Stirling Albion boss heaps praise on 'walking wounded' squad as they seal last-gasp Kelty win

Stirling Albion boss Darren Young hailed his ‘walking wounded’ squad for grinding out another gritty win to make it three wins from four to open up their League One campaign.

The 1-0 win over Kelty Hearts was sealed by an 88th minute winner from Josh Cooper, but it was another nervous afternoon for the Binos faithful as they held on in the dying moments under pressure from the visitors.

It was far from the ideal pre-match build-up for Stirling, with skipper Paul McLean laid out with appendicitis on the eve of the game and other knocks during the match meant an unfamiliar finishing line-up for the hosts.

But the Binos re-ignited the character which typified the unbeaten run which took them to the League Two title with a display that their manager was left full of praise for after the final whistle.

Young said: “It was one of the best performances of the season in a roundabout way to pick up the three points in the circumstances we faced.

“We had a call from Pabs (Paul McLean) at 1am to say that he had appendicitis and he was getting an operation today and then the amount of boys that went down through the game with injuries and cramp, so we had to get through that.

“The players just really dug in and then for the goal, we were having a wee laugh with Josh in training because the other week he passed to Thommo when he cut inside and we told him to just have a strike and we get lucky with the goal.

“It was backs to the wall defending for that last few minutes but we managed to get that clean sheet. In games like this, we said to the boys at half-time that one goal will win this game and hopefully we were the team to get it and we were.

“Spenny has come on again and played three or four positions, Dale Hilson has played