Gregor Buchanan says Stenhousemuir have earned 'wee chance' to win Scottish League One title

Gregor Buchanan reckons that Stenhousemuir’s current crop have earned a “wee chance” to win the Scottish League One title after an incredible campaign.

The Warriors beat Alloa Athletic last Saturday 1-0 at Ochilview Park, and that victory couple with East Fife’s 1-1 draw against leaders Inverness Caley Thistle has taken the title race down the final day. Gary Naysmith’s team looked down and out a couple of weekend’s ago after a 2-0 loss at Cove Rangers but a bit of luck has got them in with a shout this Saturday. They need to pick up the three points away to Montrose and hope that relegation play-off threatened Hamilton Accies pull off a win in the Highlands.

Whatever happens come 5pm on Saturday in Angus, centre-back Buchanan says that his team-mates deserve immense credit for building on last year’s play-off finish with another, even more impressive, second season in the third tier. A win is a must however - with anything other than three points not an option.

‘Stenhousemuir deserve a crack at the title’

“It was really unusual,” Buchanan revealed, speaking about the immediate aftermath of last weekend’s win. “We got news that it was 1-0 on the pitch, then we heard that the game was 1-1 and you are thinking that Inverness are going to go and get a late winner, you aren’t thinking that East Fife were going to hold on. It felt like an eternity. We had finished before them so we were sitting the changing room not knowing where we stood. The manager didn’t even do his post-match team talk, he waited until the result had came through because he knew it would be a different conversation.”

He added: “We needed something to give and thankfully it did. I think we deserved that bit of luck for what we have achieved this season as a group. The last weekend being a nothing game with us preparing for play-offs didn’t feel fair. So I am delighted. We deserve a wee chance. All you can do is hope that something is on your side come Saturday. You saw it over the weekend in the National League with York at Rochdale. Football can throw up madness. It tends to happen more often than not actually. The end of the season always has twists and turns, and we just have to hope that something is in the air on Saturday and that we can take advantage of it.”

Buchanan has enjoyed a successful career in the lower leagues. The 36-year-old is still going strong at Stenhousemuir after leading the club to its first-ever SPFL title back in 2024. He’s also picked up a Scottish Championship winners’ medal with St Mirren and has made over 500 career appearances, captaining his boyhood heroes Falkirk along the way. But one thing he has never experienced is a final day decider.

“It is not easy to get something over the line,” he said. “You know all about that from a career in football. The Inverness lads will know that too but they have some really experienced heads up there. A final day game like this new even for me. But it a simple for me - it is all about just having that mentality to get the three points. That’s the manager has been stressing and it is what I have been saying too. It is simple when you put it like that. You look recently at Brora and Brechin. Both not winning on the final day of the Highland League season. It can happen if you let it happen when the pressure is on. It is different from things like play-offs even. We just need to try and treat it like any other weekend and make sure that we win. There’s no way that Montrose will be on holiday mode.”