The Greenyards side fell behind to Stirling County after only four minutes at Bridgehaugh on Saturday.

And, despite the conversion being missed, they were unable to bounce back - even when the home side, who only narrowly avoided relegation last season, were reduced to 13 men.

Dalziel told the Border Telegraph: “We can’t keep giving teams the lead and then try to claw it back. At no point today were we ever in the lead or in control of it.

“There were loads of positive areas of the game where we were very dominant but we will have to win games ultimately. Stirling are a pretty new young team, I think they just wanted it a wee bit more and they got in about us.

“We expected them to be really fiesty and I knew that if we weren’t accurate and physical at the breakdown we were going to get a test there. It’s a new season and they were buoyed after last week’s opening league win over Boroughmuir; last year counts for nothing, we were outdone today.” Stirling took the lead through Jamie Bhatti after only four minutes but Lewis Carmichael equalised the scores in the 12th minute.

The home side regained their lead through a Jamie Urquhart penalty midway through the first half and they extended it with another try moments later when Ali Price spotted a whole in the visitors’ defence.

A couple of missed kicks allowed Melrose to come back into the game before half time with two penalties from Richard Mill to close the gap to 13-11 at the interval.

However, Stirling started the second half as they did the first, with the first try. Rory Hughes, drafted from Glasgow Warriors, showed his pace to stretch the visitors’ defence. Urquhart added the conversion.

Melrose were given a glimmer of hope when replacement Euan Dewar and Aubrey McCube were yellow carded for County. The Greenyards side made their extra men count with a period of sustained pressure leading to them being awarded a penalty try, which Mill converted.

Restored to 14 men, Urquhart kicked a penalty to edge County into a five-point lead with 10 minutes left. Then came the onslaught during which Melrose piled on the pressure in those final few minutes, but Stirling defended resolutely to held on for the win.

Dalziel said: “We just couldn’t get the speed of the game up at all. “Fraser is always a miss at full-back but it’s not an excuse, we had quality there today - Austin (Lockington) played there last year. I thought the scrum couldn’t have been any more dominant and we had enough ball, we were just really inaccurate when we tried to go wide.” And, looking ahead to this weekend’s game against Boroughmuir, he warned: “They are another team coming for a scalp.” Melrose: Lockington, Mua, Hutchinson, Nagle, Hoyland, Mill, Wilson; Little, Pearce, McQuillin, Carmichael, Head, Irvine-Hess, Dodds, Knott. Replacements: Ferguson, Arthur, Miller, Taylor, Tolland.