Mackay concedes title but promotion still the target
Stirling Albion head for Elgin tomorrow hoping to return to winning ways after Tuesday’s draw with Edinburgh City ended any lingering title hopes.
Dave Mackay’s men are seven points behind leaders Peterhead and second-placed Montrose, who have a game in hand, but are looking good for a top-four finish.
The Binos stay third, nine points in front of Clyde and 10 ahead of Stenhousemuir and Elgin, who they beat at Borough Briggs on March 20.
Darren Smith and Ross Smith scored the goals against Edinburgh City but Mackay admits his side didn’t do enough to merit all three points.
He said: “It was probably a fair result but draws are no use to us at this stage — it’s not going to get us where we want to be.
“We’ve dropped six points recently against the bottom two in the league. To be fair, they are not bad sides but if you really want to be challenging at the top you need to be turning these into wins, especially when you are leading in games.
“It’s the play-offs for us now and hopefully we secure that with another win or two. There are three teams fighting it out behind us but it’s important we build momentum going into the play-offs.
“We’ve only lost one game in the last 11 but a few too many draws are starting to creep in.
“It was always going to be hard [to win the league] due to the seven or eight-week period we had in the middle of the season but we certainly should be a few points closer to Peterhead and Montrose than we are. We’ve given up a few great opportunities and let points slip through our grasp.”
Darren Barr missed the game after aggravating a knee injury in the warm-up and Mackay hopes the experienced central defender isn’t out for long.
The Binos boss said: “Darren has been feeling his knee for a little while and he felt it when he pushed off for a sprint in the warm-up. There is no point in making it potentially much worse so we’ll send him for a scan and see what the damage is. Hopefully it’s nothing serious — maybe this was just one game too many.
“Lee Hamilton was struggling after taking a knock on his hip a couple of weeks ago but hopefully he will be OK for the weekend and Willie Robertson will be back from suspension.
Ewan McNeil is also expected to be back in contention for the weekend.
Stirling Albion’s U20 side beat Livingston 2-0 in the Development League East on Wednesday night. Top scorer Reg McLaren netted both goals for Andy Todd’s team on the Forthbank Astro.
This week’s Albion Lotto numbers are 4, 16, 20, 24. No jackpot winner so next week’s jackpot is £3000. Two players matched three numbers to win £125 each.