East Stirlingshire gaffer Pat Scullion sees no reason to panic yet after poor start to Lowland League season

East Stirlingshire boss Pat Scullion believes his side can bounce back from a poor start to the season after suffering three Scottish Lowland Football League defeats on the spin.

The Ochilview Park outfit kicked off the campaign with a 2-0 loss away to newly-promoted Clydebank and followed that up with home losses by Albion Rovers (1-2) and Bo’ness United (1-3) last Tuesday and Friday respectively. And that pointless start leaves the Shire sitting second bottom with only the University of Stirling below them also on zero points.

Positives to take despite poor start for Shire

After the Bo’ness defeat, Scullion said: “There were actually quite a lot of positives to take from the game but it’s been a week now, three games, and we have no points which isn’t good enough. I know that, the players know that and the coaching staff know that. But I see enough in terms of positives there to encourage me.

“The first goal was a cross that alluded everyone and managed to go in at the back post. It was odd. Before that we had most of the ball. We created chances after the goal and it was pretty even. We responded well and got some shots away - I was happy. We had a chat at half time and came out very well. We won the penalty and it was one way traffic for a while. We didn’t get on the end of decent opportunities and many only big complaint was that we didn’t make first contacts. But overall we were on top. We then lost a poor goal. It is a great finish but we didn’t deal with the initial move. We’ve then lost another goal from a corner, and that’s a couple we’ve lost this week. That is frustrating because it wasn’t like us last season.”

The Shire now travel to Berwick Rangers this Saturday on Lowland League duty and Scullion says that having the likes of veteran Mark Docherty and loanee Kenzie Mitchell available would be a massive boost.

He said: “We have players coming back too. Real experience and legs. That will help us. Mark’s leadership is key - he makes the players around him that 10/15 per cent better. Kenzie (Mitchell) from Ayr should be back and he gives us legs and balance too being left-sided.”