Crisis what crisis? - decent, deserved home win takes us off the bottom

A lovely wintry afternoon for football at Gayfield for this crucial foot of the table 6-pointer. Arbroath rang the changes with Rennie and Gates in the starting lineup.

The sides seemed quite evenly matched throughout the game but Arbroath had the more threatening attacks and, criticallly, our defence looked solid. The deployment of Campbell in front of the back four, winning high balls and breaking up play, has worked well these past two games.

The games turning point was after 20 minutes. A defensive error on the halfway saw Scott run on to a lovely through ball and, with real compsure finish cleanly as the keepr came out - 4 goals in 4 games plus his other contributions - he's making a difference. Two minutes later it looked like this was undone as after a stramash in the penalty area it looke dlike Tade had been held and the referee signalled a penalty. But the linesman had kept his flag up and it seemed a push by a Stranraer forward had occurred so it was our free kick. What a relief.

Rattray went down injured after 30 minutes and was replaced by Flyer - rattray had looked real solid since his return so this looks like a major blow. Nearing halftime, Hill made a great save from a dipping shot

The new-look Arbroath, boosted in confidence had some nice forward moves. A slick move up the right saw Scott flash the ball narrowly past the post then a tricky combination on the right saw a great Doris ball in.

Over the piece we carved out quite a few decent breaks but couldn't quite nick the second. Some lovely breaks down the left, with Doris - inlcuding fantastic drect balls from Hill to create attacking chances - and also down the left with Scott and Gates.

Stranraer upped their game for the last 20 minutes and took the initiative. They showed good neat passing play as home nerves began to build and we found it difficult to get our foot on the ball. But, despite some scares Hill was seldom troubled and the home support still had hopes we could stretch the lead

A well deserved result against a decent team. the defence looks solid and determined and we put together some enterprising atacking moves throughout. there seems a better balance in the side now. Great perfomances from Sellars, Bishop and Rennie at the centre and - second half- Forsyth (he was very poor first). Scott is a real asset up front and Doris showed some nice touches but needs to be tougher