Match report

Match report

Stirling United travelled to the new venue of Springbank College for the first time for the return match against newcomers BHS Forest. Forest put up a spirited display last time, so it was no surprise to see them produce another strong performance today. Of note, a swarm of small flies added to the challenge of the contest – undoubtedly drawn out by the warm sun on this delightful spring morning.

From the start, both sides were pressing forward and so the ball was moving from end to end. A sequence of short passes into the box opened up the opportunity for Araby Phelan to score the first for Stirling. A little later in the half Phelan again was the beneficiary of a goal mouth scramble and when Nik Smith curled a corner straight into the net it appeared Stirling were going to be in for a comfortable win.

BHS Forest had other ideas, with Harry Butler scoring twice in the space of 6 minutes on a couple of fast breaks to bring them right back into the match, trailing by the barest of margins at half time.

The second half started tensely, but a lovely corner from Phelan fell for Smith who timed his run into the box to meet the ball perfectly and gave Stirling a two goal buffer again. Despite this, Forest continued to challenge the Stirling defensive line and had a number of good chances.

In the last 10 minutes, a long ball found Phelan open to complete his hat-trick and an unlucky own goal saw the final score at 6-2, but this didn’t reflect the closeness of the contest.