Written by John - OTR Saturday, 24 November 2001 00:00

This was more like it. A convincing home victory with some great goals in front of a good size crowd.

There wasn't much between the teams in the first ten minutes. Albion did come close early on but Sons survived the scare and took the lead in the 10th minute when Martin O'Neill shot home. A few minutes later Andy Brown got booked for a studs up tackle. However the referee let much worse challenges go unpunished later in the game.

In the 36th minute, Paddy Flannery, who had moments earlier just failed to make contact with a flashing cross, got his head on the end of a Joe Robertson ball to make it 2-0 to the Sons. At this point it appeared that the points were in the bag.

But it wasn't to last. Ten minutes into the second half Stirling Albion brought it back to 2-1 when Michael Dickie lost possession in the middle of the park. A Stirling midfielder laid on a superb pass down the wing to Williams who jinked past McKeown and sent a blistering shot into the top corner of the net.

For the next 15 minutes or so it all got a bit edgy. Paddy and the Stirling Albion number 2 were having their own private battle. Jerseys and shorts were getting pulled, feet were getting stamped on and testicles were being grabbed. But once Mark Crilly scored the third in the 70th minute, a low shot from around 15 yards, Stirling gave all pretence of winning the game.

The victory was sealed, four minutes from time, when Craig Brittain ran onto a Mark Crilly pass and left-footed the ball into the net. There was a slight suspicion of offside but the linesman's flag stayed down.

It was a much improved performance from the Sons. The midfield were excellent, in distribution and tackling and the forwards gave lots of effort. However, there is still a bit of uncertainty in the defence which will need sorted before any serious promotion challenge.