Peterhead give Stirling Albion second league defeat
Nov 4 2009
PETERHEAD is home to the biggest white fish port in the UK so it’s perhaps appropriate that the hosts survived a second-half battering to inflict only Albion’s second league defeat.
An inability to net first for the sixth match in a row eventually proved too big a handicap to overcome but on chances this should have ended about 6-4 to the visitors.
It was just a shame about the finishing – and the defending. It took Allan Moore’s men five games to ship their first three goals this season but in the North East on Saturday, Myles Hogarth plucked the ball out of the net three times before the interval.
Those defensive frailties are threatening to upset Albion’s title ambitions. Their lead has been trimmed to three points by in-form Cowdenbeath, who visit Forthbank later this month. More immediately, Alloa are in town this weekend as the Binos aim to avenge their only other league loss – a 1-0 setback at Recreation Park.
At the end of a traumatic week which saw the club chased by the taxman over an unpaid bill and the “Moore for Morton” saga eventually conclude when chairman Peter McKenzie’s compensation demands had Greenock counterpart Douglas Rae running for the hills, more than a few people might have anticipated a home win.
Peterhead are traditionally strong at Balmoor and had taken seven points from nine since suffering a 5-0 thrashing at Cowdenbeath. Neale Cooper’s team might have been missing the towering presence of Bobby Mann – sent off when they went down to a last-minute defeat in Stirling in August – but they rarely afford Albion too much joy at this venue.
It’s only two wins in 13 outings here for the Binos now and their frustration was compounded in the closing minutes when Ross Forsyth committed a foul on lively substitute Peter Bruce and picked up his second yellow card. The ex-St Johnstone full-back, who has been in excellent form of late, will miss the derby clash with Alloa.
Moore, who could have been in charge of Morton at Inverness had things turned out differently, sprang a selection surprise by naming Craig Young in a back four and leaving David O’Brien on the bench, but the winger replaced the youngster after 32 minutes.
By then, Peterhead were two goals in front but that owed more to shoddy defending than formations. Stirling’s first clear-cut chance of the day was created and squandered inside 60 seconds – David McKenna heading over an Andy Gibson cross – and Paul Murphy then tested John Bateman, with the Binos looking as bright as the unseasonal weather.
But Stirling can’t keep goals out and in 16 minutes defender Callum Macdonald powered a header past Hogarth from Graeme Sharp’s corner. John Stewart then spurned a good opening but the second goal wasn’t long in coming.
On the half hour mark, Stirling failed to deal with a throw-in and Sharp was allowed to swivel and shoot. The ball rebounded from the post and Stewart – the ex-Aberdeen and Falkirk striker, who famously scored the winner against the Dons for Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup semi-final – smacked home the rebound.
Both goalkeepers were getting plenty sight of the new IRN-BRU branded balls unveiled by the SFL last week. Not that Bateman could do much in 37 minutes when O’Brien’s flighted delivery from the left was met by a soaring Martin Grehan, who diverted a terrific header into the corner.
All Albion had to do was keep things tight until the interval but the game was open and Peterhead profited again two minutes later. Martin Bavidge was allowed to run unchecked down the left and his ball eventually fell for Nicky Clark, who steered a sweet strike into the bottom corner from 18 yards.
Stirling had come from behind to take at least a point in their previous five games and in none of them did they produce the sort of sustained attacking football witnessed at Balmoor. “We rode our luck in the second half,” was the understated admission of Blue Toon boss Cooper, whose on-loan Aberdeen goalkeeper Bateman was named man of the match.
It went something like this: McKenna is thwarted by the keeper; O’Neill’s net-bound shot is blocked by a defender; O’Neill has another opportunity after being teed up by Grehan but Bateman makes a brilliant save.
Finally, a breakthrough, Devine knocking the ball wide of Bateman after a lovely move in the 65th-minute. An equaliser looks almost inevitable but Grehan shot straight at the keeper and Forsyth somehow failed to score from inside the six-yard box – his stabbed shot diverted on to the bar by David Donald.
Still the chances came but when Bateman hurled himself across goal to produce the save of the match from Murphy’s header, you know the game is up.
Even Sammy the Scurry, Peterhead’s newly-christened seagull mascot, could surely see that Stirling should never have let three points slip through the net.
Peterhead: Bateman, Donald, Cameron, S Smith, Macdonald, McVitie, Sharp, Stewart, Bavidge (Bruce 66), Clark, Ross (Strachan 79). Subs not used: Young, J Smith, Jarvie.
