Match Report - By John Hoey

A calamitous defensive performance from City saw them concede six goals against promotion rivals Stirling Albion at Forthbank in a match in which the team were hardly at the races against slicker moving opponents.

The only bright spot in an otherwise drab and uninspiring evening was that Rory McAllister, who scored both of City’s goals, won the coveted Golden Boot Trophy awarded by “ The Sun” newspaper.

Manager Jim Duffy made no excuses for his side’s performance at the end of what must have been a harrowing experience for the small band of City supporters who had travelled through to the game.

“ Stirling played very well and passed the ball well,” said Jim.

“ Although our opponents played well and fully deserved their victory, from our point of view it was as poor a defensive performance as I’ve seen from the team in the whole time I’ve been manager.”

“ It was just shocking at times. Our defence is normally pretty resolute and hard to beat but tonight they were all at sea.”

“ We lost six goals and we could easily have lost another three or four. It was as bad as that.”

“ It was a shockingly bad defensive performance. I don’t just mean the back four. As a team we didn’t defend well and allowed their midfield far too much space. We also allowed their wide players far too much time and space to deliver crosses. We didn’t pick up and then made calamitous errors. If you add this all up you’re on the end of a hiding and that’s exactly what we got.”

City made one change from the team that had beaten league leaders Alloa on Saturday with Jon Seeley returning to central defence to partner Paul McLean with Barry Smith moving up to midfield. Charlie King moved to a striker’s position to partner Rory McAllister which meant that Mark Archdeacon dropped to the bench.

The first quarter of an hour was fairly evenly contested, but Stirling gradually took command and created a number of chances before eventually taking the lead from the penalty-spot just five minutes before the break when Chris Aitken converted after Kevin Byers had impeded Nathan Taggart in the box.

The Binos kept up the pressure on the City goal and they doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time when Michael Mullen fired home from close-range.

City started the second half positively and they reduced the deficit within five minutes when McAllister side-footed home a King pass.

City’s joy was short-lived however as Stirling restored their two goal advantage just four minutes later when Mullen took advantage of hesitancy in the City defence to shoot home from around 10 yards.

Ex City favourite Iain Russell then made it 4-1 with a header two minutes later before Mullen completed his hat-trick a couple of minutes after that.

McAllister grabbed his second goal of the night for City when he rifled home s superb free-kick from around 25 yards in the 71st minute but Albion put the polish on a fine performance when substitute Derek Colquhoun slotted the ball home from close-range in the final minute, taking advantage of shocking gaps in the City defence.