East Stirlingshire: Opening three games tough, says boss Pat Scullion

That defeat sees the Shire finish in 16th spot in what has been a shocking season for the Falkirk club. New boss Scullion joined recently and has taken the team for the previous three outings, having yet to pick up a point as boss.

But the display at the weekend encouraged him going into the League Cup group stage this Saturday coming against Edinburgh University in the first round.

Speaking to the Falkirk Herald, he said of the match: “In the first five minutes we lose a really sloppy goal. But unlike my first game in charge against Hearts B (which ended 5-0) we reacted well to it. Then we lost another quickly and we collapsed.

“On Saturday, we didn’t let it get to us and we strung some passes together and settled down, They got a man sent off after 20-odd minutes and the game became pretty even.

“We had chances in the game and we scored a couple of really good goals to go ahead in the game through Kyle Ewing and Jack Hodge.

“They went on to win the game from two penalty kicks but overall the performance was decent and we deserved to get more out of the match.

“A draw might have have been a fair result unlike the first two matches against Hearts and Celtic, which were defeats you couldn’t really argue with. There were a lot of good things to take from it."

The boss is now looking forward to a clean slate in the summer as he looks to build his own squad.

He added: “The players here have had three managers this season who all probably had three different ideas of how things should be done. It is a tough time to come into a club and of course there is no real movement either – we couldn’t go up or get relegated.

"We’ve faced three full-time teams in these final matches which I have taken charge in, so it is hard to judge the group, but it is only these games that I can go from, so the cup is a chance for guys to show why they should stay here. At the same time, some of the players may decide to move on and that is fine.”