Smith living it up on his Blues cruise
KILMARNOCK kid Ross Smith is loving life at Stranraer but the on-loan teenager would have been much happier had his side held on for all three points at Forthbank.
The 18-year-old midfielder is one of an exciting batch of youngsters working under Blues boss Jamie Hamill as goal hero Matty Yates again underlined his potential to go to the top in a 1-1 draw with Stirling.
Smith said: “I’m getting the experience I need and learning the game, which is important for me.
“We are improving every single week and we are good enough to beat any team in this league.
“We switched off at a setpiece and it was annoying conceding from a corner.”
Next up for Stranraer is West of Scotland high-fliers Darvel in the Scottish Cup second round at Stair Park on Saturday and Smith is taking nothing for granted.
He said: “It’s a cup game, which can go any way. We just need to go in with the right attitude, win and get ourselves in the next round.”
Yates gave Stranraer the lead with a sublime strike in 67 minutes but Adam Cummins rose to nod in Nathan Flanagan’s corner four minutes later.
Josh Walker hit the crossbar late on for Stranraer but Stirling stretched their unbeaten league run to seven games under Kevin Rutkiewicz.
Forfar boss Gary Irvine praised his side’s ability to grind out a victory after seeing off Annan 2-0 at Station Park.
He said: “I had a statistic put to me after the last game that we have only been behind for a total of nine minutes all season but have obviously lost leads all too often.
“It wasn’t very pretty but we got the three points, which he hadn’t been doing in previous games, so we are really pleased.”
The Loons scored in each half as Andy Munro headed in from Luke Strachan’s free-kick before Stefan McCluskey doubled their lead with 61 minutes played.
Jordan Morton marked his Albion Rovers debut with a spectacular strike to help them defeat Elgin 2-0.
Callum Wilson’s 75thminute finish put the Cliftonhill side in front before Morton scored a screamer.
Stenhousemuir have carved out a three-point cushion over bottom side Cowdenbeath after winning 2-0 in the basement clash.
Craig Thomson’s own goal and a Robert Thomson strike secured the points.