CERTAIN player names kindle within the football supporter an unrivaled excitement. A spark which sets alight a small fire in the pit of the stomach, which in turn is held up as a torch to illuminate wonderful memories. Some of these are club legends, others fall into the sphere of cult hero.
One of the players that raises such warm feelings among the Stirling faithful while falling into the latter category is Dylan Bikey.
The Frenchman, who precipitated a tug of war between the two capital Premiership clubs during his previous spell at Forthbank, made his first league start since his return for the visit of Elgin on Saturday. And while he didn’t have one of his more memorable games, he caused a ripple of excitement among the hundreds of anticipant supporters each time he received or hurtled after the ball.
He displayed his blistering pace on a number of occasions, leaving a puffing David Wilson inhaling a plume of dust.
It was at the other end of the pitch, though, where Stirling excelled in their first league victory of the season. Danny Jardine did a lot of dirty work in the centre of the pitch as well as being tidy on the ball, while the defence stood resolute against an in-form Elgin attack – a strike pairing envied by many in the division.
Bodies were placed on the line when required, personal safety an afterthought in desperation to preserve the lead brought about by a well-worked Josh Peters goal. “A bit of a talisman” for the side this season, according to the manager.
SATV📺| Highlights of Yesterday’s Ladbrokes League 2 Match between @Stirling_Albion and @ElginCityFC are now available https://t.co/jBB9J9ggCz
— BSM Media (@BSMSports14) September 15, 2019
The win came after a long and barren run for Kevin Rutkiewicz’s side – one victory in 17 in all competitions stretching back into last season.
It had all started so well for the rookie manager after he’d decided to swap Saturday nights at King Tut’s for Saturday afternoons at Queen’s Park once and for all. A run of one defeat in 13 took Stirling to promotion play-off contention before they fell away.
Before Saturday’s victory they were staring up from the bottom of the table having lost their first five league matches, leaving them as the only SPFL side without a point to their name.
This despite getting their summer recruitment done early and adding a number of experienced League Two campaigners. They had big boots to fill in attack, with the likes of Darren Smith and Peter MacDonald moving on – boots that continue to lay empty to an extent, unused and discarded in the bottom of the wardrobe. At the moment, Peters is the only player providing goals, netting all three they have mustered in the league so far.
The opening-day Betfred Cup draw with Hibernian proved to be a false dawn, followed by gloomy defeats to Arbroath and Elgin. Since then however, despite recording seven defeats from their subsequent eight matches, they were all lost by a single goal.
The amount of goals conceded hasn’t been the main concern, despite the disruption caused to the backline by injury and suspension – Stirling have had four red cards in the league,twice as many as anyone else across the SPFL.
And there have been some encouraging signs there amongst the barrage of defeats. Even the 6-1 loss to Arbroath was slightly skewed by two late goals, while Stirling missed a trio of excellent chances with the score at 3-1.
Opening the scoring and then holding on and grinding it out can often be the route to arrest the slump, as they did in the weekend victory over Elgin. They looked like they may be on course to do so in their previous league match at Albion Rovers after Peters had volleyed on the turn and in off the post from outside the area.
That was before the match descended into farce.
First, Kevin Nicol was given his marching orders for being Kevin Nicol before Paul McLean was bizarrely ordered off for a handball in the box – the referee deeming he prevented a clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity despite being six yards from goal with a goalkeeper between the sticks.
They also thoroughly dominated the defeat to St Mirren colts, which would have been a completely different match, you’d wager, if Max Wright had converted a very poorly taken first-half penalty. Though in the end, a defeat is a defeat, and a defeat to an U20 side is an embarrassing defeat.
Bikey impressed in that match, even though he was still getting back to full fitness after not playing much football in recent times, and at the time he signed on again he helped lift the mood around the club while it was at a low ebb.
Saturday’s result was psychological as much as anything else, given that the performances and the application wasn’t wholly absent before then, and lifts them off the bottom of the table.
After the match, Rutkiewicz himself conceded the margins are fine and that luck had gone his side’s way for a change. Similar application and more breaks going their way and it won’t be long until they’re climbing up the table.
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