Albion Rovers 1 Stenhousemuir 0

Last updated : 11 September 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Albion Rovers claimed all three points with a hard-fought victory over Stenhousemuir at Cliftonhill.

The Warriors started brightly with a Paul Murphy header which was well-watched by Chris Fahey in the Rovers goal and minutes later the striker again had a shot that whistled just past the post.

The home side came back strongly with Charles Connolly's long ball finding Paul McManus who curled a shot past the upright.

Again the Rovers front line went close shortly after when this time Danny Black's pass found McManus one-on-one with William McCulloch but his shot just went over.

McManus was causing the Stenhousemuir defence all sorts of problems in only his second game back from a spell out injured.

On the half-hour mark Rovers took the lead thanks to the front man after his neat shot beat McCulloch after Marc McKenzie's slide-rule pass had sent him clear.

Only seconds earlier the Warriors were denied by the woodwork following Paul McGrillen's header from a Martin Lauchlan cross.

Rovers should have doubled their lead shortly after the break when some excellent individual skill and a superb shot from John Bradford produced a brilliant save from McCulloch.

For the rest of the second half Stenhousemuir piled on the pressure in such of the equaliser with Lauchlan denied by an excellent saving tackle by Graeme McLaren.

Fahey then produced an excellent save from Lee Collins' shot on the edge of the box as Rovers held on for the victory.