Calum is Scottish Cup hero for students

CALEDONIAN BRAVES ......................... 0 STIRLING UNIVERSITY ......................... 1

Calum Rae’s first half goal saw Stirling University progress to the second round of the Scottish Cup an a tie at East Kilbride following a hard-fought 1-0 win against Caledonian Braves on Saturday.

Having dominated the first period, Rae’s first-half goal was enough to separate the sides and despite missing further chances, they held on for the win.

Head coach Chris Geddes said:“To get a clean sheet, defend the way we did, and attack the way we did, I’m really proud of the boys. We’ve had a tough start to the season but things have started to pick up recently, so I’m really proud of them.

“The guys in front, but especially our back four were excellent, they threw themselves in front of everything. We had a couple of lucky moments, but in the second half our biggest disappointment was that we could’ve killed it off a lot sooner.”

The students travelled to Alliance Park as underdogs having been beaten 4-1 in the league meeting between the two sides in July.

However, with just 25 minutes on the clock, it was the visitors who opened the scoring. Some intricate passing play was rewarded when Ben Davidson did well to set up Rae for a simple tap-in.

Stirling were full of confidence and almost had a second only five minutes later when Louis Kennedy’s corner went unclaimed before rebounding off of the far post.

The second period was much different though, as the Braves began to dictate the game. Cameron Breadner was the first Braves player to strike the post, as he tried his luck from distance.

But deep into the half Stirling should have sealed the vistory when McArthur pounced on a loose back pass and went round the goalkeeper, only for the defender to recover well and block his shot.

The University held tight though and despite riding their luck on a couple of occasions, defended gallantly throughout the second 45, to earn a fine win on the biggest stage.

JOHN TURNBULL

Stirling University: Fry, McGale, Burrows, Taylor, Downie, Doan, Berry (McArthur 75), Davidson, Rae (Mirzasalimov 89), Stokes (McGill 62), Kennedy