The nights may be getting longer, but Stirling Albion boss Alan Maybury believes the outlook is getting brighter for his side as they secured a deserved win over Clyde at Forthbank on Saturday.
Josh Kerr had the home side in front inside 15 minutes, but Robbie Leitch brought the bottom side level after some sloppy defending from the hosts.
But the Dales – Hilson and then Carrick – each struck in the second half as Stirling pulled away to secure their third win in a row and bring them level on points with Peterhead above them.
Maybury believed the win over the Bully Wee was thoroughly merited – and hailed the impact of his training staff and a warm-up match with Rangers B in midweek in helping his side run over the opposition.
The Irishman said: “I thought we were very good, I said to the boys at half time to forget about the scoreline because I wasn’t sure how it was one each.
“I thought we hurt them in the areas we thought we could, we should have been further clear, but we weren’t, so we had to go out and do it again second half.
“The squad is in a really good place for the first time and credit to [sports scientist] Andy Somerville for the fitness of the boys as I thought we were the fitter and stronger side.
“We had a game in midweek against Rangers B to get a few of the players like Callum Crane, Dale Hilson and Lewis Milne back up to speed and it worked, it was just a really good team performance.
“There has been a lot of work to get to this point, boys working away when they were injured, the game midweek was really beneficial in getting some minutes into the players and the results of that were out on the pitch today.”
As well as the return of players such as Crane – who played 90 minutes on his competitive return from injury in place of the suspended Bailey Dall – it was also a special occasion for Binos keeper Derek Gaston, who brought up his 500th career appearance.
A crucial point in the league season awaits after this weekend’s Scottish Cup dust-up with Bo’ness Athletic with a visit to table-toppers East Fife followed by the visit of Peterhead to Forthbank.
But Maybury insists his focus isn’t on league standings and points – and more on the product his team are putting out on the pitch.
“I know where we want to get to, points totals we want to reach, I know what my team needs to look like so I’m not overly concerned right now about where we sit in the league, who is above us or behind us”, he added.
“People are pushing to get into the team, we have some options and it shows in the performance today.”