Stirling Albion boss Darren Young was delighted to see his side claim their first cinch League 2 win of the season on Saturday with a 3-0 success against Stenhousemuir.
Dale Carrick opened the scoring after just 75 seconds and the Warriors had Daniel Higgins sent off a few minutes later for denying Robert Thomson a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Thomson added the second goal early in the second half to put the game beyond his former club and Carrick grabbed the clincher with nine minutes remaining to take his tally for the season to five.
Next up for Stirling is a trip to Galabank to play Annan Athletic on Saturday. Peter Murphy’s men have a Premier Sports Cup last-16 tie against Aberdeen to look forward to at the end of the month but were beaten 4-0 at cinch League 2 leaders Dumbarton on Saturday.
The Binos will head south boosted by a welcome win against a Stenhousemuir side who won twice at Forthbank last season but were soundly beaten in sweltering conditions on Saturday.
Left-back Cammy Clark will be available to face his former club after completing a two-match ban but the game is likely to come too soon for former East Fife midfielder Ross Davidson. Stirling lost 3-0, 3-1 and 3-2 to Annan last season but drew 0-0 on their last visit to Galabank in January.
On the weekend win over Stenhousemuir, Young said: “I’m delighted to get three goals and a clean sheet. We could have scored a few more goals to be honest – sometimes when a team goes down to 10 men it can be a grind but the guys showed great game management and composure.
“At half-time we just asked the players to pass the ball a bit quicker and it was great to get the second goal when we did. It was a great bit of play from Robert Thomson and he was a pest against his former club all day.
“It was also good for Dale Carrick to get another two goals – he was disappointed not to get a hat-trick but we were glad he made the game after going off injured last week.
“He finished last season very strongly and we are playing him more through the middle – he had another couple of great strikes and I think their keeper was man of the match.
“There were no failures and it gives me a headache for the Annan game. They had a good spell at the start of the second half but other than that it was a good solid performance.”
