Darren glad to be back in the team
Experienced defender Darren Barr made only his second appearance of the season in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to leaders Edinburgh City at Forthbank.
The 33-year-old missed the start of the campaign, before and after knee surgery, but returned for the 2-0 loss to Peterhead at the end of August. The former Falkirk player suffered a reaction which saw him sidelined for a number of weeks but he was back in the fold as captain against City.
He said:“I feel OK, just a bit achy. I trained the Thursday before the Queen’s Park game and this is the first time I have trained twice in a week for a while. I felt good going into it and the time felt right – it has just taken a bit of time for my body to be right after the knee surgery.
“I thought the defence played well after the first 20 minutes when everyone was a bit all over the place and we dealt with most things, but again it’s a loss.
“Edinburgh City are top of the league and they know how to win. That’s what we need to do, whether it’s ugly or not – we have good football players but the result is the most important thing. We have good quality in there and I don’t see why we can’t go on a run.
“We didn’t start too well but we came into it and just lacked a cutting edge again. It’s a shame for Cammy Binnie for the goal because he has saved a couple in the first half and also later on.
“The result is a hard one to take as there was nothing in the game. We would have taken a draw as something to build on but there are good signs there.
“Every game is massive now and it’s how you deal with the pressure but we are maybe not getting the wee breaks in front of goal.”
Stirling Albion host Berwick Rangers on Saturday, aiming to beat their fellow strugglers and move away from the wrong end of the Ladbrokes League 2 table.
New manager Kevin Rutkiewicz saw his side defeated 1-0 by leaders Edinburgh City at the weekend and Albion are again at home for the visit of a Berwick side who lost 2-0 on their last visit to Stirling in January but who claimed a 1-0 win at Shielfield on the opening day of the current campaign.
Both teams have lost eight of their 10 matches in League 2 this season and the Borderers had three players including John Neill, who withdrew an investment offer to Stirling Albion on the eve of the season, sent off as they slumped 3-0 to Cowdenbeath on Saturday.
Rutkiewicz was pleased with the effort shown by his team against Edinburgh City but admits they found it tough to create chances against the division’s best defence.
He said: “I’m not going to stand here and say we should have won the game but I certainly feel that the players gave me 100 per cent commitment and the words we have been using – unity, togetherness, they showed that in abundance. In the second half there was a belief that we might sneak something and get a reward for their efforts but we just came up short.
“For the first 20 minutes Edinburgh City had us pinned back and they were probing and flinging balls into the box. It was a bit frantic for us and we were a bit all over the place but that was maybe the knock-on effect of a new manager and slightly new ideas without much time to work on shape.”
An error by keeper Cammy Binnie, who