East Stirlingshire 1-1 Civil Service Strollers: Boss Ure thinks his troops handled tough test pretty well

The Lowland League battle at Falkirk Stadium ended 1-1, with the hosts taking an early lead when Cameron Crooks headed in after a fantastic corner delivered by Andy Rodden.

The home team created further chances to score but didn’t take them, with Civil Service securing a late point when Jonny Moffat netted early in the second half.

"Gary’s (Strollers manager Gary Jardine) teams are always very hard to beat and very, very competitive,” ’Shire manager Derek Ure told Shire TV.

"They’ve got a great way that they play and they play to their strengths.

"It’s a challenge when you play them and that’s when boys have to rise to the challenge.

"And I thought for large parts of the game we did that, but you’ve got to mentally stick at it for the full game, not just for 85 minutes.

"We had a few moments where we switched off, gifted them a few great chances.”

Ure stressed that Civil Service are up near the top of the league for a reason.

“I think that when you sit back both teams will be quite happy with the point,” he added.

"But both teams will maybe think that they done enough to nick three points.

"I wouldn’t say that either team did that though. I would say a draw was a fair result.

"We had good periods in the game but equally Civil came out and had a very, very strong start to the second half.

"But the boys did well to weather that to be fair. Then we got back into it and we were back in the game.

"I’d have loved three points but sometimes we’ve got to just take the one point and get onto the next game.”

After their Civil Service test, East Stirlingshire were facing another tough Lowland League battle after we went to press on Wednesday, at home to leaders Bonnyrigg Rose.

Ure added: "Bonnyrigg is another game that will take care of itself in regards to, if we didn’t apply ourselves and go and compete with them, they’ll dominate.

"And that’s something that a lot of our players are learning. We had 20 minutes in the Strollers game when we allowed them to bully us in all manners.

"Im not talking about just being physical and being bigger, which they were. I’m talking about making sure they’re close to their man to win tackles.

"We allowed them too much joy on the ball.

"We’ve got to make sure that we’re there, winning our battles.”

East Stirlingshire will travel to The Spartans in the league this Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

At time of going to press, the Falkirk Stadium outfit were eighth in the table with 11 points from seven games.

Ure said: “It’s early days but we want to try and convert some draws into wins.

"That’s what our aim will be in the next couple of weeks, try and get as many points as we possiby can on the board."