Stirling Albion 2 Clyde 2: Bully Wee face cup replay

The Bully Wee paid the penalty for a missed MacDonald spot-kick as Stirling hit back to force a replay at Broadwood on Tuesday night.

The away side were looking to make amends for a dismal three goal defeat at Stirling in their last league match two weeks ago, but it didn’t start well. Barry Ferguson’s side found themselves on the receiving end of another Forthbank sucker punch early on, when Dylan Bikey – who proved to be the bane of the visitors a fortnight ago – took the ball well in the Clyde box and hammered a low drive past John Gibson.

The away side found an equaliser on 24 minutes when MacDonald took advantage of some weak defending from home captain Frazer Wright. The 36 year old forward advanced on goal and calmly slotted the ball past Cammie Binnie from just inside the 18 yard box for his 15th goal of the season.

As the match wore on, the away side began to look more and more likely to take the lead, and they did just that shortly after the hour mark.

It was MacDonald again, this time reacting quickest after his own effort rebounded off Wright to finish expertly across the Stirling ‘keeper from six yards.

MacDonald was after his hat-trick and, after fluffing two great chances, was brought down by Binnie with 15 minutes to go. Even from the spot, though, it still wasn’t to be for the striker, as Binnie dived to make an excellent save.

And he was made to rue the miss not ten minutes later.

It was Bikey again who got the home side back on level terms against the run of play, firing high into Gibson’s net from 15 yards.

The home side could have knicked it with 90 minutes on the clock, after Blair Henderson hammered Dylan Bikey’s cut back at Gibson, but the keeper reacted quickly to tip the ball over the bar.