Stirling boss Alan Maybury refused to blame an increasing missing list for his side as they crashed to a limp 3-0 defeat to Spartans in the capital.
The Binos came into the match down three more players, with the suspended Aaron Weir joined on the sidelines by the injured Callum Crane and Alex Ferguson.
The changes seemed to spook the visitors as they failed to generate any rhythm all afternoon in a poor display, with the home side running out winners thanks to a second-half brace from Cammy Russell after skipper Blair Henderson had opened the scoring.
Maybury conceded his side were off-colour all afternoon.
The Irishman said: “I thought we were alright first half, maybe a little slow and they maybe sucked us in to what they do but we did fine without a threatening edge to us.
“We started OK for the second half but the goals just sum us up today – we were below-par. We have been good in our performances for the last few weeks but it was just a below-par afternoon all round today.
“Maybe it’s a little understandable with asking players to do something a little different from what they have been doing but generally, they were still comfortable in the plans and it’s not really an excuse.
It’s the second defeat in a row for Stirling following the previous weekend’s heartbreaker at home to Peterhead – and two more away tests follow on league business in the next fortnight, beginning with a trip to Bonnyrigg next weekend.
“We’ve lost a player a week looking back to the East Fife game, it’s been difficult but I was confident in the team that was put out there today and as I said, there wasn’t much in it first half but second half, the nature of the goals was disappointing.
“They’ve got a lot of praise and we have been very good in the last couple of months but today we have thrown in one that isn’t really like us in terms of where we’ve been.
“I’ll take last week all day because I thought we were very good in an excellent game of football and we just came out of the wrong side of it, we played well but it’s just disappointing we never go to those levels today.
“I don’t know if it’s a slight hangover or changes in the team, but we were a little flat and lacked a bit of energy for whatever reason but we need to pick ourselves up for a busy period of games with the league, Scottish Cup and some Stirlingshire Cup games coming up.”
“It doesn’t get any easier and you can’t sit and feel sorry for yourself; it just wasn’t our day.”