The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Raith Rovers keep up pressure on League One leaders, but Montrose’s hopes of League Two glory take knock
Arbroath assistant manager Ian Campbell believes Stranraer deserved to take all three points after battling back from two goals down at the interval but he doesn’t want to dwell too long on his side’s second half capitulation.
The Lichties made a dream start with a goal after two minutes, Omar Kader converting at the back post after good work from Gavin Swankie and Danny Denholm on the left.
Swankie was at the centre of the action again in the 13th minute, netting from 12 yards after his first effort had been blocked.
The Arbroath front man was close to making it 3-0 before the interval when his well struck shot from the edge of the box crashed off the underside of the bar with the followup being blocked by some determined defending.
Stranraer showed much more urgency after the restart but the home side came closest to scoring again when Ryan Wallace set up Colin Hamilton but the defender’s effort was brilliantly saved by Max Currie.
That proved to be a pivotal moment because within a few minutes substitute Stephen Okoh had pulled one back from close range. Shortly after it was all square when some slack defending allowed Grant Anderson to flick home from six yards.
The turnaround was completed four minutes from the end, Scott Agnew converting from the spot after David Gray was tripped by sub keeper David Hutton.
Arbroath came agonisingly close to a lastminute equaliser with a Tom O’brien effort which was cleared off the line.
Campbell said: “We are disappointed but I don’t think we deserved to win the game. We made mistakes and missed two or three tapins but Stranraer were good winners in the end.
“We maybe thought at half-time that we just had to turn up in the second half but it doesn’t work like that in football. We thought we had the game won, subconsciously, but in the second half Stranraer took it to us and good on them.
“Now it’s up to us to get ourselves together and move forward. We have good players and a good team. We let ourselves and our fans down today because in all honesty it’s not a result we were looking for. But we’ve got six games left and our intention is to be in the play-offs and all we are interested in right now is the game on Tuesday against Albion Rovers.”