Stirling Albion boss talks up progress as unbeaten run ended by Blue Toon fightback

It was a tough one to take for Stirling Albion on Saturday as their unbeaten run came to an end courtesy of a stirring Peterhead comeback at Forthbank.

But despite giving up a two-goal lead in the 3-2 defeat, Binos boss Alan Maybury believes his side are moving firmly in the right direction after giving one of the division’s title favourites a real scare.

The home side had taken the lead courtesy of an Adam Brown free-kick - just minutes after Derek Gaston had saved Max Barry’s penalty kick - before Josh Kerr rounded off a slick move with a thunderbolt to put Stirling 2-0 up.

But just as the Binos faithful began dreaming of cementing their status as league contenders, the Blue Toon bit back with Jason Brown’s goal on the stroke of half-time.

And Peterhead put in a composed second-half display to run out winners via goals from Cammy Smith and Rory McAllister’s late penalty with his first touch of the match.

The Stirling boss said: “You have to give credit to Peterhead for coming back to win the game. I would say a series of events went against us in that second half, we were very good in the first half and scored two good goals, the second was a brilliant move in particular.

“I think we had them on the ropes and then the set piece is unfortunate, it shouldn’t get as far as Brown and he does well to finish it and it just gives them a little hope.

“They started the second half well and we should have defended a little better for the second and then it’s a ding-dong battle with both teams looking threatening, but they get the penalty and the red card against us and that put us really up against it from that point.”

Both managers were left baffled by the decision-making of ropey ref Duncan Nicolson throughout the game, with 13 cards doled out during the match - including a pair of bookings for Stirling full-back Aaron Weir.

However, Maybury believes the positive reaction from the Stirling fans despite such a tough defeat shows belief in the direction of travel from his side.

“The second half there was a lack of control within the game, it was a battle and there were some bizarre decisions which I’m not sure whether they are right or wrong”, Maybury added.

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“I’m proud of my team, of the effort levels and the energy, even though we lost the game, the fans clapped us off and that shows an appreciation of what they’ve been given and shown.

“You’re going to lose some games sometimes and we were on the wrong end of a good one today, but that’s fine and okay, we know where we are now and we’ll see how it plays out by the end of the season.”