WE NEED KILLER TOUCH

But Rutkiewicz confident of a result

Stirling Albion are looking to bounce back from last week’s 1-0 defeat to leaders Cove Rangers when they host Annan Athletic at Forthbank tomorrow.

The Binos lost out to a late Mitch Megginson penalty at the Balmoral Stadium as their sevenmatch unbeaten run came to an end but they beat Albion Rovers 3-0 at home a fortnight ago. It was 0-0 when the sides last met at Galabank in September, on a day when Dylan Mackin missed a penalty and Stirling passed up other good chances to win. Albion have a good home record against Annan and won 2-1 in the last Forthbank meeting in January despite having Dom Docherty sent off, but Peter Murphy’s men head north on the back of home wins against Cowdenbeath (1-0) and Brechin City (5-2) in the last week.

Those results have lifted Annan into the play-offs – eight points ahead of Stirling, who are down in ninth spot and have a three-point advantage over bottom club Brechin.

Binos boss Kevin Rutkiewicz (pictured) said: “We were on a good run before the Cove game and it’s important we start another one on Saturday. We have got a very hard game out of the way but nothing is going to be given to us and we will have to fight tooth and nail against Annan.

“It was sore to lose last week, especially with the goal coming so late in the game, but I think Cove knew they had been in a game. They have quality players with good technical ability and they were dominant in terms of possession but we made it hard for them to break us down.

“The good thing is that we look a very solid unit and I still think we are improving. I think we can take great confidence from the performance against Cove.”

He added: “Annan have had a couple of good results going into this game but it’s up to us to impose ourselves. We’ve come out of a tough period of three games in 11 days and we’ve done reasonably well out of it, although we should have won the Cowdenbeath match.

“If we get the same commitment and desire that we got against Cove, and add a bit of quality, I think we’ll be fine. We can be better on the ball and that’s what we will strive for.

“We played well down at Annan but they found a way to keep us at bay and we need to find those killer touches.”