Wick Academy fail to cause cup upset in Stirling
Scottish Cup Third Round
Stirling Albion 2 Wick Academy 0
Scorers: Henderson (42) Bikey (84)
THE Scottish Cup dream is over for Wick Academy as this year's campaign ended at Stirling Albion despite causing major problems for their hosts at Forthbank Stadium.
Two goals against the run of play either side of half time was enough to send the League Two outfit into the next round who were forced to defend for long spells of the game.
Academy got off to a bright start when Steven Anderson and Grant Steven both saw their shots saved by Chris Smith.
Stirling came back strongly in the last 15 minutes of the first half when Steven was forced to pull off a perfectly timed tackle to deny Marc McKenzie a shot at goal.
But the deadlock was broken three minutes before half time when Sean McCarthy parried Darren Petrie's cross into danger and Blaine Henderson bundled home the ball from six yards.
Academy piled on the pressure in the second half with Gary Weir's header from 10 yards forcing another fine save from Smith.
Davie Allan was also denied by Smith when he saw his shot from close range parried on to the post and out for a corner.
From the resultant corner, Michael Steven managed to fire a shot towards goal but was cleared off the line by the Albion defence.
Stirling killed off the game six minutes from time when Dylan Nguene Bikey fired in a low powerful shot from the edge of the box which beat McCarthy into the bottom left hand corner.
Wick were awarded a penalty in the 87th minute when Steven Anderson was brought down by Ross Smith.
But Sam Mackay saw his penalty saved by Chris Smith who was outstanding inbetween the posts to frustrate the Scorries all afternoon.
