Stranraer Manager Stephen Aitken picked up a hat-trick of consecutive SPFL Manager of the Month Awards last week at Hampden with his side’s unbeaten run in December recognised in the same manner that good October and November results were.
The Blues defeated Arbroath and Brechin as well as becoming the first side to take anything from Rangers this season in the league and the 37-year-old and his players are getting used to extra attention.
Aitken has led his side into an unlikely promotion Play-Off place and staying there will depend on his squad remaining intact throughout this month and beyond.
Aitken said: “We’ve been at our peak for the last 12 to 13 games and finished off the year very strongly. At the start of the season nobody was thinking about Stranraer and the players there. Now that has changed and it’s all down to the hard work they’ve put in.”
“I think we have four or five who can play higher and hopefully they don’t take their eye off the ball.”
Midfielder Andy Stirling earned rave reviews for his performance as Stranraer hit back in injury time to draw 1-1 on Boxing Day and Aitken said: “Andy was terrific at Ibrox and was the best man on the park by a mile. He’s been like that every week for us.”
“He has been about a bit. He was at St. Mirren as a young boy, played for East Stirling and then went to America a couple of times. He lost his way a bit in Scottish football and nobody knew much about him but we took him in and at 23-years-old he’s by far one of the best players I’ve seen in this division.”
“If he doesn’t go on to a higher level next season then I think somebody has missed a chance.
The form of other players has been picked up on and Aitken said: “Our goalkeeper, David Mitchell, is only 23 but has made around 200 appearances and has been great. “Jamie Longworth can score goals but it’s just unfortunate he now has a career outside football as a PE teacher.”
“He might look at it and see himself as a part-time player. It’s unfortunate because someone might take a chance on him as a full-timer and make him a better player.”
“I’ve had agents on the phone about my players and that can be frustrating because they get on to the players and their minds could start wandering. They think about maybe doing something different to get a move but I’ve spoken to them and told them what they’re doing at the moment will get them their move.”
“It’s simple really, if you’re doing well there’s always a lot of focus on your team.
That focus reached an even higher level when Stranraer ended League 1 leaders’ Rangers long stretch of wins back on December 26 and Aitken said: “To go to Ibrox and get a point was probably the highlight of the month. We were very good on the day, although Rangers weren’t at their best.”
“That’s what you need to happen to get a result against the top clubs — you need them not to be hitting top form.”
Opposite number Ally McCoist praised Aitken’s side as the Stair Park boss explained: “Ally McCoist was great after the game. He conducted himself in a great manner as he waited for all our players in the tunnel while they went and celebrated with the supporters.”
“It was a good five minutes before they came off the pitch but he waited for every player and shook their hand. He said ‘well done’ to them and that our draw was totally deserved.”
“Later we sat down and had a beer with him. He spoke very highly about Stranraer and said how well we’d done. He said he’d had us watched three or four times and wasn’t surprised at how we’d played.”
Aitken added: “He was disappointed about how his own team had played but he was great towards us.”
Playing Rangers four times a season has brought benefits to Stranraer as Aitken explained: “It has been massive from Stranraer’s point of view. Last year was a big one in terms of staying in the Division as to get Rangers for a season is big financially for a club like ours.”
“But for me trying to attract players it helps as well. I was speaking to players in the summer and they realised we were going to Ibrox twice a season, it seemed a bit easier.”
Aitken added: “On a wider scale, I don’t think it has been good for Scottish football in general. I think it has slowed the game down a bit. But for the lower leagues it has been terrific financially.”
“And for players to go and ply their trade at places like Ibrox and for me to manage there, it has been great.”
Following Saturday’s postponement of their game with East Fife, Stranraer now face Airdrie and Stenhousemuir before playing in another big game when they meet Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the William Hill Scottish Cup.
It is a game they are looking forward to with Aitken saying: “It’s a game we’ll go into with no pressure because we’re not expected to do anything. Inverness have changed their manager and things had not maybe gone as well as expected until the Aberdeen game last weekend but that can happen when you change your manager.
“At our place they’ll have to face a tight, small park and maybe won’t enjoy the journey down. We’ll give it a go and when we beat Ross County in the Scottish League Cup we were great and deserved it.”
“Against Hibs in the next round we were a bit unlucky on the night as we had them at 4-3 for a ten-minute spell and nearly got it back to 4-4. And we’ve done well against Rangers, so we enjoy these big challenges in football.”
“Anything can happen on the day.”
As well as scoring 6 times against Premiership teams this season Inverness should be wary of the third best attack in League 1 with Aitken explaining: “We like to try and attack teams and entertain when we can. We have players who like to 
go forward.”
“Andy Stirling, Martin Grehan and Jamie Longworth all score goals. My brother Chris was chipping in at the start of the season with 10 goals from midfield as well.”
“At times you’ll leave the back door unlocked and lose games but we like our players to go forward and express themselves. You don’t want to take that away from the team.”
As well as having his players being scouted Aitken’s reputation is also growing positively and he admitted: “I would love to be a full-time manager. I said when I first started management I’d like to try and go as high as possible.”
“I think if you don’t set those sort of targets you’re cheating yourself, the club and your players. You need to be ambitious.”
“However I am fortunate at Stranraer as it has been a great start for me and I’ve got a lot of good people working behind the scenes to help me. If it comes along one day then I’ll obviously have been doing something right.”
At the moment Aitken and Stranraer’s ambitions are modest as he explained: “I’m just focusing on consolidating in this division. At the start of the season, with the lowest budget and smallest squad, that’s all I focused on.”
“My target at the start of the season was 34 to 36 points and we’re close to that, in fact it is just 3 points away. If we can get to that over the next few weeks then maybe we can look at the Play-Offs.”
Aitken added: “The average budget for clubs in our division is probably around the £160k mark, give or take 10 or 20 thousand. At the start of the season we were operating on about half of that.”
“To be fair to the club they’ve now made some extra money available and I’ve managed to get a couple of players in. By the end of the season the budget will probably be around the £100k mark.”
“It’s tough but you are where you are.”
Aitken said: “You can only spend what you’ve got and Stranraer got stung by spending too much money five years ago and nearly going out of business. We have a good committee there now.”
“The Rangers thing has probably taken Stranraer three years forward from where they might have been. It can be frustrating knowing just a little more money could make a big difference.”
“January’s a big month and when you’re sitting in third, you want to consolidate and maybe push on.”
Money however is not everything as Aitken explained: “I managed to sign Stephen Stirling from Morton purely because he has played with us before and he enjoyed it. Another League 1 club offered him double what I could in wages but Stephen is a player who enjoys his football and knows us, so he signed here.”
“Teams will be spending money this month but I wouldn’t want Stranraer to spend money they’ve not got.”
“Also maybe adding two or three of the wrong type would upset the group of players who fight for each other.”
The club are also building their backing locally with Aitken explaining: “I was down at Stranraer doing a coaching course for local schools and that went really well. The midweek Scottish Cup replay against Clyde last month was pay at the gate and we got 461. Normally we would have got 200 paying in at the most.”
“Against Ayr the other weekend we had 1100 and 700 were Stranraer supporters. The community is right behind us and it does help when the team is going well.”
“There’s a great atmosphere around the club at the moment and long may it continue.”
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