MATCH PREVIEW: Stranraer v Forfar Athletic

Forfar Athletic head to Stair Park on Saturday first, never a particularly happy hunting ground at the best of times for the Station Park outfit.

They head off on the back of four successive defeats in league and cup and with a first team squad still ravaged by injury.

The bit of bright news however is that Mark Millar a vital cog in the ‘Loons’ midfield who came on as a substitute against Alloa last Saturday also came though a midweek closed doors friendly against Montrose unscathed and could well feature from the start against Stevie Farrell’s side.

Kevin McNaughton who came out of semi retirement last weekend and was to say the least impressive in the ‘engine room’ of the side also got some valuable game time under his belt on Tuesday night, while hopefully the break in routine of a midweek match as against normal training will have given a few other members of the pool an added sharpness as we enter a busy spell of four fixtures in seventeen days.

Thankfully no further injury worries have been forthcoming in the past week, although Eddie Malone will sit out the game as he serves his second match of his two game ban for his red card at Airdrie.

Stranraer will also have a player suspended following Liam Dick’s late red card in the 1-1 draw at East Fife last weekend, this following on from a 2-1 win at Gayfield the previous week.

As ever the home side have a fairly experienced squad and they currently sit on the 21 point mark with two home games in hand on many of their rivals.

Scott Agnew with eight goals and Ryan Wallace with seven to date this campaign are their main goal threats.

Back in late September, the ‘Loons’ should have secured all three points against the Stair Park side at Station Park.   Josh Peters gave the home side an early lead and they dominated the game for lengthy spells thereafter but were penalised with a goal from Danny Stoney two minutes into added on time.

The story of the ‘Loons’ season to date perhaps?

Saturday’s game will be refereed by Glasgow based second season Grade One official Steven Reid who was also in charge of our opening league game against Airdrieonians back in early August.