Albion Rovers edge out Caledonian Braves with late winner to climb Lowland League

Albion Rovers climbed to 12th in the Lowland League after coming from behind to net a last minute winner at home to Caledonian Braves.

A Niyah Joseph penalty early in the second half and a Barry Duncan strike in stoppage time cancelled out Ross McNeil’s first-half opener for Braves, in what was a typically hard-fought Lowland League win.

It is Rovers’ first league win since October 21, following three straight draws with Cowdenbeath, Cumbernauld Colts and Gala Fairydean Rovers.

And Clark said: “It’s good to get a win, it always is.

“I’m repeating myself, I know I’ve been saying this to everybody, but before we even went into this league I knew what it was like.

“Caledonian Braves are very similar to Tuesday night when we were at Gala [0-0 draw], in that they’re a good footballing team, they work really hard, want to play well and have a good organisation about them.

“To win any game like that is a good one, and we certainly left it late, but I think we edged it and deserved to win it.

“But it has hard, hard work.”

Rovers are still playing catch-up and have between two and four games in hand on most of their rivals heading into a break for cup action this week.

Clark added: “We’re doing all right, I think we’re six unbeaten, but there are three draws in that, which is a lot of points dropped when you’re trying to play catch-up.

“While we’re pleased in one way, we’re disappointed we didn’t pick up at least another couple of points.

“But that’s testament to the teams we’re playing against – they’re good teams in a very competitive league.

“We’re getting there, but it’s a bird on the nest, isn’t it – you’ve got to keep trying to win the points, and as the games that we’ve played have shown, there’s not one game you can look