Stirling Albion left mystified at display as Montrose end Binos' good run with comfortable win

A promising start to 2024 for Stirling Albion came to a screeching halt on Tuesday evening as Montrose left with an easy three points – and left Binos boss Darren Young scratching his head.

The home side had come into the rearranged midweek contest full of confidence after a strong start to the year had seen them pick up seven points from their opening three games, including a win over Montrose at Links Park.

But they were soundly beaten by Stewart Petrie’s side, with a Graham Webster brace fully reflective of the Gable Endies’ comfort on the night.

It leaves Stirling manager Young with selection dilemmas ahead of tomorrow’s crunch derby clash with Alloa after his decision to name an unchanged XI for the third straight game backfired.

Young acknowledged his side weren’t at the races, but struggled to put his finger on the reasons for his side’s sluggish display.

He said: “We could have been two or three down at half-time in truth, we never passed it well enough and we maybe had two or three good bits of play into their box in the first half but never tested their goalie.

“The final ball or the strike was lacking all night; I don’t know why that is, it shouldn’t be a lack of confidence or lack of quality, but we got what we deserved.

“They did well, picked up the second balls and then they get the sucker punch with the second goal when we had pushed everyone forward.

“We’re still new to this division and haven’t been here for a while, from that side of things, we know we can do better, be a little more streetwise in what we do, we needed to do a lot better than we did tonight.

“It was just one of those ones where it wasn’t our night. The majority of the guys are players who have done well and have claimed seven points out