For our final lower league feature, we spoke to Stranraer fan Laurence Nelson who gave us the lowdown on the Blues!
How would you assess your club's 22/23 season so far?
Fair! Our home form has been very good while in contrast we’re yet to win away on the road.
We have shown some moments of brilliance – Jinky Hilton’s recent superb ‘take a bow’ goal against Stenny’s Conor Brennan is an example. But we have suffered from conceding late equalisers in games we really should have won.
We have a squad who could all happily start games for us – but it is a youthful squad, and, with that, you get inconsistency. We will get better!
Main Man: Favourite current player and why
Scott Robertson, who recently celebrated his 35th birthday.
Robbo reached 300 appearances for the Blues earlier this season, and, as part of the management team, alongside Jamie Hamill and Darryl Duffy, is now a player-coach.
Rugged and uncompromising in his approach, Robbo is a player that our fans have really taken to over the past few years. He has operated at the back and in midfield, and has even been pushed forward in a bid to bring height to our attack at times.
He really does work for Specsavers and with a determined, piercing stare, don’t mess with Robbo!
What is your earliest memory supporting your club?
1972 was a different world. No Social Media, no mobile phones, not even Teletext!
Radio Scotland was a crackling, distant affair and in football terms, if you missed the full-time score on Grandstand then your next chance to find out was in the Sunday newspapers.
One Wednesday night in August 1975, I wondered if the radio announcer had got the correct score when saying we had won 5-1 away against First Division Morton!
This set up a tie against Celtic, who had recently lost out on penalties to Inter in the European Cup semi-finals and there was real excitement as Jock Stein’s side stayed in town the night before the match.
After collecting autographs, four minutes into the game Billy Collings put Stranraer ahead. As a te-year old, I was convinced we would win however goals from Vic Davidson and Bobby Lennox gave Celtic a 2-1 win and after two legs it finished 7-3 to Celtic.
It would be 1988 before I made it to Celtic Park to support Stranraer. That one was even closer, but that’s another story!
Explain the nickname –
The Blues doesn’t really take an awful lot of explaining. I would point out that we’ve been around longer than Chelsea and Birmingham City.
It might all have been different though, as one early Stranraer nickname was The Trotters!
One of Stranraer’s earliest grounds was at the town’s Trotting Track, situated just south of King George V Park – known to locals then as Archie’s Boag! Apparently, around that time we actually played in tangerine!
Almost Famous – What is your club best known for?
Age and distance! Founded in 1870, nobody is 100% sure of the date unfortunately, some of the early club photos look like something out of the Wild (South) West!
Early games were almost all Galloway affairs, but Stranraer were in the Scottish Cup from only its 5th season in 1877-78 and there was a cup trip to Inverness as far back as 1901-02.
There was a reluctance to include teams from outwith the Central Belt in the league, but the Blues’ narrow 1-0 Scottish Cup defeat at the hands of Rangers in 1948, meant that Stranraer joined C Division in 1949, and B Division in 1955. Ferries, a Bandstand and a relationship with Eredivisie side FC Twente have also made headlines for us!
Greatest Gaffer: Your favourite/most loved boss watching your team
We have been blessed with a handful of managers who have led us to League and Challenge Cup success, and that – in itself – seemed highly improbable when we finished bottom of the Scottish League heap four times in one decade in the 1980s.
Campbell Money took us to a Challenge Cup win over St. Johnstone in November 1996 – my most memorable birthday! He also won the Third Tier for us in 1997-98, when we had been second-bottom as late as February, and only third in the table going into the penultimate fixtures. Neil Watt took us to the Third Division title in 2004 and followed that up with promotion to the First Division the following season.
But Alex ‘Sanny’ McAnespie was the man who the others followed. Sanny arrived in 1988, at the time seemingly just another in an apparently endless procession of managers whose dreams of becoming another Jock Stein or Alex Ferguson would be ended by the Stranraer experience.
With time and some money, McAnespie won our first-ever title – the Second Division championship – in 1994.
A wonderful character, he was approached by BBC Scotland after the celebrations on the pitch had died down. They wanted him to appear on Sportscene later that night. Sanny scornfully advised him that the only place they could find him that night would be in Stranraer’s Social Club!
Can you tell us one interesting fact about your club which other fans may not know?
We have the longest unbroken sponsorship deal in British professional football, with Stena Line currently our shirt sponsors for the 35th consecutive season. Way back in the late 80s they appeared on our shirts, simply as Sealink. Sealink British ferries followed, with Stena Line afterwards.
Ironically, the company have moved out of Stranraer, but still operate from Cairnryan to Belfast. However, they have remained loyal sponsors of the club.
Who would make your ultimate all-time 5-a-side team?
This is the one that will provoke debate and argument among Blues’ fans. To be honest, by the time you read this I will probably have changed my own mind several times! I can’t quite believe I’m not including the like of Davie Graham, Tucker Sloan, Derek Frye, Ian Harty or Jamie Longworth.
- Barney Duffy - A club legend who won two Second Division winners’ medals with us. It also seemed that he single-handedly defied St. Johnstone in the 1996 Challenge Cup final, punching, clawing, blocking and generally willing the ball away from our goal in appalling conditions after Danny Griffin had put through his own goal to give us the lead.
- Kenny Brannigan - An utterly uncompromising defender who captained us to our 1994 Second Division title. An intimidating stopper who allowed little to get past him.
- Allan Jenkins – A local legend who skippered us when, under Neil Watt, we won the Third Division in 2004 and were promoted to the First Division the following season. Allan, now manager of our South of Scotland League team, scored the equaliser against Morton which clinched our promotion to the First Division.
- Jim McCabe – He only played for us for one season in 1976-77, but what a season he had. Could have played at the very top level in Scotland, but reputedly told Celtic not to bother signing him as he wasn’t much of a trainer.
- Michael Moore - known as Mr. Stranraer. A favourite of referees throughout Scotland, Michael scored 93 times for us, and was a crucial part of our 2003-2005 success.
What is your all-time favourite match?
This was a tough question, with so many matches to consider.
But, for one that will really live in the memories, it has to be that draw at Ibrox, on Boxing Day 2013.
Rangers were top of League One, having won all of their 15 matches in that division so far. Sitting third in the table, in a league which included three full-time teams, we were actually going well. But I can still remember leaving the house to head to Ibrox, and telling my wife Shona that we could be on the end of a five-goal doing that day.
Lee McCulloch scored a penalty for Rangers and that’s how it stayed until four minutes into injury-time.
Rangers wasted a corner down at our end. We swept forward – a lovely passing move – and when Andy Stirling crossed, Jamie Longworth took a touch to steady himself, before he lashed the ball past Cammy Bell.
I was reporting on that game in the Ibrox Press Box – in the front row of the first deck of the main stand. There is an onus on you to appear neutral when sitting in a press area, and I managed to stick to that until the 94th minute. When I jumped in celebration I became painfully aware of several thousand glares crashing off my back. I sat back down, but when I looked back, just seconds later, that stand was all but empty already!
What should visiting fans make sure they see/do when visiting your club/town?
Stranraer has struggled in recent years – ironically, partially as a loss of the ferries to Cairnryan. But it is situated in a wonderful part of Scotland, and any visiting fans who love the outdoors could stay over and visit some amazing gardens – there are several within half an hour of the toon.
There are fantastic coastal walks, and Portpatrick, just six miles away, is a lovely seaside village to visit. In the middle of Stranraer, there is the Castle of St. John, an early 16th century Tower House, which can be visited. From the roof there are great views up Loch Ryan and you can also see the roof of the Stranraer FC Fitba Bar – which is only about 100 yards away.
What makes your club special to YOU?
I’m very proud of my home town and it was natural that I was going to support Stranraer once my father took me along.
Stranraer have always been a fan-owned club. We can’t run up unsustainable debt and are unlikely to make the Champions League but you can get really involved in the club.
Running a weekly Stranraer podcast with Mike McLean and Brian Martin, we get to meet the manager and players and we’re not alone in this.
Our chairman, Iain Dougan, started out as a ball boy before rising through the ranks, as did fellow committee man Robert Rice.
The passing of our much-loved vice chairman Shaun Niven affected our whole support who knew and chatted with him at games.
Fans have rallied round to raise funds to pay for an operation for injured midfielder Paul Woods, who suffered a freak injury. We’re a real community and attending matches without everyone there just wasn’t the same.
