Doune through to second round

Douglas Smith League Cup

MILTON ............................ 1 DOUNE CASTLE ............. 2

A late Grant Craig goal sealed a dramatic winner to send Doune into the League Cup second round.

Doune edged a hotly contested cup tie but Milton played their part in making the fixture a thrilling encounter.

Doune started brightly and an early Sean Wilbert cross to the back post reached Lukasz Duszynski. Duszynski crossed into the heart of area where Milton keeper TJ Devlin gathered confidently.

After 23 minutes, Devlin made the save of the game. The keeper leapt full-length to his right to tip over a fierce strike from Doune’s top scorer Christopher Macdonald.

Doune enjoyed the better possession and moved the ball forward impressively. Too often, however, their final choice in the box let them down. However, Devlin’s form allowed him to confidently commanded his penalty area.

Two minutes before the break, Doune enjoyed a moment of good fortune. Callum Hendrie turned his marker and hammered a powerful shot that cannoned off the right-hand upright and rebounded to safety.

The closely-fought cup tie was level at the break and it wasn’t until almost the hour mark before it sparked in to life.

Doune made a triple substitution, with an immediate dividend as all three players combined to give Doune the lead.

Grant Craig began the move with a neat ball wide to Chris Stevenson. Stevenson curled an inch-perfect cross into the box. Alan Inglis shrugged off his marker to power an unstoppable header into the net from five yards.

Milton then fired themselves level on 78 minutes with a finish of the highest quality.

Callum Hendrie took possession just outside the area and he cleverly turned his marker and unleashed an unstoppable shot that gave Allan Pacitti no chance. It cannoned off the underside of the bar and into the net to square the match at 1-1.

With ten minutes left on the clock, both sides went in search of the all-important winner.

It was Doune who landed the definitive blow with just three minutes of time remaining.

Chris Stevenson did well to slip the ball through to Callum Smith to put the striker through on goal. Smith drew the keeper off of his line before squaring to the unmarked Grant Craig who had charged forward in support. Craig slammed the ball into the unguarded net to edge Doune ahead with only moments remaining.

Milton refused to accept defeat and pressed forward looking for the equaliser to take the game to a penalty shoot-out. In added time, Milton won a series of corners as Doune defended resolutely. TJ Devlin left his goal to give an added presence in the box and was involved in a dramatic moment in the game’s final few seconds.

Surrounded by several players, Allan Pacitti was unable to hold the ball when he rose to gather. Pacitti immediately dived through a ruck of legs to pounce on the loose ball. The referee dismissed Milton appeals that the Castle keeper had unfairly brushed aside Devlin to take possession. Doune saw out the game to earn a deserved, if hard-fought, passage into the League Cup second round.

It was the first game for almost a month for Stirling Albion but they managed to pick up where they left off to edge a tight affair as they kept their title dream alive.

The old cliché goes that teams who want to win titles have to squeeze hard-fought encounters like this during a season and Ross Davidson’s 48th minute strike was one worthy of winning any match.

The win keeps Albion within four points of leaders Dumbarton with a game in hand ahead of what is setting up to be a busy run of fixtures to come.

The home side edged a fairly slow opening to the match, with Danny Denholm’s 25 yard strike pushed away by George O’connor in the Stranraer goal.

More chances were on the way with Kai Fotheringham sliding through a lovely ball for Jack Leitch and his deep cutback found Robert Thomson, whose strike was well pushed wide by O’connor.

Dundee United loanee Fotheringham was the next to try his luck, shooting straight at O’connor after a neat build-up between Dale Carrick and Ross Davidson.

Stranraer were never completely out of the game but failed to create real openings against the Albion