Albion Rovers must be more ruthless, says boss after narrow friendly win over Cumbernauld United

Albion Rovers boss Sandy Clark wants to see his side become more ruthless after a narrow friendly win over West of Scotland League First Division side Cumbernauld United.

The Lowland League outfit took 67 minutes to break the deadlock through Adam Fernie's header before a trialist doubled their advantage 12 minutes later at Cliftonhill.

Paul Brennan netted a consolation for United in the final minute, but it was a game where Rovers could - and perhaps should - have netted more goals, but for some heroic defending and fine goalkeeping from United No.1 Scott Law.

New signing Kai Kirkpatrick was denied a debut goal when he had a close-range volley cleared off the line, while Josh Tran struck the post with a powerful free-kick and Fernie had a point-blank diving header batted away by Law, to name just a few of Rovers' chances on the day.

And Clark - who fielded all four of his summer signings from the start - said: "Today was fine, but we probably need to be a bit more ruthless in front of goal.

"We did make a lot of chances and could have converted some more, but some of the chances we didn't take were just unlucky. Cumbernauld worked really hard and they were well organised.

"It was a good pitch to play on today as well. We should have got a couple of more goals and we lost one at the end when we had changed the whole 11 by that point, so that is totally understandable. I would have liked two or three more goals, if I am being honest, but that is just being a bit greedy.

"Last week, we aimed for 45 minutes from most players and I was happy with that. This week, we went to 60-65 minutes with a lot of the guys, so we are trying to get the legs up to 90 minutes and we've got a couple of weeks to do that so we are on track.