M3s vs Stirling Wanderers 2

First game of the season for the M3's traveling to Stirling for a game that always tends to have a little bit of steel. Surprisingly played in good spirits by the players on both sides.

To paraphrase a popular movie "the odds were never in our favour" taking 6 forwards and having to fudge our formation a little to accommodate who we had available. Still a solid enough squad however to put a little fight into the game.

For first quarter Falkirk settled well with possession having some slow but decent build up play through the phases. Just not able to find that final little pass to break into the opposition 25, this is where Stirling got most joy stealing the ball and countering with pace and numbers. Where they created chances but without capitalizing. End of Q1 and Stirling got their breakthrough turnover in attack quick transition to their striker in the box who managed to slap the ball off Sam's kicker and into the net.

Second quarter comes and it is more of the same Falkirk pushing and Stirling countering, young Lliam Foster making his first start for the M3s since being promoted to the squad was a live wire and gave Stirling a lot of problems with his movement and skill. However similar to the first goal Stirling broke from a loose past in the attacking by Falkirk and beat the keeper again after eliminating the defence with a 2 on 1.

Second quarter ended with Falkirk starting to get outcomes in the 25 and D which lead to a few penalty corners. One of which saw Lliam just miss a back deflection off the post for half time. We continued in the same vain at the start of the third quarter where we got our only goal thanks to Gardner, his drag flick deflecting of defenders dangling stick past the keeper to pull us back.

3rd quarter saw Stirling et their third by overloading the defence and midfield, produced a great stop from Sam only for the rebound to fall kindly for them to slot away.

Big final quarter for Falkirk as we pushed to try and get the next goal and steal the draw just did not quite happen, good play through the pitch but just unable to get the final outcome with Stirling's stubborn close to 11 man defensive effort. Game finishing 3-1 to the hosts despite our best efforts.