Rutciewicz urges improvement despite Elgin rout
Stirling Albion manager Kevin Rutkiewicz saw his side beat Elgin City 5-2 at Forthbank on Saturday but wants an improved performance against Queen’s Park at Hampden this weekend.
The Binos found themselves two goals behind inside 19 minutes but a double from Darren Smith on his comeback from injury and goals from Neil McLaughlin, Dylan Mackin and Dom Docherty sealed an important win against Elgin, who had Jordan Lowdon sent off.
Albion are four games unbeaten as they prepare to travel to Hampden to play a Queen’s Park side who have lost just once in League Two at the National Stadium this season but have lost their most recent fixtures away to Cowdenbeath and leaders Edinburgh City.
Rutkiewicz said: “We just weren’t good enough for the first 20-25 minutes of that game. We did tweak the formation at that point, so Martin (Hardie) and I will have a look at how we prepared the team, but even if the tactics were wrong you’ve got to be more competitive than we were in the first 25 minutes.
“We got in at half-time 3-2 ahead, maybe a bit fortunate. Even at 4-2 with Elgin down to 10 men I still felt a bit nervous — every time they went forward there was a wee bit anxiety in the boys but we found a way to win so I give them great kudos for that but there is a lot to work on because other teams might not let us back in the game as easily.
“No team plays well for 90 minutes but we have to find a better medium when we are not right at it. We need to be a bit more organised and the boys have to show us we can trust them a bit more in terms of security against the ball. We were very good going forward but we gave up far too many chances — you need to be hard to beat.”
He added: “Mark Roberts has had some fantastic results since he went to Queen’s Park. They are a very fit side with plenty of quality so we can’t afford to turn up the way we did against Elgin. I’m looking for a better performance — you can’t start games at twenty past three.”
Rutkiewicz praised on-loan Motherwell man Neil McLaughlin for his outstanding goal against Elgin but believes the former Partick Thistle can contribute more.
He said: “It was a phenomenal goal from Neil and he has a degree of ability that a lot of players at this level don’t possess but it’s about him putting it all together consistently through games and week to week. There are times you need to play simple football and Neil knows that.
“He got man of the match but I might argue with that! I’d have probably have given it to Darren Smith given that he’s just back and big Dylan (Mackin) ran himself into the ground and battled with two big centre-halves — the work he did shouldn’t be overlooked.”
Former Scotland B cap Michael McIndoe recently featured as a trialist and Rutkiewicz hasn’t completely ruled out a move for the former Doncaster and Bristol City player.
He added: “It’s a soft no from Michael at the minute so we will learn to live without him but it’s not a closed case so we’ll see what happens. The transfer window is coming up in January so obviously we will have our eyes on that and hopefully we can do a bit of business.”