Stirling Albion U20s 4, Cowdenbeath U20s 1.

AFTER their opening day win Cowden’s under 20s went down to a heavy defeat on the Forthbank synthetic surface last Tuesday night, writes Andy Mullen.

The Fifers fielded three ‘over age’ players in their starting XI giving game time to Thomas O’Brien (pictured), Pat Scullion and Danijel Jurisic.

Cowden’s first real chance of the night came after 14 minutes when a 20 yard shot from Josh Wilson was tipped over the bar by home keeper Sean Robertson, while minutes later at the other end, Scott Robertson sent a long range free-kick over the Cowden bar.

With 20 minutes gone Anthony Higgins set up Kyle Mitchell but he sent his shot just wide of the target and ten minutes later the home side took the lead when an angled free kick from Scott DAVIDSON flew through a ruck of players in the Cowden box, into the bottom corner of the net.

Nine minutes later Albion doubled their advantage when Kieron MAGENNIS fired home a low shot and within a minute of the second-half starting Cowden found themselves three down when Connor McKENZIE slotted home from close range.

However, with 52 minutes gone the visitors pulled a goal back when JURISIC fired home a high shot into the corner of the net but on the hour Albion regained their three goal advantage when DAVIDSON got his second goal of the night tapping in a McKenzie cross from close range.

A miserable night for the young Central Parkers was completed when they had to play out the last 13 minutes with ten men when Josh Thomson had to go off with a suspected broken nose after all three of their subs had been used.

TEAM: Jamie Sneddon; Aron Lynas, Reece Sawers; Josh Thomson, Thomas O’Brien (Greg Pearson 66), Pat Scullion; Kyle Mitchell, Craig Brand (Ryan McDonald 76), Anthony Higgins (Harvey Swan 46), Danijel Jurisic & Josh Wilson. Subs not used - Alastair McDonald & Scott Page.

STIRLING ALBION: Sean Robertson; Daniel Wilcox, Jordan Sinclair; David Grant (Tyler Fulton 72), Scott Davidson, Alistair Petrie; Connor McKenzie, Jordan Heron, Sam Davidson, Kieron Magennis (Ross Kavanagh 69) & Tom McAllister (Stephen Al-Sayed 84). Subs not used - Siden Stevenson & Michael Duncan.

REFEREE: Mr Mike Taylor.

Last night (Tuesday) the young Central Parkers were due to meet Alloa at Central Park.