Mackay cautious over flying start
Boss trying to keep feet on the ground
Stirling Albion are going into Saturday’s home game against Annan Athletic with a fourpoint lead at the top of Ladbrokes League 2.
The 3-1 victory at Montrose made it five wins out of six for Dave Mackay’s men and only Raith Rovers have scored more goals across the entire SPFL. Binos boss Mackay is delighted with his side’s start but is wary of an Annan side who have won two of their three away games and drew at home to Stenhousemuir on Saturday. He said: “We have averaged three goals a game in the league so far, which is a credit to the guys. We are always a threat going forward and we have spread the goals about which is important. “If we defend better than we did against Clyde last week we’ll win a lot more games than we lose.
“Our away performances have been very good, as have our home performances other than the Clyde game. It’s good to know we can go to the likes of Peterhead and Montrose and win but we are not going to get carried away – any team can beat us as well.
“There is no team in this league good enough just to turn up and expect to win. We’ll make sure we are ready for Annan on Saturday.
“From the reports we have had, they are a decent team and have been unfortunate in a couple of games not to pick up more points.
“The positive thing is that we have started the season so well but I still believe there is a lot more to come. I still don’t think we have totally clicked yet – we do it in spells during games but when it all comes together the signs are very positive.
“The first half at Montrose was a pretty scrappy game and we weren’t too happy with how we played – we got dragged into a bit of a battle and there wasn’t much quality at all in the game first half but we came straight out in the second half and scored a great goal.
“It was a great delivery from Ewan McNeil and Sean Dickson had an unbelievable header.
“It was good to have a two-goal cushion and I thought we saw the game out pretty comfortably up until the last couple of minutes when they scored through an error from Cammy Binnie.”
Midfielder Liam Caddis hobbled off at the interval at Links Park but Mackay hopes the former St Johnstone man will make a swift return to action.
He said: “Liam went over on his ankle – he had a great block right at the end of the first half but hopefully it’s not too bad.
“It was a bit painful at half-time and we just didn’t think it was worth the risk to put him back out there, especially on an artificial pitch. We’ll see how he is but I wouldn’t think it would keep him out for long, a week or two at most.
Captain Willie Robertson made his first league start of the campaign on Saturday as Ross Kavanagh made way and Mackay explained: “It was nothing to do with Ross’s performances because he has done really well but I just felt against Clyde that we got over-run a wee bit in the middle of the park.
“Teams often go with one up top and you can get outnumbered so Willie’s energy was important.
“We still had that attacking threat with Callumn Morrison, Darren Smith and Peter MacDonald and it worked well.
“Willie has been unfortunate because he had a few little niggles at the start of the season and never quite got a proper run in the team but he has trained really well the last two or three weeks.”
Albion’s U20 side were beaten 2-1 by Alloa on Monday. Ross Cameron scored the Binos’ goal from the penalty spot.