Stirling Albion manager Stuart McLaren says his side have nothing to fear from their League Two opponents despite losing their season opener to title rivals Clyde.

The manager was left frustrated after the Binos were denied what looked like a clear penalty before the visitors sealed victory with a late spot-kick of their own, writes Jamie Hall.

And although McLaren had no complaints with Clyde’s penalty or the red card shown to Mark Staunton, he revealed his frustration at the officials for failing to spot Craig Comrie’s shot striking an arm.

He told Stirling News Sport: “I’m frustrated that we didn’t take anything out of the game but I know why. It’s partly some decisions that we made in and around the final third. We didn’t make the best of some of the really good positions we got ourselves into, particularly in the second half. But there were also a couple of decisions from the man who is paid to make those decisions.

“For their penalty, Mark knows he should deal with the ball.

“If Mark doesn’t pull the boy back he will have a shot so I have no complaints about that. But we are questioning why a penalty wasn’t given.

“That’s now three games in a row where penalty decisions given or not given against us have influenced the outcome of the game.” Despite slipping to defeat, McLaren was proud of his players’ efforts against the league favourites.

He said: “One thing about this group is that they will never be found wanting in terms of their effort. They are applying things that we are asking them to do.

“There is great strength and unity within the group and I knew that the team that stayed together would have had the better chance of winning the game.

“There is nothing about Clyde that frightened us. We respect them but we are not frightened of them and that is the case for every team in the league.” The Binos boss was adamant his side can bounce back when they travel to Galabank to face Annan Athletic on Saturday.

McLaren added: “Annan have started with some good results, so they will be as difficult an opponent as we are likely to have, but I have every faith in this group.

“We will get better and better. We have added players in the final third of the pitch. The players we had in there were all new apart from Phil Johnston.

“We are still working away at the combinations in there and you have to acknowledge that in Airdrie last week and Clyde this week are teams who have decent organisation and decent experience in defence.

“Therefore, it is difficult to break them down. But we will keep trying to improve on that over the next few games.”