Stirling Albion skipper hopes to inflict capital punishment with crunch Edinburgh City six-pointer

It’s crunch time for Stirling Albion on Saturday as they attempt to arrest their slide down the division with a big clash at bottom side Edinburgh City.

The trip to the capital has taken on added importance with the Binos having fallen to five straight league defeats, while the home side have picked up their own form under new management after a shocking start of their own.

But Stirling skipper Paul McLean is refusing to panic about the squad’s form and has the experience of being in the dressing room for one of Scottish football’s most notorious sides to call back on.

McLean was part of the infamous Brechin City squad who amassed just four points for the season in the Championship back in 2017-18 and insists their performances in recent weeks have suggested better things to come.

The 33-year-old centre back said: “It’s a tough run that we’re on at the moment, we’ve played a lot of full-time teams recently and last weekend’s game [against Montrose] was one that we thought could give us a decent chance.

“The last seven or eight weeks haven’t went to plan – we’ve been a wee bit unfortunate, as well as injuries and some poor performances in there but that’s no excuse, every club is in the same position and there is the quality in the dressing room to turn it around.

“I’ve been here before being involved in a team that got four points all season and it’s hard after things were so positive last year but I’ve been reiterating to the boys that it’s early in the season.

“We’re still sitting four points clear of ninth place so we’re not adrift at the moment and it’s time to change it.”

The clash at Meadowbank represents the first in a titanic trio of fixtures for the Binos over coming weeks which will help to determine at what