Stirling v Deveronvale – match reaction

Stirling Albion assistant manager Marc McCulloch could barely believe the team had performed so poorly as we crashed out of the William Hill Scottish Cup.

A Craig Cowie goal early in the second half sent Deveronvale into Monday afternoon’s fourth-round draw as the third-placed side in the Highland League claimed a well-deserved 1-0 win at Forthbank on Saturday.

McCulloch said: “I’m struggling to find the words to describe what happened. It was a great opportunity for the club to progress to the fourth round but the players have let down the management team, the staff and the fans.

“We’ve got our players saying there is a fear factor (at home) and we need to knock that out of them – they have to face the fact they have paying supporters who want to see Stirling do well. They have to deal with any shouts and the like.

“Not only did we lose the game but we never really looked like scoring. The management team will be obviously be criticised after this result but the players need to step up to the plate.

“At half-time I thought we could go on and win the game but the goal came from a defensive mistake when we tried to pass the ball out from the back and the first goal was always going  to be very important.”

Deveronvale boss Charlie Charlesworth said: “We are over the moon and I’m delighted for the fans. It’s a great day for the club – I thought the players were great. We were organised and limited Stirling to only a few chances.

“We watched them at Peterhead last week so we knew their formation but we stuck to 4-4-2 and after the first 15 minutes I thought we did very well.”