Stirling Albion 2-2 Dundee

Last updated : 23 September 2007 By Matty B
As expected Rae brought in Lyle for his first start of the season with Jani Sturm dropping out. Other than that, the usual starting 11 with Samson again deputizing for the injured Roy.

Once again we got off to a dreadful start. 5 minutes played and a high inswinging Stirling free kick from the left looked to be going deep and out of play but was met at the back post and headed across goal, allowing Bell to head into an empty net from inches with Samson floundering at the far post. A goal worryingly similar to Hamilton's for the Pars last week.

Our response was almost instant with Palenik heading just over from a Swankie corner but with Stirling pushing high into our half, we had very little time to put passes together resulting in ugly football. Add that with facing a very strong wind, we had a proverbial dogfight on our hands.

A nightmare first half hour ended with our first decent counter attack of the match. A 3-on-3 situation saw Daquin charge from the half way line with Davidson and Lyle either side of him. Freddie opted to play an early through ball wide to Lyle to the right who, in turn, slid in an excellent low ball in the penalty box for Davidson to side foot home from 6 yards. The only real bit of space we were allowed in the whole half saw us level. The strong away support woke up after we being largely subdued early doors.

The only real chance before the break came a minute before the whistle with Swankie's cross from the left seeming perfect for Lyle. However he was unable to get his head to it at the back post.

Half time - Very disappointing with Stirling playing to our weaknesses. If we played 25% better in the second we would surely win.

2 disallowed goals passed us by in the opening minutes after the break. Daquin's seemed a straight forward offside call; the second however seemed a lot closer. Lyle's head flick sent Davidson through to tuck home before seeing the flag.

Within a minute we were met with a sucker punch. A low ball along the edge of the penalty box saw Palenik slide in but fail to intercept allowing McKenna to advance forward and easily tuck the ball past Samson. We had given ourselves it all to do yet again.

Robertson then scuffed a decent chance wide after being sent through by Swankie, though that was to be Swankie's last involvement of the game with a double sub seeing the winger taken off for Zemlik and Griffen on for the seemingly injured McKenzie. Both subs it must be said did very well when they came on.

A series of corners eventually saw us get back into the game. Firstly Griffen, playing like a man possessed, saw his header blocked by Hogarth before Davidson saw his close range effort tipped over from under the bar. Then after a corner was partially cleared, Zemlik headed the return cross over the keeper's head with the ball hanging infront of goal waiting to be nodded home but only a Stirling head was in the danger area to nod behind. From the resultant corner from the right, Daquin found Palenik at the near post who made amends from his earlier error to flick home with his left foot.

20 minutes to win the game but the chance didn't seem to come. Only a series of goalmouth scrambles were created but we couldn't find the opportunity to score with long ball tactics the norm for much of the second half.

While Samson was rarely tested, it would be unfair to say Stirling didn't look like scoring. A lot of the ball in dangerous areas, however, failed to see a decent effort on goal.

In addition to 2 points dropped, Lyle was given a soft booking which, correct me if I'm wrong, sees him out the next 3 league games.

All in all, not good enough. The silver lining is that we manage to remain unbeaten despite producing easily our worst performance of the season and playing extremely ugly football. Very few players wanted to drive with the ball and opted to play it long. Hamilton's failure to win is another saving grace from a very frustrating day.