East Stirlingshire stun Albion Rovers to earn crucial first home Lowland League victory

Jamie Penker got the hosts off to the perfect start when he fired home after five minutes, with Adam Fernie equalising for the Coatbridge outfit just before half-time. Ex-Shire player Bright Prince then headed Rovers in front with ten minutes to go but Shire struck twice in three minutes to win the match through Shaun Brown and Luke Rankin.

“​It is December and that is the first one,” Scullion said. “But for me and the coaching staff, we could see that the performance was coming. We’ve maybe not quite got it over the line due to our final pass, our decision making, the wee rub of the green that you need.

“Today the players were excellent and we should have come in at the break a couple of goals ahead. Instead, they get a goal back to make it 1-1 before half-time and that changed the team talk a wee bit.

“But we knew we would get more chances. We just told the guys to show composure and take them. They scored a great goal and it was a fantastic header from Bright (Prince) but our fight and desire after that was very pleasing.

“To get it back to 2-2 and then to go on and actually win the game, the players deserved that win. There has actually only been a handful of games that I came away from thinking that we didn’t play well. The overall aggression, desire and quality on the ball was excellent.”

The Shire now face Cowdenbeath at home on Boxing Day, with kick-off 3pm in Falkirk.

Meanwhile, Saturday’s match also saw the club host a collection for the Falkirk Foodbank, with fans from both clubs helping donate 342.92kg worth of food, which is the equivalent of 800 meals.

Fraser Cromar, Shire’s chief executive officer, said: “It was incredible to see the generosity on show from both sets of supporters. The amount we collected was astonishing. It isn’t easy to come to a game carrying bags of tins and food but everyone chipped in. The foodbank mentioned that clubs in higher leagues don’t get close to the amount we donated.”