East Stirlingshire: Manager Pat Scullion stresses importance of his side scoring first goal after five-game winless start to Scottish Lowland Football League

Liam Buchanan’s double – the first from the penalty spot after Jamie Pyper’s foul in the box on Graham Taylor – had Stuart Malcolm’s visitors 2-1 up with Jamie Penker’s back post volley five minutes into stoppage time pulling one back extremely late on for Shire. But the loss means that Scullion’s side are now a lowly 16th in the table with just one point from their opening five league fixtures.

The East Stirlingshire gaffer said: "I thought up until they scored after 18 or 19 minutes that we started the brighter side, strung some passes together and were doing OK.

"And then the goal, the bizarre awarding of the penalty in my view from where I was watching.

"Berwick came on and with the experience they have they kind of dominated the rest of the first half and the majority of the second half.

"I thought we had chances on the break, we were trying to push forward and I'm pleased that the boys still showed a fight and a desire.

"And I was delighted that Jamie Penker came on and made an impact by scoring.

"That will do the world of good for his confidence because he must have been feeling the weight of not scoring.

"I spoke to him before the game so I'm hopeful that he'll kick on from that."

Scullion said that his team had been suffering in the early league games due to their frequent concession of the first goal.

He added: "We've been shooting ourselves in the foot at times, where we’ve not started as sharp, we lose a goal and then we’re chasing.

"You see again the boys are pushing to the end and we’re trying to kind of chase that goal or two goals today so we’re leaving ourselves open at the back in terms of spaces as we’re trying to push players forward.

"But I’d like to be in a position where we can maybe slow the game down, score first and try and get passing the ball.

"But certainly we have been drumming into the players about the importance of the first goal so we need to make sure that it’s us that’s scoring more first goals than the opposition.”

When asked if a lack of confidence was affecting his players’ performances, Scullion added: “Possibly. We knew it was going to be a tough start when you look at the fixtures.

"Berwick had a slow start last season and they picked up. In the last half of last season they barely lost a game. They grew in confidence and we’ll be looking to do the same.

"If we can get our first win – hopefully that’s next week or in the coming weeks – then we can kick on from there.

"There’s lots of good work going on behind the scenes with the club and on the training pitch.

"The boys are buying into what we are asking them to do. But it’s like anything, once you get a bit of confidence you can start moving in the right direction. We just need to make sure that the players stay postive and continue to listen to what we’re doing in training.”

Shire visit Gretna 2008 this Saturday (kick-off 3pm), before hosting University of Stirling next Wednesday (kick-off 7.45pm).