Annan Athletic 1-1 Stenhousemuir

Aug 10 2008 Anthony Brown At Galabank

ANNAN boss Harry Cairney felt his troops suffered stage fright for Galabank's first league match. The new boys, so impressive in clobbering Cowdenbeath on the opening day last week, looked nervy from the kick-off.

They fell behind in just four minutes and although they equalised two minutes later were still outplayed by Stenny for long spells.

Annan had a chance to capitalise when Paul Tyrrell was sent off with half an hour left but the loss of a player only made the Warriors more dominant.

Cairney admitted: "We were flat. Maybe we were nervous with the big crowd and all the hype surrounding the first game here.

"The match was pretty even until the sending off and I thought we might have become stronger after that. But Stenny seemed to dominate even more when they went down to 10 men. Maybe their experience made the difference."

Since being voted into the SFL, Annan had been preparing for their slice of history - the day when senior football would finally arrive in their little corner of Dumfriesshire.

With the long wait over, and the hard graft put in to ensure the ground would be ready in time, nothing was going to spoil the former East of Scotland side's magical moment - not even the pre-match drizzle.

In fact the steady rainfall helped boost club coffers with most fans who had arrived early opting to seek refuge in the club house directly behind the goal at the bottom of the sloping pitch.

For such an historic occasion however the atmosphere was surprisingly subdued and it got even quieter in just four minutes when Stenny took the lead.

Iain Thomson sent over an inswinging corner and the in-form Andrew Brand rose highest among a clutch of bodies to nod home his third league goal of the season.

But just as they had done at Cowdenbeath last week Annan refused to crumble after losing an early goal and within two minutes they were level.

The man who wrote his name into the history books as the first Annan player to score an SFL goal at Galabank was Mike Jack.

He got in behind the Warriors defence and kept his cool to slot home from16 yards.

With fears of a crushing defeat slipping away Annan were able to relax and open out.

But after such a frantic start chances from then were few. John Coughlin's men suffered a blow on the hour when Tyrrell was sent off after picking up his second booking inside seven minutes.

The loss of a man didn't seem to shake Stenny too much though and they finished the match the stronger without being able to find the winner.

Boss Coughlin said: "We completely dominated the game and I don't think our goalie had a save to make.

"The sending-off looked a bit weak to me - both the bookings were debatable to say the least.

"We created a few chances but never looked like killing it off.

"The goal we lost was a catastrophe. The pitch was poor - they clearly hadn't cut the grass for a long time."