East Stirling 1 Stranraer 4

In what was the Blues first visit to Firs Park for a number of years Stranraer eventually ran out easy winners.

Stranraer went straight onto the attack and Stephen Swift had a shot straight at the Connolly from 18 yards. Then a moment of controversy when Kevin Finlayson burst clean through the home defence. He appeared to be fouled which would have meant a straight red for the shire player but the ref ignored the claims and incredibly waved play on. The Blues had another good move down the right involving Swift and Finlayson with ball being played through to the skilful Graham and his shot was saved.

Then unbelievably against the run of play Shire took the lead after 15 minutes. A mix-up in defence involving Stevie Aitken left Derek Ure clear on goal and although his shot was saved by Andy McCondichie, Paul Rodden was on hand to tap-in from 10 yards.

Stranraer should have levelled it shortly later when Kevin Finlayson was played clean in on goal but he pulled his shot wide of the target from the edge of the box with just the goalie to beat.

Stranraer levelled after 27 minutes when Alan Jenkins shot low into the corner of the net from 25 yards after a good run from deep to equalise. The half continued with other chances for the Blues one notable one when David Graham beat a couple of players out wide and then crossed low into the box but it agonisingly missed Moore and Aitken could only turn the ball wide.

At half time the fans were treated to the tannoy announcer never shutting up for the whole ten minutes and he was coming up with some utter dribble. I think he likes his own voice or doesn't get out much.

The Blues took the lead eight minutes into the second half when Kevin Finlayson crossed for Michael Moore to head home in off the far post for a well deserved lead.

Stephen Marshall came on for Stevie Aitken in the 58th minute and his first contribution was to get booked after a late tackle.

East Stirling were making a better game of it at this stage and a free-kick was well saved by McCondichie.

At the other end Stranraer started to get a grip of the game again and Moore had couple of efforts that went close. The third goal arrived in the 76th minute when David Graham shot home after he got the break of the ball in the box.

Jenky scored the goal of the game in the 86th minute to wrap up the scoring, when his powerful run ended with him rounding Shire's John Connolly and tapping the ball into the empty net and then he saluted the travelling support with a bizarre goal celebration.

Man of the Match - Allan Jenkins Two fine goals and his all round effort and play was excellent. Overall though most players played pretty well.

Overall Summary - Another great result for the Blues and we are now playing some really exciting attacking football.

Attendance: 245