Airdrie United FC, Cowdenbeath FC and Livingston FC will become provisional if an apeal is lodged by Livingston.”

To this end East Stirlingshire ask all Shire fans travelling to the game to keep an eye on the official website for further updates.

Shire coach Jim McInally says the confusuion hasn’t helped.

“It certainly hasn’t ben the best build-up for a game,” he said. “But we played Livingston twice last season and beat them once while running them close.

“They are a full-time team but we don’t know what kind of team they are going to field.”

Shire have Jamie Stevenson and Michael Bolochoweckyj suspended. Derek Ure is out injured, but Dean Richardson has recovered from a virus and will be included in the squad.

Tiredness may have been a factor in Shire’s disappointing 2-0 Stirlingshire Cup defeat at the hands of Alloa Athletic.

Boss Gordon Wylde admitted after the game that the effort put into beating Falkirk on Tuesday night in the same competition told just 48 hours later.

“There were definately a lot of tired legs out there and maybe it was asking a lot of them to produce the same kind of performance so soon.

“It was a bit flat but some players who didn’t play against Falkirk got a run out and the game was useful for that point of view.

“Alloa are a very useful side and I don’t think we will see that kind of quality week-in, week-out in the Third Division. It was another important test but, two games in such a short space of time was clearly more than some could cope with.”

The players will at least get plenty of time to recover because the next time the first team will be in action will be the league opener at East Fife on 4th August.

Wylde had hoped to fit in one last pre-season match at Dalbeattie Star on Sunday afternoon but that game has fallen through and will not now take place.

“I admit we may not have played as many games as I would have liked. Certainly, the players say they wanted more games but only time will tell whether or not that will affect us when the league games start.

“We won’t now play any more matches until we go to East Fife. There will be at least three more training session at which we will concentate on things like setpieces and we will play plenty of short-sided matches between ourselves.”

A MATCH REPORT ON THE ALLOA GAME CAN BE VIEWED BY GOING TO THE FIXTURES PAGE AND CLICKING ON THE RESULT.