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Rutkiewicz bemoans‘soft goals’ after sharing points
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Stirling Albion manager Kevin Rutkiewicz felt his side were unfortunate not to extend their winning run to four matches in cinch League Two after Friday’s 2-2 draw at Edinburgh City.
Jack Leitch gave the Binos the lead at Ainslie Park with a terrific 18yard drive but the Citizens hit back through midfielders Innes Murray, on loan from Hibs, and James Hilton.
Dylan Mackin’s third goal of the season, direct from a free-kick with 20 minutes left, levelled things up in a game where Stirling had the bulk of the chances.
Mackin had a header cleared off the line, Dylan Bikey hit the bar and Jordan McGregor missed a great chance to send Stirling top of the table when he headed wide in injury time.
Stirling go into Saturday’s home game with Cowdenbeath in third place after leaders Kelty Hearts and Annan Athletic both won on Saturday. The Blue Brazil head for
Forthbank on the back of a 1-1 draw with Forfar Athletic but with only one victory in their seven matches to date.
Rutkiewicz said: “We created enough chances to win the game – we have to give credit to Edinburgh because they had a few issues in the game with injuries but it’s a bit of a missed opportunity for us. “I am disappointed with the goals we lost because there was a softness about them but the draw keeps us unbeaten for a while now and we can look forward to a home game against Cowdenbeath, having won our last two games at
Forthbank.
“The first goal was a good team goal and it was a fantastic strike from Jack Leitch, and Dylan Mackin deserved his goal in the second half because he put a great shift in.
“We had a lot of other chances across all departments of the team but it just wouldn’t fall for us – Jordan McGregor had that one at the end which was similar to one he scored here before.
“Nathan Flanagan has been out and it might have been selfish to throw him on from the start but he was alive when he came on and gave us good width and caused
Edinburgh problems.
“You are always disappointed when you don’t win but that’s 10 points from 12 and we should go into the Cowdenbeath game with confidence. The fans at Ainslie Park were great from start to finish and giving us the right support really helped the boys when we were 2-1 down.”
Edinburgh City boss Gary Naysmith said: “Stirling deserved their equaliser and it’s a point well earned for us. We played some nice stuff at times but Stirling are a good team. They are a physical team with a lot of height who make you work at set-plays, and they had too many for my liking. They can also mix it up and bring technical players like Nathan Flanagan off the bench when you are tiring.
“We lost three players during the match with hamstring injuries so that is something we need to look at. That disrupted us in the second half and we lost focus a bit – we still had one or two chances but we couldn’t get any flow going.”